Desert dig uncovers huge Atari games dump

[Jazzy]

Video game archaeologists have found a cache of Atari games that were buried in the New Mexico desert 30 years ago.

Before now reports Atari had dumped millions of game cartridges were widely believed to be an urban myth.

But a three-hour dig at a landfill site turned up many Atari cartridges, including copies of the game ET: The Extra Terrestrial.

The ET game has been described as one of the worst ever created. Its challenging game play and poor graphics put people off buying it and left Atari with huge amounts of unsold inventory.

The search to see if the rumours about the dump were true was given new life by the efforts of one unnamed game enthusiast who did the detective work to narrow down its location.

Red tape surrounding the uncovering of the landfill site held up the start of the dig but once permission was granted excavations began on 26 April.

Three hours of digging with a backhoe uncovered significant amounts of Atari 2600 game cartridges - many of which were still in their original packaging.

Only a limited amount of material could be retrieved from the dump because the dig was only allowed access for one day. The local authority of Alamogordo ordered the dig site to be refilled on 27 April.

Source

 

[DrLeftover]

Video game archaeologists

Until just now, I didn't know there was such a thing.

Thank you for the education.

 

[Jazzy]

Video game archaeologists

Until just now, I didn't know there was such a thing.

Thank you for the education.

In case you want to educate yourself some more:

Archaeogaming: Exploring the archaeology of (and in) video games.

 

[DrLeftover]

I'll add that to my list for future reading.

For now, I'm good. Thanks.

 

[Evil Eye]

Weird. Wouldn't this have been an act of littering by Atari?

Until just now, I didn't know there was such a thing.

I suppose it was bound to happen someday.