Atari2600Lives Posted April 26, 2014 Share Posted April 26, 2014 Congratulations to all involved! So I wonder who owns them now? I would love to obtain one for my collection. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gregory DG Posted April 26, 2014 Share Posted April 26, 2014 So... we pretty much all knew this was true. What does actually finding the buried cartridges accomplish? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
2600 Forever Posted April 26, 2014 Share Posted April 26, 2014 So... we pretty much all knew this was true. What does actually finding the buried cartridges accomplish? Shutting up all the doubters, once and for all. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andre81 Posted April 26, 2014 Share Posted April 26, 2014 I just digged up several copies of ET from the backyard of Atari Germany. Taking offers. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
4ever2600 Posted April 26, 2014 Share Posted April 26, 2014 Ok, so most of us knew that this all happened back in 83 due to all the paper clippings, news runs, kids stealing ET carts from the dig etc... So was the only point of today to confirm it? Are you telling me that no one got photos of millions of carts in the hole? Not that I don't believe the few they found were the correct site, weren't some carts laying around someone's collection etc, but what now? Are they going to take all the carts out of the hole? Are we leaving the rest of ETs burial ground alone? Happy for the confirmation and all, but THINK OF ALL THE DONER CARTS FOR HOMEBREWS LEFT BEHIND! I mean, is there an issue of ownership, concerns about there being nuclear waste on top the carts so no one can continue to dig there, just dump more concrete over it??? What happens now? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AtariNerd Posted April 26, 2014 Share Posted April 26, 2014 In the Kotaku article linked, on the last page or so, someone posted a supposed image of some kids play-testing some of the found games, so there is ample witness to the legitimacy of this..probably dozens of people. Wish I could be there, dangit, spazzy nerd that I am. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andre81 Posted April 26, 2014 Share Posted April 26, 2014 It would be odd if they only dig up a few games. Also odd that the first thing they've found was ET and not something else. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
doctorclu Posted April 26, 2014 Share Posted April 26, 2014 It would be odd if they only dig up a few games. Also odd that the first thing they've found was ET and not something else. Not really. If there were supposedly millions or at least thousands of E.T. cartridges buried, then there is a good chance they would find an E.T. Why dig up buried Atari games? BECAUSE THEY CAN? Aside from that, Atari is popular in a retro sense, this is a legend, and this sits in the mind of gamers and geeks in our minds as finding Atlantis or something of a pirate treasure. Mythbusters spent how many seasons on the air disproving or proving legends and myths? So these guys can prove or disprove an a legend here, and be known as the ones that did it. Sounds like fun to me. 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dobidy Posted April 26, 2014 Share Posted April 26, 2014 I am waiting for the eventual VGA graded Alamogordo carts to show up on eBay. "Buy a piece of videogame history for $2000!" 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bradhig Posted April 26, 2014 Share Posted April 26, 2014 I just saw people play testing a game on The NBC Nighty News. Becasue of the angle you couldn't tell what game it was. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nofrills100 Posted April 26, 2014 Share Posted April 26, 2014 I've got a painted bit of concrete... Any one want to buy a piece of the Berlin Wall?! There's going to have to be a certifying body involved if these are going to be sold Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jaybird3rd Posted April 26, 2014 Share Posted April 26, 2014 Shutting up all the doubters, once and for all.What "doubters" are you referring to? People who doubted that any "Atari dump" ever existed? I don't think there are very many of those here: we've all seen the documentation, so we already had a pretty good idea of what would be found in that landfill. It's been fun to see the pictures coming in from the Alamogordo dig, but strictly speaking, we don't really know anything after the dig that we didn't know before it. I was also correct in my earlier post when I said that, at most, they would find "the remains of cartridges or other products which can still be readily found on eBay". E.T., Centipede, Missile Command, and the other games that have been unearthed (so far) at Alamogordo are still much more easily found above the Earth's surface, even new in the box. Sure, certain people are going to pay crazy money for those unburied cartridges on eBay, but there are probably others who would pay crazy money for a Kleenex used by a Kardashian. That doesn't necessarily mean that the objects in question are truly valuable. The most intriguing thing to me is not so much what has been found, but that the specimens that have been recovered are still remarkably well-preserved, considering they've been underground for over three decades. Most of the damage we see in the pictures probably occurred when they were crushed, before they were actually buried. The helpful explanation for this given in #1516 seems plausible. