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Atari's Landfill Adventures, I now have the proof it's true.


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That looks really nice. I like how they separated the metal COA tag. I did the same with the shadow box I made for my Defender. I can see going the VGA route for ET, but only for ET. It's worth it just to protect the investment. I'm assuming ETs are still fetching a lot of money relative to the other games. Also I would think it helps keep the value up. They will probably never be worth as much as they did right after the dig due to the hype, but the good-looking presentation will help recuperate some of the value if a buyer decides to resell it. Other games wouldn't be worth it, IMO. I bought a shadow box from Walmart and I'm happy with the results.

The seller has not sold any ET games recently. I did see what they went for the first round of the auction, there is no way more would command that kind of cash. There has been a new round of sales weekly over the last month or so, and the ebay sale prices have been very reasonable, considering the history and publicity this got last year.

I am curious, how did you work everything into the shadowbox? Is it hanging on a wall? Or laying down in a cabinet?

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The seller has not sold any ET games recently. I did see what they went for the first round of the auction, there is no way more would command that kind of cash. There has been a new round of sales weekly over the last month or so, and the ebay sale prices have been very reasonable, considering the history and publicity this got last year.

I am curious, how did you work everything into the shadowbox? Is it hanging on a wall? Or laying down in a cabinet?

 

 

Hmmm, maybe they got all their ETs sold early when the prices would be best. Smart decision, if so.

 

I posted this photo earlier in this thread, but here's my shadowbox Defender. I bought a pack of brads and pushed them into the backing that came with the frame. I was at Walmart yesterday and still saw those shadow boxes for sale. I could have gotten the certificate flatter, but didn't want to take it apart. I kept the cartridge and box in the bag because it smelled so bad, but removed the metal tab because I thought it would look nice separated from the other items. In retrospect, it might have looked better top center.

 

post-2105-0-38501600-1432789228_thumb.jpg

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Hmmm, maybe they got all their ETs sold early when the prices would be best. Smart decision, if so.

 

I posted this photo earlier in this thread, but here's my shadowbox Defender. I bought a pack of brads and pushed them into the backing that came with the frame. I was at Walmart yesterday and still saw those shadow boxes for sale. I could have gotten the certificate flatter, but didn't want to take it apart. I kept the cartridge and box in the bag because it smelled so bad, but removed the metal tab because I thought it would look nice separated from the other items. In retrospect, it might have looked better top center.

 

attachicon.gifSAM_4840.JPG

Maybe a taller shadow box would have been better. You can't actually read the COA with the crushed box in the way.

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Maybe a taller shadow box would have been better. You can't actually read the COA with the crushed box in the way.

 

That was the only size shadowbox they had. I positioned the box so the photos, seal, and title of the certificate showed. I guess pushing it to the non-seal side would allow more of the certificate to be read, but I'm the only one who's going to be looking at it, anyway, LOL.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I agree and now realize this. I don't know why i didn't before. :dunce: Obviously I'm clueless on the business end of it, but I'm learning thanks to the experts here at AA ;)

Whell you might think its scrap but at Material proccessing the gayloard says GOLD cause thats gold plating on the finger boards on those carts!!!!!!!!!! also I got my Dig Dug easter Egg Video working ... PS Hanglypack runs on FB II using the 2764 long chip .27c64A chip has aal chip underneeth cart Ac 02- 3902 I think i had albert make me a Cart for homebrew just to play Snoopy then ereased snoopy and put hanglypack on the 2764 chip and it runs in the FB II I love the Fb 2 more than the Flashback 3 cause the cart mod works and the black and white switch works I reused a old 2600 I blew up and modded the color/b white switch for the jumpers for internal and external one on other off on double pole double throw color/bw switch then since its RCA outs on the flashback II i used the ch2 ch3 ch3 ch4 switch for the b/w switch so can pause or play Adventure II or haunted house and light the mazes up!!!!!!! I love hangly pack I think a ounce in 1989 of liquid gold was worth about $10,000 or so!!!!!! i could be wrong but I know atari always gold plated their cartridges back then. .. PS what could be worth more than a DUg up cart from the Showtime Movie!. :) sorry if I have spelling or Grammer errors.!

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OK i Finnaly got the Vob DVD i had to burn e Nero to make a smallenough .mpeg! lol file just renamed the vob file to .mpeg to fit it into the 10mb max file length on this With i played out this easter egg I played till it locked up.

