Construction workers unearth legendary cache of Atari games in New Mexico

[JamesD]

"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.

..."

http://www.theverge.com/2014/4/26/5656288/construction-workers-unearth-legendary-cache-of-atari-games-in-new

Edited April 26, 2014 by JamesD

[fdurso224]

WOW...Just WOW!!!

 

Anthony...

[+iesposta]

The strangest thing is they continued to sell E.T.

I just received an E.T. in a lot that has copyright 1986.

So was it a good decision to throw them all out, and then make and sell more?

[Wickeycolumbus]

Crazy! I didn't have much faith that they would find anything. Hopefully there will be a way to see the documentary without owning an Xbox.

[Carpenter]

A-M-A-Z-I-N-G

I wonder how much the very first uncovered cart will cost on ebay!

[nofrills100]

Interesting how the boxed ET and shrink wrapped

Centipede are damaged (obviously from crushing and burying) and yet totally clean from dirt. Did they crush the carts and then bulk bag them - seems like a lot of work to dispose of crushed rubbish. But when they show the cartridge from the box - it has dirt on it.

I assume if you dumped a tonne of stuff in the one spot - the soil and dirt may not get to the centre of the dump - but if this was the case - where is the rest of the crushed carts?

 

Personally I think it is totally fake, - and if they sell these 'first of the dumped carts' on ebay - total fraud.

[BassGuitari]

My take on it:

Atari E.T. Dump Myth Proven True...Sort Of

[CatPix]

The strangest thing is they continued to sell E.T.

I just received an E.T. in a lot that has copyright 1986.

So was it a good decision to throw them all out, and then make and sell more?

The thing is at the time, game editors were "responsible" of the sales of their games. In 1983, Atari got lots of games back in their warehouse from shops that couldn't sell them, and got more games that they couldn't even ship.

This mean they had to store them; and storage is expensive.

So burying the excess stock (which is why there is Centipede carts too) to make room in their warehouses was probably a cheaper solution.

Also, I think that 1986 is the year where they restarted to make 2600 consoles and games, so they probably made many games again. At the time E.T was a success in sales term, it's just the Atari made too much carts of it.

[BassGuitari]

The strangest thing is they continued to sell E.T.

I just received an E.T. in a lot that has copyright 1986.

So was it a good decision to throw them all out, and then make and sell more?

I think it's important to note that the Atari who did the dumping and the Atari who sold the game into the late '80s were two completely different companies. Atari Corp. made most of their own cartridges anyway, even for older titles they inherited and re-released.

 

Surely they used a few of the older Atari Inc.-made carts, though. In fact, I'm pretty sure my © 1985 "Atar Corp." Stargate used an Atari Inc.-made case...Atari Corp. wasn't exactly consistent when it came to 2600 stuff.

[nofrills100]

Interesting how the boxed ET and shrink wrapped

Centipede are damaged (obviously from crushing and burying) and yet totally clean from dirt. Did they crush the carts and then bulk bag them - seems like a lot of work to dispose of crushed rubbish. But when they show the cartridge from the box - it has dirt on it.

I assume if you dumped a tonne of stuff in the one spot - the soil and dirt may not get to the centre of the dump - but if this was the case - where is the rest of the crushed carts?

Personally I think it is totally fake, - and if they sell these 'first of the dumped carts' on ebay - total fraud.

I take that back, - now that more pics and reports have come out, it's obviously genuine. Still curious as to why more wasn't found.

[Nukey Shay]

The strangest thing is they continued to sell E.T.

I just received an E.T. in a lot that has copyright 1986.

So was it a good decision to throw them all out, and then make and sell more?

 

I don't know the actual numbers...but if the production cost per unit is, say, a couple of bucks, and the storage cost is projected to be double or triple that...then yes. What's the point in storing something projected to not sell anytime soon? On a hunch that it might later? Or, is it better to just take a hit and lower the bottom line immediately?

 

* see "inventory reduction strategies"