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

[Justin42]

I still don't understand why so many people thought this was an urban legend the whole time. This was big news, and reported as fact, at the time-- it was sign the videogame market was swirling around the bowl and not recovering. Sure, there weren't piles of evidence it did happen, but I don't remember anyone from Atari or anywhere else refuting the story.

 

I'm not saying this to pick on anyone here, just the fact it was an "urban legend" strikes me as funny as someone who lived through hearing it reported at the time-- and at the time, there was absolutely no question it had really happened. (at least in my head)

 

I feel like I'd love to have one of these carts but the prices seem insane. Had they been $50 or less, I might've gotten one, but over $100 is too rich for my blood for a destroyed common cart with some dirt.

 

Maybe I'm just cranky after going tonight to a trendy place trying to be a retro arcade but felt more like hipsters watched one old 80s movie and decided they knew what an arcade was. Playing Tron and Discs of Tron cabs for the first time in 30 years was a mindblower, though, even if the cabs didn't "feel" quite right. (not 100% authentic repairs)

 

As for capturing video off a computer monitor, Total Recorder from HighCriteria does a very nice job with some tweaking settings to ensure a clean capture. (Haven't tried it for this specific video but can't imagine it wouldn't work, it's worked on everything I've ever tried it with)

Edited December 13, 2014 by Justin42

[+Random Terrain]

I still don't understand why so many people thought this was an urban legend the whole time. This was big news, and reported as fact, at the time-- it was sign the videogame market was swirling around the bowl and not recovering. Sure, there weren't piles of evidence it did happen, but I don't remember anyone from Atari or anywhere else refuting the story.

Seemed like there were two types of non-believers:

 

Non-believer Club #1: They didn't believe that any Atari stuff was buried there.

 

Non-believer Club #2: They thought Atari stuff was buried there, just not millions of E.T. carts. (They were correct. Millions of E.T. carts were not buried there.)

 

 

Seemed like members of the first club ran over to the second clubhouse so they wouldn't have to say they were wrong.

 

 

Fake Conversation:

 

Non-believer: "Show me a pic or it didn't happen. You can't tell me that no one took at least one photograph."

 

Believer: "OK, here are a few pics."

 

Non-believer: "Those could be pics of anything or they might be Photoshopped."

 

Believer: "If you were going to dismiss any pic that I might provide, why ask for one? If all proof is immediately discarded, how can anything be proven?"

 

Non-believer: "I'll believe it when it's dug up."

 

Believer: "I believe that spot in the landfill will be found and dug up one day."

 

Non-believer: "It will never happen. Atari never buried anything there, so there's nothing to dig up."

 

Believer: "Just you wait."

 

[some time goes by.]

 

Non-believer: "Well, we're waiting."

 

[Years go by and somebody finally digs it up.]

 

Believer: "I told you so!"

 

Non-believer: "I never said nothing was buried there. I said millions of E.T. carts weren't buried there."

 

Believer: "OK, Mr. Delusional. Whatever keeps your crackers dry."

 

Non-believer: "Harrumph!"

[Andromeda Stardust]

What I think is so cool about this long assed thread is that we were discussing it long before the dig was ever planned. In fact, if it weren't for this thread, the whole dig may not have taken place. If some people recall, the City of Alamogordo did a feature on the various Atariage members calling up the office asking for archived articles.

 

This may likely have been the catalyst that drew further outside attention to the dump site, eventually resulting in an outside firm (Microsoft of all companies! ) forking over the funds to get it done.

 

Were it not for the OP and speculation of people gathering up to go out there with naught but a few shovels, the whole dig, documentary, and everything may not even have happened.

 

Behold, the power of the internetz!

[Retro Rogue]

Seemed like there were two types of non-believers:

 

Non-believer Club #1: They didn't believe that any Atari stuff was buried there.

 

Non-believer Club #2: They thought Atari stuff was buried there, just not millions of E.T. carts. (They were correct. Millions of E.T. carts were not buried there.)

 

 

Seemed like members of the first club ran over to the second clubhouse so they wouldn't have to say they were wrong.

 

 

That includes the media, lol. I loved how they all started self-editing themselves after the dig to portray that they had always been saying there were hundreds of thousands of games there instead of millions (and that was what the myth had always been as well).

[Retro Rogue]

I should also mention I have an article coming out in the next issue of RETRO that fully details everything that lead up to the dumping at Alamogordo and Alamogoro itself from Jim Heller's perspective (including covering all the destruction of consoles and games going on before). I've been sitting on it since last June at the request of Lightbox and some of the people there we worked with on the documentary, as they wanted us to wait until after the documentary was officially released. It also covers the efforts of the archaeological team that was there, and the little known (because it was hidden) on site testing of games that was going on during the dig.