 

Whell you might think its scrap but at Material proccessing the gayloard says GOLD cause thats gold plating on the finger boards on those carts!!!!!!!!!! also I got my Dig Dug easter Egg Video working ... PS Hanglypack runs on FB II using the 2764 long chip .27c64A chip has aal chip underneeth cart Ac 02- 3902 I think i had albert make me a Cart for homebrew just to play Snoopy then ereased snoopy and put hanglypack on the 2764 chip and it runs in the FB II I love the Fb 2 more than the Flashback 3 cause the cart mod works and the black and white switch works I reused a old 2600 I blew up and modded the color/b white switch for the jumpers for internal and external one on other off on double pole double throw color/bw switch then since its RCA outs on the flashback II i used the ch2 ch3 ch3 ch4 switch for the b/w switch so can pause or play Adventure II or haunted house and light the mazes up!!!!!!! I love hangly pack I think a ounce in 1989 of liquid gold was worth about $10,000 or so!!!!!! i could be wrong but I know atari always gold plated their cartridges back then. .. PS what could be worth more than a DUg up cart from the Showtime Movie!. :) sorry if I have spelling or Grammer errors.!

yea

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Whell you might think its scrap but at Material proccessing the gayloard says GOLD cause thats gold plating on the finger boards on those carts!!!!!!!!!! also I got my Dig Dug easter Egg Video working ... PS Hanglypack runs on FB II using the 2764 long chip .27c64A chip has aal chip underneeth cart Ac 02- 3902 I think i had albert make me a Cart for homebrew just to play Snoopy then ereased snoopy and put hanglypack on the 2764 chip and it runs in the FB II I love the Fb 2 more than the Flashback 3 cause the cart mod works and the black and white switch works I reused a old 2600 I blew up and modded the color/b white switch for the jumpers for internal and external one on other off on double pole double throw color/bw switch then since its RCA outs on the flashback II i used the ch2 ch3 ch3 ch4 switch for the b/w switch so can pause or play Adventure II or haunted house and light the mazes up!!!!!!! I love hangly pack I think a ounce in 1989 of liquid gold was worth about $10,000 or so!!!!!! i could be wrong but I know atari always gold plated their cartridges back then. .. PS what could be worth more than a DUg up cart from the Showtime Movie!. :) sorry if I have spelling or Grammer errors.!

No worries my friend. There's no need to apologize for the spelling or grammar, not from ME anyways. I am not in the GRAMMAR POLICE FORCE! Regular police have ENIOUGH hate towards them nowadays. ;)

Edited by Rik
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Has anyone realized that this thread is over 10 years old now?

 

haha, I did. I started reading on page 1 the other day. It took me a few posts to wonder why people are still debating this :P How does it feel now, to look back on it and all that's happened?

 

A couple of thoughts I had throughout my read...

 

The numbers were bigger for Pac-Man. Pac-Man sold(over 50%)/unsold was about 7 million/5 million. E.T. sold(under 50%)/unsold was 1.5 million/3.5 million. 10 million 2600 consoles existed at the time. http://www.snopes.com/business/market/atari.asp

With that in mind, E.T.'s bad reputation, however undeserved, makes sense. Pac-Man has iterations (including the first one) that everyone can see are good, whether or not they read a manual--which not everyone does. E.T. as a video game only had the one shot.

 

A large number of cartridges were buried. Regardless of millions of one game or millions (or 728,000) of various, 14 trailers might not be "a sea" but it is a lot. Up to 56,000 cubic feet of matter.

 

For anyone who doubted the dig due to unexpectedly good condition of recovered games: This is what happens in landfills. The matter just does not break down. It's very possible to find old, full, readable newspapers in landfill digs and this has happened many times. http://humanitieslab.stanford.edu/23/174

 

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Pac-Man sold(over 50%)/unsold was about 7 million/5 million. E.T. sold(under 50%)/unsold was 1.5 million/3.5 million. 10 million 2600 consoles existed at the time. http://www.snopes.com/business/market/atari.asp

That's not quite accurate. The numbers manufactured for Pac-Man include units manufactured for pack-in to the 2600 as well. Likewise, there were about 12 million 2600 consoles sold in total by the end of the 1982 Christmas season.

 

 

A large number of cartridges were buried. Regardless of millions of one game or millions (or 728,000) of various, 14 trailers might not be "a sea" but it is a lot. Up to 56,000 cubic feet of matter.

