Tag Archives: Atari

Alamagordo Garbage Turns to Gold on eBay

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atariDespite all doubt the legend proved true: in the 1980s Atari dumped a bunch of its unsold game cartridges in the Alamagordo, NM landfill, including copies of E.T. the Extraterrestrial, reputed to be the worst video game ever made.

The city authorized a dig earlier this year and recovered hundreds of cartridges, including 100 copies of E.T., and has started selling them online. The first 20 grubby, dirt-smudged copies, worthless when they were new, went for as much as $1,537.

Also on the block were copies of Asteroids, Missile Command, Warlords, Defender, Star Raiders, Swordquest, Phoenix and Centipede. The initial auction yielded $37,000 for the city.

The publicity surrounding the dig prompted a museum in Rome to open the very first Atari dig exhibit. On display are games unearthed from the landfill, a certificate of authenticity and even dirt from the New Mexico dumping ground.

Another 700 of the Atari dig games are being auctioned on eBay, with the money going to the city and the Tularosa Basin Historical Society.

In addition, Atari Game Over, a documentary about the dig, has been released through the X-box.

It’s easy to rag on the dig itself. “Why bother digging up trash? Who even cares if the games are buried there?” But trust me, watch the film and watch Howard Scott Warshaw. This isn’t a story about a trash heap, really. This is a story about a guy whose career was ruined by one stupid mistake of a game, and watching him come to grips with it three decades later.

 

Video Game Archeology

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Atari’s unsuccessful E.T. is considered by some the worst video game ever:

Atari reportedly ordered 5 million copies of E.T. ahead of the title’s release but wound up selling just 1.5 million. What’s more, a large number of purchased copies were reportedly returned by customers frustrated with the game’s notoriously poor graphics, confusing gameplay, and all-around awfulness.

According to legend the unsold millions of cartridges were chucked in a landfill — and a film-maker is planning to dig them up:

The Fuel entertainment company plans to sift through a New Mexico landfill in search of Atari video games. According ancient legend, that’s where Atari dumped millions of copies of “E.T.” The movie-based video game did not sell well in 1982. But now folks are ready to pay for Atari’s remains.

But an Atari historian says there’s no secret to discover:

Marty Goldberg, co-author of Atari Inc.: Business is Fun, thinks the treasure hunt being conducted by Fuel Industries is a “non-issue publicity stunt.” …

“There were never thousands of E.T. 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,” Goldberg said.

“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.”

I remember nothing about the game though it’s likely I tried it at least once – Bruce and Elayne Pelz used to buy all the Atari games and let party guests play to their heart’s content. And it was based on an sf movie, after all.