Atari 2600 E.T. Cartridges Found Buried in New Mexico Desert

[Ugea]

It's probably footage from the Angry Video Game Nerd's upcoming movie.

For those who don't know, this is a longstanding urban legend well-known in most gaming communities. I'm surprised people here don't seem to know it. I've seen it featured on History Channel special ("Rise of the Videogame" ) for crying out loud.

Back in the early days of gaming, the early 80s (I am actually old enough to remember the 80s, though I only got old enough to play the family Atari 2600 after 1985 or so...)... back in "the day" gaming was on the rise as a hobby, Atari was king, and the film E.T. was hot to trot. Atari was licensed to make a game for the film, but wanted to get it done in a quick timeframe (Christmas rush?) - they rushed it, gave the guy meant to program it all of a week to do it, all while setting up for the production of more games than currently existing consoles on the gamble that people who hadn't "played Atari today" would shell out for consoles.

Unfortunately, the poor marketing strategy combined with a rush on the game meant that they essentially sent out a beta. The first people who bought it found that it sucked pretty hard and word got around. Atari was already having some financial difficulties (if I am remembering the legend correctly), and the bombing of E.T. just sent the company (the king of gaming at the time) right down the crapper.

Having an excess of a notoriously buggy, bomb of a game, they found the most economical thing to do with them was to cut and run, and (supposedly) unload their unsold cartridges into a landfill while they tried to find a way to save their company.

Gaming as a hobby/entertainment-source flagged in the United States for a few years before Nintendo made a gamble of selling their gaming consoles in America with a fun robot-toy. Kids responded to the games themselves, because Super Mario Bros., The Legend of Zelda et. all were excellent games and thus, the U.S. market became open again.

Meanwhile, children of the 80s spread the rumor that there were, like, a gazillion E.T. cartridges buried in a landfill somewhere.

Debate goes on as to whether it was actually the "worst game ever" - I've seen the AVGN play "Big Rig Racing" (a modern game) and that one actually looks much, much worse technic-wise, but E.T. does stand as an infamous marketing-bomb.

No the AVGN has nothing to do with this documentary. he did wright about this in his Blog about this on his site.

 

[Mercedes]

Pretty interesting way to deal with extra stock. Entertaining though! Hope Xbox does more of these.

 

[Justac00lguy]

Just like this thread.

ba-dum-tssssssssss..... :trollface:

Shots Fired.

10-4 we have a man down.

 

[JuicieJ]

It's probably footage from the Angry Video Game Nerd's upcoming movie.

The AVGN had nothing to do with this. It was a completely separate team that started planning this excavation last year.

 

[Ronin]

But seriously, this thread is beyond pointless.

EDIT: No, really, please explain the point in this, lol.

The point is to broadcast that ET the Game cartridges buried by Atari long ago were recently found by an excavation team. This has been an "urban legend" of sorts going on for around 30 years now (if memory serves right). What Atari's exact intentions were by exhuming the cartridges, I don't recall, but if anything it's a good way to keep their product alive this many years down the road. Only problem is that ET the Game is recognized as one of the worst releases in gaming.

 

[JuicieJ]

Only problem is that ET the Game is recognized as one of the worst releases in gaming.

That's exactly why Atari buried them. They expected to sell way more than they did, so when it didn't because of how big of a piece of **** it was, they had to get rid of the remaining copies.

 

[Vanessa28]

And as a teenager in the 80's I do remember about this game. I remember that it was like a disaster. The movie ET was hot. I myself was one of those who went to the theater at that time to watch it but the game unfortunately never reached that same level.

 

[CraptainFalcon]

I knew it.

 

[Sheik]

My friends, we have uncovered relics of the past.

 

[Heroine of Winds]

And so the legend became true. Don't know if I should rejoice or not.

 

[Ugea]

Rumor is, they are planing to fill the hole with Physical copies of Shaq Fu2..

 

[Snow Queen]

I heard they're burying digital copies of Sonic '06 in the Sahara.

 

[JuicieJ]

Why are people thinking this is fake? It's not!

 

[Salem]

I heard they're burying digital copies of Sonic '06 in the Sahara.

You mean the software itself? Not the disks? Okay, so we probably won't see them again.

 

[mαrkαsscoρ]

i didn't even know this was a "legend",i though it was a known fact that this happened