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StanJr Posted April 26, 2014 Share Posted April 26, 2014 I understand that there are folks 'round these parts that don't understand why this is a big deal, but we've been going on about this for over a decade. I think it is cool to finally see someone go dig them up, just for kicks if nothing else. Who does it hurt? This is a lot of fun and it is bringing more attention to the hobby than I have seen in memory. NBC Nightly news, NPR, trending on Facebook? Insane. I'm enjoying all of the hoopla. And why not? 8 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tickled_Pink Posted April 26, 2014 Share Posted April 26, 2014 (edited) Edit: Directed at Jaybird - Stan dived in before I posted. Maybe not here but you'd be surprised at how many people are likely to have thought that this was some urban legend that had little basis in fact. And actually, it does seem to have at least destroyed one myth that had been doing the rounds here recently - that Atari had dumped the carts and buried them under concrete. I'm also not entirely convinced that they were crushed by Atari. The mere act of piling them on top of each other and burying them will cause much of the damage seen in the pics. Had they been intentionally crushed, Atari or their contractors would have made a much better job of it IMO. The thing about urban myths and legends is that most are found to be just that. A myth. But you're always going to get kooks, nutjobs and conspiracy theorists believing in them. So the best thing about proving that the Atari landfill isn't a myth is showing that we weren't crazy after all! Edited April 26, 2014 by Tickled_Pink 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jaybird3rd Posted April 26, 2014 Share Posted April 26, 2014 I'm enjoying all of the hoopla. And why not? Nothing wrong with that at all; as I said, I've enjoyed seeing the pictures, too. I'm especially glad that Howard Scott Warshaw was able to get in on the action: so many people have been giving him a hard time for so long about E.T. ending up in a landfill, so it's a nice bit of poetic justice that he got one of the first cartridges to be retrieved. Perhaps the story will raise awareness of vintage gaming, but I wouldn't expect anything more than a short-lived spike in curiosity or interest. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fiddlepaddle Posted April 26, 2014 Share Posted April 26, 2014 Well, I guess I was wrong. Microsoft gets a thumbs up for doing something right the first time. Unless...wait a minute... I only saw a couple dozen people at that dig. And only a few dozen "recovered" games. It wouldn't really cost that much in bribes to make this look however one wanted it to look. Sure gotta be easier than keeping the Benghazi tragedy accountability out of public view... Hmmm... 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jess Ragan Posted April 26, 2014 Share Posted April 26, 2014 It actually happened. Good news for all! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
7800 Posted April 27, 2014 Share Posted April 27, 2014 Did they find any copies of Dig Dug? 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jaybird3rd Posted April 27, 2014 Share Posted April 27, 2014 I don't doubt that the pictures are genuine. I've opened my share of Atari master packs, just like the ones that have been unearthed at Alamogordo, and it would be difficult to fake the kind of damage seen in the pictures unless you actually re-enacted the process of crushing them in large quantities with bulldozers and burying them in a landfill. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wickeycolumbus Posted April 27, 2014 Share Posted April 27, 2014 Well, I guess I was wrong. Microsoft gets a thumbs up for doing something right the first time. Unless...wait a minute... I only saw a couple dozen people at that dig. And only a few dozen "recovered" games. It wouldn't really cost that much in bribes to make this look however one wanted it to look. Sure gotta be easier than keeping the Benghazi tragedy accountability out of public view... Hmmm... They've got to save something for the documentary, right? I guess we'll see if they show the pit with thousands of games. Who knows what's going to become of them, what's in there, and in what quantity at this point. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SoulBlazer Posted April 27, 2014 Share Posted April 27, 2014 The article I read on Yahoo said they 'found hundred of games'. And games were found besides ET -- I saw Centipede and Yar's Revenge, also. (But no Pac-Man, curiously enough). Wonder if they found the 'main' stuff from the El Paso plant -- computers, parts, broken equipment, etc. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
joelm Posted April 27, 2014 Share Posted April 27, 2014 As I have understood everything I have read online, the city owns everything in the dump except what they have agreed to give to the production company. One would assume the remaining cartridges, and other electronics, will be sold as souvenirs and on eBay to raise money for the city. I also wouldn't expect things to end with this hole. If these things turn out to have any value I bet the city excavates further and removes as much Atari material as possible for sale to the highest bidders. After all, the hard work of locating the stash is done, it is now simply a matter of removing as much overburden as possible and breaking up the concrete layer in any areas it exists. They could be pulling Atari stuff out for the next several months, especially given the overall condition of some of the carts. I enjoy seeing the free market work, too bad government will be the major benefactor of the artifacts and not all the people who did the ground work to make this whole project happen. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fiddlepaddle Posted April 27, 2014 Share Posted April 27, 2014 Something else... If these games are currently valued at $10 each, that's still way less than the retail price in 1982, and probably less than the wholesale cost written off by Atari, especially considering inflation. Hype could inflate their value, though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andromeda Stardust Posted April 27, 2014 Share Posted April 27, 2014 Wow. All I can say right now is I'm glad that they finally found the loot. Now we all can sit back, watch the drama unfold, and eat popcorn. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
atarilovesyou Posted April 27, 2014 Share Posted April 27, 2014 VINDICATION for all those who didn't BELIEVE! Seriously though, this thread has been one of my faves ever since I got here on AA. I always thought it was true and now, it really is. Who would have thought this would have been newsworthy 30 years after the fact? I can't believe it trended on facebook 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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