E.T. Atari game landfill to be excavated in New Mexico

by The Georgia Straight Staff on May 31st, 2013 at 5:01 PM

1 of 1 2 of 1

Some things are better left buried.

That's a sentiment that will probably resonate with anyone who has played the notorious videogame adaptation of E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial.

Widely considered one of the worst videogames ever created, E.T. was released for the Atari 2600 console in time for Christmas 1982.

It is widely dismissed as a rushed and disappointing attempt to cash in on the success of Steven Spielberg’s blockbuster film.

Critics consider it a weak reflection of the movie, highlighted by perplexing gameplay where the main character is constantly falling into pits.

After the game failed to sell, as legend has it, countless unwanted copies were dumped in a landfill in New Mexico.

Well, it looks like someone is about to go digging.

The city commission of Alamogordo, New Mexico has granted permission for a group of Canadian documentary-makers to excavate the alleged site, local news outlet KRQE reports.

"I hope more people find out about Alamogordo through this opportunity that we have to unearth the Atari games in the landfill," mayor Susie Galea told KRQE.

Check out the video above to see some of the riveting gameplay from Atari’s E.T.

Comments

4 Comments

A. MacInnis

May 31, 2013 at 5:54pm

I am perplexed... why is such a piquant tidbit as this atributed to mere "staff?"

A. MacInnis

May 31, 2013 at 5:55pm

I know how to spell "attributed," really...

Martyg

Jun 1, 2013 at 9:38am

This whole thing is a non-issue publicity stunt. We already cleared that up in our book "Atari Inc. - Business Is Fun" released last fall, going by direct interviews and actual internal documents.

There were never thousands of ET games buried in Alamogordo, that's a myth that sprung up later and was also never once mentioned by the actual press articles of the time. The dump there was simply a clearing out of Atari's Texas manufacturing plant as it transitioned to automated production methods and a focus on personal computer manufacturing. It had previously been one of the main plants for manufacturing of game cartridges and other hardware, and game manufacturing was being moved overseas to China.

As part of the transition the unused cartridge stock of a group of titles (not just E.T.), console parts and computer parts were all dumped there in New Mexico. It was covered in detail by the Alamogordo press at the time, and is just such a non-mystery that I'm surprised by all this.