Atari Dumped Failed E.T. Games In A New Mexico Landfill
One of the worst video games ever is Atari’s 1983 attempt to cash in on what would become one of the most beloved movies of all time, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial.
The Atari game was so legendarily bad that all the unsold copies the manufacturer could get their hands on were buried in a landfill in New Mexico. At least, that was the urban legend. But you know why this sort of rumor gains so much traction is because, on occasion, they do turn out to be real, and this just happens to be the case. A team has, in fact, uncovered a butt-ton of unwanted copies of the game.
After having problems getting approval, a documentary crew that wanted to unearth the long-forgotten Atari stockpile finally got the go-ahead to excavate the Almagordo Landfill in Almagordo, New Mexico.
In this case, their payday is the 14 truckloads of cartridges that were reportedly dumped and left to rot. They also apparently found one stray copy of Centipede, too.
Backed by Microsoft, the Fuel Entertainment documentary team, which was helmed by Zak Penn (Incident at Loch Ness), enlisted the help of Joe Lewandowsky, a local garbage contractor to help with the dig.
The question that has been bandied about by those outside of the realm of video games, however, is why the hell anyone would want to do this? People love to prove or debunk rumors—how else do we wind up with shows like Mythbusters?—and in certain circles, this is the nerdy equivalent of finding Jimmy Hoffa’s body.
(I’m not sure if this really qualifies as a true urban legend, though, the New York Times did report on the burial in 1983, and it the team knew where to look, but still…)
Even though it was an abysmal Atari game, E.T. the Game was the first attempt to crossover between film and the burgeoning home game console business. This is part of history in that regard—now we can’t imagine any big movie that opens without an accompanying game—but also because of the impact it had. E.T. was such a spectacular failure, both as a product and as a commercial venture, that it is widely credited for the temporary collapse of the industry in 1983.
The Almagordo site was reportedly chosen for its isolated location and because the trash was compacted on a daily basis. Apparently Atari didn’t want anyone to see them dumping their wares and trying to hide their very public shame. The cartridges were said to have been discarded, crushed, and covered with cement. The unearthed copies of the game definitely appear to have been smashed and buried, but I don’t know about the cement.
This is an interesting bit of Atari history, especially for anyone interested in video games and gaming history and culture.
