Construction crew unearths fabled Atari burial site

[Immortalfire]

http://www.theverge.com/2014/4/26/5...unearth-legendary-cache-of-atari-games-in-new

The truth is here!

According to urban legend, a massive stockpile of Atari gear — including truckloads of the notoriously awful game E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial — has laid buried in a New Mexico landfill for over thirty years. Today, that story is no longer a myth. Construction crews have uncovered copies of the Atari 2600 game at a landfill deep in the New Mexico desert, near the city of Alamogordo.

Back during the so-called video game crash of 1983, a struggling Atari was stuck with truckloads of the game and other unsold hardware. With little recourse and a crashing interest in video games in North America, the company decided to dump its excess merchandise into a landfill, according to reports at the time. The story was never confirmed, however, and it's carried on as a legendary tale from a time when video games were near worthless. It reportedly cost Atari millions to get the rights to produce a video game tie-in to the incredibly successful Steven Spielberg film, but the resulting E.T. game was a massive flop and it's considered one of the worst titles of all time.

Today's dig became a reality thanks to an upcoming documentary, produced by Microsoft's Xbox Entertainment Studios. The documentary, which will focus on the changing landscape of the video game industry, is expected to come out next year, and it is part of a broader push by Microsoft to produce original video content for Xbox 360 and Xbox One owners. Its biggest project is a live-action Halo TV series connected to Steven Spielberg.

 

[KevanG]

And they'll be hitting E-Bay within days.

 

[jonathancrane]

The timing is perfect, considering the AVGN film is on the horizon...

 

[GENERAL RAAM582]

ET is gonna phone home...

 

[KevanG]

Wonder if any still work?

 

[GENERAL RAAM582]

E.T. was broken to begin with.

 

[Hotwire]

I had that game and, yes, it sucked!

 

[jmc]

The legends are true!

 

[Octoberist]

The people are now cursed. They're dead but..they don't even know it!

 

[KevanG]

Cursed to play that game forever or until they beat it.

Same difference.

 

[Immortalfire]

The people are now cursed. They're dead but..they don't even know it!

Cursed to phone home. Forever.

 

[DarkSovereignty]

They'll get a phone call immediately after playing.
"Hello?"
::white noise, silence:: "oooooooouch."

 

[GENERAL RAAM582]

Then they say, "Seven days."

 

[KevanG]

They say that to ET?

 

[jonathancrane]

No. They get a call saying, " Dick Laurent is dead."

 

[GENERAL RAAM582]

Then I reply, "Who is Dick Laurent?"

 

[KevanG]

No. They get a call saying, " Dick Laurent is dead."

That joke is more dated than Sawyers mom.

*runs*

 

[danoyse]

I had that game and, yes, it sucked!

So did I! My mother never forgave my aunt for getting it for us, since the sound effects were so annoying.

 

[jonathancrane]

That joke is more dated than Sawyers mom.

*runs*

Good one.

I do imagine the potential eBay copies are going to make records.

 

[Mike_D202]

I had no idea this was a legend or a fable, I always thought this was fact LOL. I remember playing the game as a kid and got fed up with it within 5 minutes and put pitfall back in. Thank god for nintendo.

 

[Teelie]

It's now firmly a fact.

Many members of the dig crew told Ars that the area Atari dumped in is huge, and the small pit the crew dug today only scratches the surface (pardon the pun) of what's down there. Reinhard told Ars that he intends to stay all night, or until the city orders him off the property, and try to document and rescue as much paraphernalia as he can. Still, even if he stays all night, Reinhard told Ars "there's no way" to estimate how many games will remain buried for the small salvage operation they pulled today.

Ars Technica

 

[NickNitro]

Wonder if any still work?

Old games/consoles were built like brick houses. I left my gameboy (first generation) out in the snow, found it in spring and it worked.

 

[Duke]

If possible, I'd go to that burial site & grab a dozen of these games & possible consoles & sell them on Ebay. $$$ **cha-ching** $$$

 

[bluerayer]

No. They get a call saying, " Dick Laurent is dead."

 

[Mike_D202]

Meh, I bet there's gonna be a few people who will just throw a regular copy of E.T. around in the dirt and try to sell it as one of the burials.