The urban legend about a landfill chock-full of Atari E.T. cartridges has just been proven true. As part of their documentary filming, LightBox Interactive and Fuel Entertainment gained permission (after some setbacks) to excavate a landfill in Alamogordo, New Mexico, where as many as 20 semi trucks’ worth of Atari cartridges had been buried for a tax writeoff.
The rumor was that most of the cartridges buried were of the abysmally awful E.T., a game I loathed back in ’83 because I could never get more than one piece of that damn phone before falling into an inescapable pit. When I later heard thousands of copies of the game had been buried, I pictured that stupid inescapable pit being filled with cartridges, burying that leathery-skinned, candy-shilling alien bastard alive. It was the only joy Atari’s E.T. ever gave me.
Make that two joys, because the urban legend is at least partially confirmed. At 12:30 pm Mountain Time today, the first cartridge was found, and yes, it was an E.T. cartridge. PEE ON IT.
Shortly after they didn’t pee on the E.T. cartridge (but should have), they also found Atari catalogs, promo materials, a crushed Centipede case which appeared to still be shrink-wrapped, and other things they should totally pee on.
PUT THAT GARBAGE BACK WHERE IT BELONGS.
Via Ars Technica and Kotaku