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

[moycon]

.

[Stingray]

Go here and get ace mega codecs pack, and enjoy. (includes optional media player classic which also plays quicktime and shockwave full screen)

 

Haydn

 

Thanks, downloading that now.

 

-S

[Stingray]

Just viewed the video, looks real to me.

 

-S

[moycon]

Wow! Man Oh Man, I for one am thoroughly convinced at this point. What with the wealth of information we have at our disposal now to base our descision on. I myself am now diligently souring my resorces in an attempt to uncover as much of the evidence as I can. We know there's a ton still out there. Come on, this place needed security guards to keep the reporters at bay.

The truth was always out there all these years. We just wern't looking in the right place!!

Here's what I've uncovered thus far. I hope it aids in convincing you skeptics.

[+batari]

Not to mention it would have taken 20+ hours to upload at that speed.  Not the 3 or 4 he mentioned.

 

Um.... no. Do the math. 20 Mb is the claimed file size, that's 160,000,000 bits. At 28,000 bits per second = 5714 sec = 1 hr 35 min

 

3-4 hours sounds reasonable even with a poor connection.

[MayDay]

Spud, here did you get that pic from? Just curious.

 

Also, to the people who are saying "even if this is an April Fools joke"... stop. It's not. We don't need to wait until midnight, everything that has been posted has checked out, and there is plenty of evidence available to you with mimimal effort on your part. The only way this could be "fake" is if Atari had the gumption to "pretend" to dump a billion games in a pit. Add that to the fact that kids were then walking around the town with games... impossible. Anyone posting that it could still be fake shall be added to my previously unused ignore list.

 

-JD

[moycon]

I'm with MayDay on this one.

Don't make me add you to my ignore list too.

The evidence floweth over.....

[deathtrappomegranate]

The mpeg worked fine for me a few hours ago.

 

I don't think that this is an April Fool's joke. If you were going to do something for April 1, this would be a pretty crappy and unimpressive way to go about it.

 

The only thing that surprises me is that someone went to all the trouble of producing a video like that for such a trivial story.

 

For what it's worth though, well done to the OP for being thorough.

 

[Spud]

I don't have anything big at midnight, just j/k about it being the 1st.

 

I'll work on the interview I did and try to get it on in the next couple of days after everyone can get the preview film.

 

Albert, if you have this video copied to where you can host it let me know, then I'll clear my ftp and post something else.

 

 

Thanks

Bruce S.

[4ever2600]

I've got the same articles that SPUD's got. I've been doing a little 'digging' of my own... (no pun intended) Anyways, here is another article from the same newspaper, it's legit... Hope the scan came out ok... Remember this is a photocopy from an old-ass newspaper...

 

Later! - D

[4ever2600]

Holy SH!T! I'm sorry, I didn't realize I scanned it sooooo, big!

[Nukey Shay]

M.E. McQuiddy = Marion E. McQuiddy?

This page lists that name twice...once for Alamogordo and once for El Paso.

http://www.oyaawards.com/list/list36.lasso

 

And the last thing published under that name was this report...dated 1/1/94:

http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_...v18/ai_14978103

 

Wonder if there's any way to contact her currently?

[MayDay]

We're not sure if M.E. = Marion or not. Marion is never associated with the Alamogordo Daily News, but we found that she (?) wrote several articles for the New Mexico Journal or something like that, and all focused on Alamogordo. It's reasonable to assume they're the same person, but not yet confirmed. The exact name is listed somewhere earlier in the thread.

 

S/he has been contacted by e-mail, as also discussed earlier in the thread. A listing was found for them two hours east of Alamogordo somewhere in Texas. If e-mail fails, that same dude was going to snail mail them to see if it was the same person.

 

Nice work on the new article, but we completely need an edit button back. I would have liked to use it a few times myself too!

 

-JD

[Spud]

I've got the phone number for Marion E. McQuiddy in El Paso.

Just haven't used it yet. Waiting for the other guy, forgot who it was that was going to contact him/her gets through.