It wasn't millions of anything of course. There were about 750,000 games buried comprised of over 60 different titles including titles for the 5200, and really that's not a lot considering the amount of stock actually in stores and warehouses at the time. More like a drop in the stock bucket. These were all just stock returns from Target and a few minor locations as part of the stock exchange program that Atari Inc. had in place at the time.

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That's not quite accurate. The numbers manufactured for Pac-Man include units manufactured for pack-in to the 2600 as well. Likewise, there were about 12 million 2600 consoles sold in total by the end of the 1982 Christmas season.

This was in response to some complaining about unfair malignment of E.T. So there were an equivalent number of Pac-Man games and consoles?

Thank you for providing better information. Although exact numbers aren't necessary to what I was trying to say.

 

 

It wasn't millions of anything of course. There were about 750,000 games buried comprised of over 60 different titles including titles for the 5200, and really that's not a lot considering the amount of stock actually in stores and warehouses at the time. More like a drop in the stock bucket. These were all just stock returns from Target and a few minor locations as part of the stock exchange program that Atari Inc. had in place at the time.

728,000, as I mentioned. I know, it was just one warehouse. I had some text about that but opted to leave it out in favor of more unique things that I hadn't seen rehashed ad nauseam already ITT.

 

Again, just addressing some talk about how "I liked E.T. so there is no way millions of them were buried!" After reading that about 14 times, my feeling became, "Who cares, there were a lot." What I was getting at here, is that there were millions unsold, and there were multiple truckloads buried. It's easy to conflate the two, especially before we knew all that we do now. But that doesn't completely invalidate the "myth" as some people called it.

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This was in response to some complaining about unfair malignment of E.T. So there were an equivalent number of Pac-Man games and consoles?

Thank you for providing better information. Although exact numbers aren't necessary to what I was trying to say.

Yes, by the end of '82 the number of consoles in consumers hands and the number of Pac-Mans produced by the end of it's run were in sync. They didn't produce 12 million Pac-Mans all at once, and it was actually interesting for Curt and I to see the record of the order to stop manufacturing them for use as pack-ins in the work diary of the person in charge of manufacturing at the time.

 

728,000, as I mentioned. I know, it was just one warehouse. I had some text about that but opted to leave it out in favor of more unique things that I hadn't seen rehashed ad nauseam already ITT.

I wasn't referring to it being from a warehouse, my warehouse comment was in regards to distribution warehouses. These didn't come from distribution. The perspective is that it's a small drop in the bucket compared to what was actually still at retailers and in distribution warehouses.

 

Again, just addressing some talk about how "I liked E.T. so there is no way millions of them were buried!" After reading that about 14 times, my feeling became, "Who cares, there were a lot." What I was getting at here, is that there were millions unsold, and there were multiple truckloads buried. It's easy to conflate the two, especially before we knew all that we do now. But that doesn't completely invalidate the "myth" as some people called it.

Understood. The myth as far as "millions of E.T. buried in Alamogordo" was invalidated, as was Alamogordo being an E.T. burial, and so was the myth of it being a burial of bad games. The claim of there being a burial of Atari stock in general was not invalidated. I think the confusion comes from the fact that different people have different versions of the "myth" in mind, chiefly because the media hasn't had what myth they're talking about straight either. It was also interesting to see them self-modify the "myths" even further after the dig to align with the results, like when some reported the myth to have been hundreds of thousands of games instead of millions as if it was that all along.

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Well, now we might have some fun guessing at what's even farther down. Paperwork might say one thing, but who knows? A warehouse could contain all kinds of things.

Oh boy, this is how that prototype hardware myth stuff gets started again. :) We weren't talking about just paperwork though as the source though, Jim knows what he buried, plus he has the pictures of it being buried (which he was kind enough to share with Curt and I for archiving). They start from the initial digging of the put, to different layers and all the way up to pouring of the concrete cap. :) El Paso wasn't a warehouse, it was a manufacturing plant and shortly before also became the service center hub. The only stuff coming out of there were things in production (not prototypes), and things returned for repair. The games that were buried in Alamogordo were being diverted from Sunnyvale to El Paso (stock credit was originally processing just through Sunnyvale), and it was joined by hardware/parts from El Paso. That's all the dump is comprised of, nothing mysterious "farther down," lol. If we were talking about a distribution warehouse (where stock sits until it goes out) or a regular storage warehouse (like the kind they had in Sunnyvale), I could totally see that line of questioning. But El Paso was not any of those. :)

 

I'll go first though, and hazard that Jimmy Hoffa is actually buried further down there. Along with secret Iran/Contra documents. :)

Edited by Retro Rogue
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