 

Jim also snail mailed us all of his photos and slides from his years at Atari (including the dump) which we're in the process of scanning and archiving, and afterwards he's providing the Alamogordo specific ones to a museum in Alamogordo I believe. Some will be in the next edition of Business Is Fun, plus I'm also adding another book to my "in progress" list that will detail the Alamogordo burial and dig in both historical and pop culture contexts.

[Inky]

 

 

I still don't understand why so many people thought this was an urban legend the whole time.

Easy. The only source we knew of was one article in the New York Times. At that time, the only other reports that were widespread originated with the NYT article.

[fiddlepaddle]

Easy. The only source we knew of was one article in the New York Times. At that time, the only other reports that were widespread originated with the NYT article.

Well, not really. At the time, I heard from friends that worked at Atari that they had dumped lots of inventory within a week of reading the news story in the Redwood City newspaper ("Penninsula Times" maybe?), which has been defunct for many years now.

 

(So it was proven to me satisfactorily, but I can't prove it to anyone else)

[Miss 2600]

I can't afford an ET it seems but I think the next best thing would be a dig dug. Any dig dug's come up?

 

Dig Dug was a later release. I think it came out post-burial.

Edited December 16, 2014 by Miss 2600

[Miss 2600]

At first I laughed at these auctions. Now I'm thinking, "One of those would look pretty cool in a little shadowbox on the wall." Now I picked out a couple smashed Defender auctions to watch (Defender was my favorite game when I was a kid).

[Shawn]

From what I've heard over the years there is more than one dump site. The on in New Mexico is just one of three different sites I've been hearing about over the years. I read that there is another dump that is in California in someones backyard under the concret of a swimming pool and another in Arizona but I don't recall the story of it's location off hand. But hey maybe that's all bullshit right?

[+Random Terrain]

Dig Dug was a later release. I think it came out post-burial.

 

Right, Dig Dug was released in October of 1983. If the burial happened in September of 1983 (for people who are calendar challenged, that's a month before October), it would have been kind of hard to bury store returns of a game that hadn't made it to the stores yet.

[Retro Rogue]

From what I've heard over the years there is more than one dump site. The on in New Mexico is just one of three different sites I've been hearing about over the years. I read that there is another dump that is in California in someones backyard under the concret of a swimming pool and another in Arizona but I don't recall the story of it's location off hand. But hey maybe that's all bullshit right?

 

Not several sites. The main location was in San Jose, and no it's not someones backyard and no there was no Arizona site. There were several big destruction lots during 1983, originally all through San Jose then sent through El Paso to San Jose, then finally Alamogordo which was the only location that the items weren't chopped up and scrapped. I interviewed Jim Heller at length a while ago and had been sitting on it all this time per the request of the documentary producer. Just finished a nice size article detailing all this (and including pictures that Jim lent to us to produce high res scans from) that'll be in the next issue of RETRO magazine.

[Miss 2600]

LOL!!! I am now the proud owner of a Defender cartridge rescued from a dump! The box still has the price label ($37.95, on sale for $28.97) and has enough damage to know it was once in the ground. I only had to pay $2 over the minimum bid, so I thought that wasn't too bad. I'm going to put it (and, hopefully also have room for the other materials that come with it) in a display case. Funny, something that was buried in the ground for 30+ years is going to be in a case hanging on a wall.

[chas10e]

 

Received this last week, a cartridge from the Atari landfill, an E.T. would have been great but price wise Missile Command has to do.

Comes with a file folder holding some News articles, the story about the landfill, a certificate, and some tourist info.

The zip bag holding the game actually contains some sand/dirt from New Mexico :-)

I know the opinion about buying these cartridges are divided, i see it as a piece of Atari History and i'm really happy.

 

 

 

LOL!!! I am now the proud owner of a Defender cartridge rescued from a dump! The box still has the price label ($37.95, on sale for $28.97) and has enough damage to know it was once in the ground. I only had to pay $2 over the minimum bid, so I thought that wasn't too bad. I'm going to put it (and, hopefully also have room for the other materials that come with it) in a display case. Funny, something that was buried in the ground for 30+ years is going to be in a case hanging on a wall.

looking forward to seeing the creative ways these will be displayed

 

 

 

from the Rarity guide here of ET related link "Once Upon Atari" some CNN coverage & HSW interview after the dig.......

[fiddlepaddle]

I wonder how long it will be before one of these recovered games is thrown away, buried, and recovered again.

