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


Spud

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It would be amazing if it actually worked.

Ben Heck purchased one and got it working with a little elbow grease:

https://youtu.be/72fBltUZ2b8

 

The carts were at a sweet spot in depth where they were not exposed to standing water so definitely possible.

 

It would be more amazing to see the demographics of the people buying this material.

The two boxed e.t.'s to hit the bae look like they were purchased by speculators, the first an oddity/meteorite museum and the recent a trading card reseller.

 

That said, Mr. Lewandowski (the guy who sold these initially) has indicated he has kept records of the initial sales and and perhaps the forthcoming book from one of the archaeologists may clarify on where they went.

Edited by jasinner
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  • 2 weeks later...

Can anyone report in detail what it smells like? I'd assume the landfill stench overpowers the plasticy and new cartridge smell by a thousand to one.

 

"In detail"... I actually just recorded a voice-over for a video I'm doing on this right now (that's why I came back to this thread), and I described it there as a cross between rotting fish and horse diarrhea. Not even just horse shit, I mean it smells *wet*. It smells like a hot, steamy pile of diarrhea with half-digested fish mixed in. It's probably the most foul smell I've ever smelled. It's 34 years worth of decomposition.

 

I still keep mine in the bag both because of that and because there's no doubt still a lot of bacteria in there. The couple times I have touched my game, I have washed my hands thoroughly before touching *anything* else. I probably should have even used disposable gloves but I just don't keep those on hand.

 

I feel like mine is still decomposing in the bag (which it would if the bacteria's still active). There's a lot of dust and dirt in there that wasn't there when I first got it.

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"In detail"... I actually just recorded a voice-over for a video I'm doing on this right now (that's why I came back to this thread), and I described it there as a cross between rotting fish and horse diarrhea. Not even just horse shit, I mean it smells *wet*. It smells like a hot, steamy pile of diarrhea with half-digested fish mixed in. It's probably the most foul smell I've ever smelled. It's 34 years worth of decomposition.

 

I still keep mine in the bag both because of that and because there's no doubt still a lot of bacteria in there. The couple times I have touched my game, I have washed my hands thoroughly before touching *anything* else. I probably should have even used disposable gloves but I just don't keep those on hand.

 

I feel like mine is still decomposing in the bag (which it would if the bacteria's still active). There's a lot of dust and dirt in there that wasn't there when I first got it.

"Rotten fish and horse diarrea" -LOL! No wonder the horse had diarrea. They are herbovoires and can't process fish! :rolling:

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"Rotten fish and horse diarrea" -LOL! No wonder the horse had diarrea. They are herbovoires and can't process fish! :rolling:

 

I didn't say the fish necessarily came from the horse.

 

In fact, it might be more accurate to say it smells like if someone ate horse diarrhea and rotten fish, then got diarrhea themselves and shat both of them back out.

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  • 7 months later...

Who would have thought something would be made worth so much more just by being thrown in a landfill.

Well as the old saying goes something is only worth what someone is willing to pay for it. A person can ask as much as they want for something, however I don't think many people are going to be buying those Alamogordo landfill recovered Atari cartridges at those prices.

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Who would have thought something would be made worth so much more just by being thrown in a landfill.

As someone else stated, something is only worth what another is willing to pay.

With that said...

Urban legend finally proven true + disposable income = collectable with desirability for a certain market.

 

I am happy to have added a few of the games with disposable income. I won auctions without going over my budget.

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There is definitely an appeal to owning one of the recovered cartridges as it is a major part of Atari history. If I were to purchase one of the cartridges I would try to restore it to working order just as I have seen done with 2 of the games that were recovered from the landfill. That being said for myself $2,000 is too much for me to justify for a game that will always reek of the garbage smell from being in the landfill. For a much lower price I would be interested in trying to resurrect on of those games.

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The prices for landfill cartridges are now up to $1,900 for E.T. on eBay. The asking price from most of the other titles is between $899 - $1,500. Just insanity that anyone would put that sort of price tag on these cartridges.

 

What would one be worth without a Certificate of Authenticity? :ponder:

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What would one be worth without a Certificate of Authenticity? :ponder:

 

I would say zero. It has to have that provenance. Lots of games are trashed; there has to be some way of knowing this is one from *that* landfill. It really, really wouldn't help that game that all the other games *do* have COA's, so why doesn't that one, and why buy that one over another one that does? And this isn't one of those cases where somebody buys one of Babe Ruth's baseball bats, *then* goes and finds someone to give it a COA. These games all had COA's as soon as they came out of the ground, and they're as official as it gets, coming from the city of Alamagordo itself. So that COA is gold as far as I'm concerned. Without it, a game is worthless.

 

To reply to another little sub-topic, I confess I don't really understand the point of getting these working again. I guess it's kinda cool if one guy does it to prove it can be done. But to me it actually devalues the game. (I don't mean in a monetary sense, I mean in a historical sense.) I'd want it exactly as it came out of the ground. There are tons of working copies of ET or Defender or whatever out there; the point of owning one of these is to own a piece of history.

Edited by spacecadet
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