It's

 

Marian Mcquiddy

 

5041 Alabama St

El Paso, TX 79930-2645 (map)

 

Tel.: (915) 562-1213

 

I'm sure many here have better interviewing skills then me, so if we want to get organized and pick a spokesman or something to contact them. I don't mind giving out the number, besides, it's on the net.

 

 

P.S. how the heck do you use the quotes on this site?

[Stingray]

Albert, if you have this video copied to where you can host it  

let me know, then I'll clear my ftp and post something else.

 

Until Al has a chance to host it on Aariage, I uploaded it to my web space:

 

http://www.stingraysmadness.com/misc/atari.avi

 

So feel free to clear your ftp space and post something else.

 

By the way guys, for the sake of my bandwidth, please save it to disk and

then view it.

 

-S

[Bruce Tomlin]

Holy cow! According to that newspaper scan, they dumped computers, too! Had they made the 1400 by September 1983? :-)

 

(And thanks for the big scan... in this case it was worth it. But you might want to run zip on it next time.)

 

I'm going to type in the articles. Note that the one in the video is from 1983-09-25, and the new scan is from 1983-09-27. I've already typed in the one from the scan, but the one in the video is going to take longer since I have to skip around through it.

[Bruce Tomlin]

I sure hope there's more of the first article on video, because I couldn't get much of it from the short video. It looks like there's a lot on the second page of the article, but I can barely see any of it in the first moments of the video.

 

Anyhow, from reading all this, it is obvious that Atari did indeed bury something there, and a lot of it. But whether it's the mythical "truckload of E.T. games" has yet to be proven. In one of the pictures, you can clearly see a couple of boxed 2600 games, so they were in fact dumping new catridges. But the article implies that one of Atari's motives was to get rid of 2600 games in favor of the 5200. This means it would be likely that they would dump all sorts of games (though probably only a dozen or so heavily overstocked titles), but again, not necessarily truckloads of just E.T. Still, I would imagine that there are at least a few cases worth of E.T. in among the other junk.

 

Oh, and "black-marketing"? My ass. By the way that phrase is used, Activision would be one of these evil "black marketers".

 

- - -

 

Alamogordo Daily News

September 25, 1983

 

Tons of Atari games buried

Dump here utilized

 

By M.E. McQUIDDY

Daily News Staff Writer

. The new pit at the Alamogordo

city landfill has become the ap-

parent final resting place for a

warehouse of Atari games from Texas.

. According to a landfill of-

ficials, eight 18-wheeler truck-

loads

 

security guard was supposed to

come with the project, he app-

parently was not on duty Friday

night, as numerous reports were

received by DPS Saturday of lots

of Atari game showing up in the

posession

dividual

games

. "Th

 

told him the reason they were

dumping the games is that they

are changing from series 2600 to

5200 games, due to excessive

amount of black-marketing.

. Apparently, another reason for

 

[picture]

 

CEMENTING IT IN -- A cement truck,

background, begins to unload in the landfill Tuesday,

covering buried Atari games. By day's end,

everything was cemented in.

. (Daily News photo by M.E. McQuiddy)

 

[picture]

 

ALL THAT'S LEFT -- At the floor of the city's newest pit at the landfill Saturday,

all that was left of eight truckloads of Atari games was rubble, squished boxes and a lot

of dust. See story, Page 1.

. (Daily News photo by M.E. McQuiddy)

 

- - -

 

Alamogordo Daily News

September 27, 1983

 

City to Atari: 'E.T.' trash go home

 

By M.E. McQUIDDY

Daily News Staff Writer

 

. The Alamogordo city comission is taking a

strong stand against "extra-territorial" garbage,

and will be considering an ordinance to limit the

amount of out of area dumping in the sanitary land-

fill at its meeting tonight.

. The ordinance has been proposed in the wake of

the dumping of 11 ssemi-trailer truckloads of Atari

computers, cartridges, and assorted parts from an

El Paso warehouse in the dump since last Thurs-

day.