[Trinity]

LOL!!! I am now the proud owner of a Defender cartridge rescued from a dump! The box still has the price label ($37.95, on sale for $28.97) and has enough damage to know it was once in the ground. I only had to pay $2 over the minimum bid, so I thought that wasn't too bad. I'm going to put it (and, hopefully also have room for the other materials that come with it) in a display case. Funny, something that was buried in the ground for 30+ years is going to be in a case hanging on a wall.

COOL!!!

Picture please!

[high voltage]

Even E.T.s related to the landfill are going up in value, I wonder where it will end

eBay Auction -- Item Number: 181615770213

Edited December 18, 2014 by high voltage

[rasch_C]

Even E.T.s related to the landfill are going up in value, I wonder where it will end

eBay Auction -- Item Number: 181615770213

I don't trust it. Sounds like they had that place heavily monitored. I don't think any carts got out of there "unofficially".

 

It would be very easy, especially if you're from New Mexico, to say that some cart you had laying around for 20 years was from the dump. I call swindling b.s.

[chas10e]

Even E.T.s related to the landfill are going up in value, I wonder where it will end

eBay Auction -- Item Number: 181615770213

that ebay auction the fellow shows some screenshots of a working cart ....

 

I don't trust it. Sounds like they had that place heavily monitored. I don't think any carts got out of there "unofficially".

 

It would be very easy, especially if you're from New Mexico, to say that some cart you had laying around for 20 years was from the dump. I call swindling b.s.

according to the documentary's bonus footage ,the concrete cap was placed to prevent local looters ... some did make it out back then & I think visitors on the day of the dig were awarded copies as well

 

if THAT cart was from when it was originally dumped it's plausible it would still be working ... but no way to verify it's authenticity

 

I don't believe ANY of the recent carts mined out of there were in working order

Edited December 18, 2014 by chas10e

[Miss 2600]

I don't trust it. Sounds like they had that place heavily monitored. I don't think any carts got out of there "unofficially".

 

It would be very easy, especially if you're from New Mexico, to say that some cart you had laying around for 20 years was from the dump. I call swindling b.s.

 

I don't believe that one is from the landfill. It is in too nice of shape. He wants over $20 shipping, LOL. Plus, he can't even spell "piece".

 

Another thing, he doesn't mention Alamogordo in the title of the auction. It's like he doesn't want to draw too much attention.

Edited December 18, 2014 by Miss 2600

[Andromeda Stardust]

Now every crank is gonna bury an ET cart in his backyard, dig it up later, and say it came from the landfill.

[Chris++]

Hmmm...well, for a price, I can send a cartridge that's been genuinely bought in an Albuquerque thrift shop to anyone who's interested. That's not too far away from the Alamogordo dump.

[Retro Rogue]

 

I don't believe that one is from the landfill. It is in too nice of shape. He wants over $20 shipping, LOL. Plus, he can't even spell "piece".

 

Another thing, he doesn't mention Alamogordo in the title of the auction. It's like he doesn't want to draw too much attention.

 

That's correct, it's not. Everything that came from the actual dig and is being auctioned has a serial number and certificate of authenticity. The only thing to make it out of the dig that does not are the one PCB and two ROM chips that are now in our possession. These were pulled during the dig and used on site for testing hoping they could get footage of one of the games powering up. They were then packaged up and sent directly to me with the ROM switching cart I had lent to them.

 

Now that does not preclude items originally taken from the dump. Those would be in as good a shape as their owners kept them all this time as they were never crushed. Little known fact: the semis couldn't get close enough to the actual dumping area because of the ground. So they had to manually unload the pallets of games and such and haul them over to the actual dumping area. In the interim, that's when kids started sneaking in and stealing them off the semis and pallets, which is what led Jim to get security and then pour a concrete cap on most of it (he didn't have enough for the full area). Alamogordo had laws against scavenging, which is one of the main reasons he chose the area in the first place. Anyways, if any one of the now grown kids (many of which now work for the city) were selling it then it they might look like this. But then the seller would be from the Alamogordo area then.

[Asaki]

It would be very easy, especially if you're from New Mexico, to say that some cart you had laying around for 20 years was from the dump. I call swindling b.s.

 

Unless the page has been edited, it says that it's one of the games that were buried there, not that that specific cart was buried there. Misleading, yes, but technically correct...ET was a game that was buried in Almagordo

[Miss 2600]

 

Unless the page has been edited, it says that it's one of the games that were buried there, not that that specific cart was buried there. Misleading, yes, but technically correct...ET was a game that was buried in Almagordo

That's a good point.