I never played it but maybe its so bad that no one would want it even for free.
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ET found in landfill [Xbox troll = ban]
- Thread starter Wario64
- Start date
I never played it but maybe its so bad that no one would want it even for free.
The Cool One
Member
Those have to be pretty rare right?
still hard to believe they actually found them after all these years... crazy.
oh my god.
Wishmaster92
Member
This just made my day.
amazing
CassidyIzABeast
Member
Apparently people would steal the Atari stuff and sell it out the back of a pickup which is why they eventually put concrete over it. So not all of them went to waste.
A free bad game is still a bad game. Would you want to get a free copy of Hotel Mario? So everyone can associate that game with Nintendo?
Cthulhu_Steev
Member
It was a transition period into people buying home PCs, consoles were too limited and games too expensive. Atari bet the farm on what should've been megahits (ET, PacMan etc.) and produced far more cartridges than there were consoles made. A tulip/beanie babies-type bubble burst and the games became bargain bin worthless, the rumour is rather than flood the market with cartridges that wouldn't sell, they buried them.
And here we are.
Funny thing is, I never heard of this when it happened. It was a few years later when I read about it in (I think) Computer & Videogames, and then it kept cropping up as a legendary rumour every few years.
TrueGrime
Member
Best shop EVER.
VeryGooster
Banned
It kind of gives an insight at how the game industry operated in its infancy/adolescence. Not many people knew what they were doing back then. Stories had broken about these game cartridges getting dumped in the desert, but it seems no one at Atari really spoke about it for decades so its status of myth vs fact kind of got lost in the shuffle.
I honestly forgot about the documentary portion of this whole project.
eso76
Member
If this is true, then I expect thousands at the very least.
Wouldn't make sense to go and bury them if it were just a thousand copies you have to get rid of
Typographenia
Member
I apologize in advanced for the "meme" thing, but his pose was screaming it to me.
They couldn't give them away. I remember Atari games going for under $.50 new at my local Zayre and no one wanted them even then.
And that's an expensive one. Cart should be about $1-3.
I suppose the city will sell a bunch of these and make a decent chunk of change, solely due to the story.
7DollarHagane
Banned
That may be the case. Sorry.
Also Wikipedia states that of 4 million copies of et produced, 3.5 million were unsold or returned. There will probably be a LOT of carts in that hole.
Pretty interesting. Thanks for the info
I apologize in advanced for the "meme" thing, but his pose was screaming it to me.
LOL
aparisi2274
Member
The only think I am mad about is that this documentary is going to be shown exclusively on the XBO! I only own a 360. Why can't they show it on both? 
They say that game was a complete disaster & is one of the reasons that contributed to the North America video game crash of 1983.
Messofanego
Banned
Synergy
7DollarHagane
Banned
Yep, at some point the retailer just sends them back and uses the shelf space for something better. Its costing them to hold onto it.
Iced_Eagle
Member
Wow I can't believe they actually found it. Can't wait to watch the full documentary about this.
Major Nelson
Neo Member
Out at the site, I was talking to a few guys who, back when the cartridges were dumped here, they snuck in and carried out cases of them to resell.
Retailers were so wary of consoles that Nintendo even considered selling the NES as a computer instead of a console. This is a prototype of the NES as a MSX-like computer:
I apologize in advanced for the "meme" thing, but his pose was screaming it to me.
Ok this was good lol.
panda-zebra
Banned
Principate
Saint Titanfall
Isn't that what they marketed it as in Japan the, Famicom, family computer.
I am Christina Aguilera
Member
Looks like they are trying the carts to see if they work !
https://twitter.com/mashable/status/460146515806539776
Hahaha, look at the writing on the back of the Atari! That's Keith Apicary's 2600!
Loose, my copy cost $4. They're pretty much Mario Bros./Duck Hunt-level common. That's why they got buried, because they made many more than anyone wanted!
That's Pac-Man. 12M copies of Pac-Man were made when there were only 10M Atari consoles.
SquiddyCracker
Banned
Poor Surface.
The actual documentary isn't out until later this year.
Looks like they are trying the carts to see if they work !
https://twitter.com/mashable/status/460146515806539776
Did they dig that TV out of the landfill too?
It didn't get some few thousand copies made and then super popular like snatcher. I think it broke one million, but that could be the shipped number.
I love that this legend turned out to be true. Really want to the documentary about this now.
E.T.? No it's one of the easiest games to find. Atari made way too much of that crappy game.
E.T.? No it's one of the easiest games to find. Atari made way too much of that crappy game.