. Apparently BFI had told the city after being

pressed on the issue, it was expecting three

truckloads a week. However, no one is exactly sure

how much trash will be expected before the opera-

tion is completed.

. El Paso Atari officials apparently refused to con-

firm or deny the dumping, and referred any queries

to California.

. Bruce Enten of Atari in California said today

Atari is sending scrap merchandise to the

Alamogordo dump. "It is by-and-large inoperable

stuff."

. He explained sometimes people send back mer-

chandise, which for one reason or another does not

work.

. Enten said the Atari plant in El Paso has shifted

from manufacturing to recycling "scrap and defec-

tive merchandise from across the country. Con-

ceivably, a tape sold in New York coult turn up in

Alamogordo."

. That which cannot be fixed is destroyed.

. "After we finish this operation, we will have to

determine where we do it in the future. I won't tell

you there may not be some of that stuff that's good

in the items sent to Alamogordo, but most is not,"

Enten said. "The majority of the stuff is car-

tridges."

. Atari has different procedures for disposal,

sometimes recycling and sometimes destroying,

but it needs to be done. "For instance, if the

grocery has bad vegetables on a Sunday you might

see cartons of the stuff out back. We've got to

dispose of the stuff."

. "This is the first time we've come into your area

in New Mexico," he said.

. Enten said he did not know how much Alamogor-

do would expect in the dump before the current

operation is completed.

. "We did not ask the city manager to invoke the

emergency clause," said commissioner Guy

Gallaway. "We also didn't want to exclude the city

manager being able to help the county or other

communities within the county in the cae of an

emergency. But we don't want to be an industrial

waste dump for El Paso."

. BFI officials had said their rationale was that

Atari was paying them from $300-$500 a truck to

dispose of the trash.

. City fathers wondered about the new trench at

the dump. "It is mammouth," Gallaway said.

. The ordinance will be up for first approval

tonight.

[Bruce Tomlin]

And by the way, I'm pretty sure that Marion is a guy's name. The female version would be Marian.

[Stingray]

Thanks for taking the time to type those out Bruce.

 

-S

[Thomas Jentzsch]

And by the way, I'm pretty sure that Marion is a guy's name.  The female version would be Marian.

Depends on where you come from.

[nudicle]

A listing was found for them two hours east of Alamogordo somewhere in Texas. If e-mail fails, that same dude was going to snail mail them to see if it was the same person.

 

Sorry for the delay, my laptop's hard drive melted down a couple days ago and I just set up an alternate machine this morning. The promised email will be sent when I get home tonight. If I hear back, I'll post to this thread straight away. If I don't, I'll unleash a snail mail volley in the general direction of Texas.

[Spud]

Until Al has a chance to host it on Aariage, I uploaded it to my web space:

 

http://www.stingraysmadness.com/misc/atari.avi

 

So feel free to clear your ftp space and post something else.

 

By the way guys, for the sake of my bandwidth, please save it to disk and  

then view it.

 

-S

 

Sounds good to me, I'll send the video of the story that

wasn't typed out. It should be up by tomorrow morning.

 

It will be kind of a crappy video because

I lowered the kbits per sec to fit it in under 20mb but it's readable.

[Spud]

And by the way, I'm pretty sure that Marion is a guy's name.  The female version would be Marian.

 

Their name is Marian, so guess she's a she.

[Albert]

Albert, if you have this video copied to where you can host it let me know, then I'll clear my ftp and post something else.

 

I have copied the file to our server where it can be downloaded here:

 

http://www.atariage.com/videos/AtariLandfill1.avi

 

I tried to view the video but I do not have the proper codec installed on my OS X machine. Do you know what codec you used to save this so I can (hopefully) download one that will allow me to view it? I'd really like to watch this, and any others that you post.

 

Thanks,

 

..Al

[Bruce Tomlin]

I have no idea what codec it uses, but it's not an AVI file. I was only able to play it with VLC. If it was AVI, then at least I'd have had a chance of step-framing, but VLC's stop/start control has always been a bit laggy, so I had to double-click the play button.