The legendary "E.T. landfill" to be dug up for documentary

[Chris3123]

I figured this would be better suited for TV/Media rather than Gaming.

Remember E.T: The Extra-Terrestrial for the Atari 2600? For those unfamiliar with it, it was a god-awful game (which I've actually had the displeasure of "playing") that's considered to be both one of the worst games of all time and one of the biggest flops in video game history. Legend says that millions of unsold copies were buried in a landfill in Alamogordo, New Mexico.

Now, thanks a Canadian company called Fuel Industries, we will soon find out how much truth there is to the story...

ALAMOGORDO, N.M. (KRQE) - 1982 brought a video game so bad it's credited with nearly taking down the entire industry.

The Atari 2600 version of the hit movie E.T. was so unplayable, millions of copies went unsold with millions more returned.

Legend has it Atari needed to dump the extra merchandise and extra consoles as the industry crashed in 1983.

So they made a deal to dump at least nine semi trucks full of that merchandise from its El Paso plant in an Alamogordo landfill in late September 1983. The games were crushed and buried under concrete.

The Alamogordo Daily News ran a number of stories on the Atari dump, but what was exactly buried there wasn't confirmed.

Joe Lewandowski, who ran a garbage company at the time, claims he knows where the dump site is in the 100-acre landfill and that he spotted what was in the truck.
"It was the game systems, actually the game systems themselves it was actual cartridges and games, ET and so on," Lewandowski said.

Nobody's ever made a serious attempt at digging up the burial site.

Until now.

On Tuesday, Alamogordo's City Commission approved a deal with Canada-based film production and entertainment company Fuel Industries to excavate the Atari dump site and create a documentary surrounding the Alamogordo landfill legend.

KRQE

It should be noted though that it isn't just ET cartridges that are said to have to buried there, but also actual Atari consoles, as well as other games such as the 2600 Pac-Man port. So the documentary will probably not focus solely on the ET legend, but rather the burial in general.

 

[Gary Mitchell]

I spent many hours on that stupid game. It's probably the reason why I've never rewatched the move. It should stay buried like me.

 

[CorporalCaptain]

They should open up the landfill and replace the game cartridges with all video tapes, DVD's, and Blu-rays of the movie.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

The only part of the E.T. game that I can play is the third game, the one that doesn't have the FBI guy and the scientist. The FBI guy steals your stuff, the scientist grabs you and takes you back to his lair. Repeatedly. The third game doesn't have either of those, and is the only one that a lazy-ass like me can finish.

 

[Owain Taggart]

But the question is, why on earth would you want to finish it?

 

[137th Gebirg]

The Atari 400/800 computer version was better, IMO. My biggest problem with it wasn't the people trying to steal E.T. and his equipment, but the horrible noises the game made when they were nearby. Someone clearly didn't playtest the thing very well. Aside from that, I found the game to really get my adrenaline going in parts and it definitely felt like a race against time to get everything put together to "phone home".

 

[NCC-1701-B]

Oh that game, endless maps of holes in the floor, gotta see what there is, and ET looked more like a scorpion with a bloated tail. I did find that legend of burial rather entertaining so this should be fun to watch

 

[Aldo]

I hope this doesn't turn out to be an anticlimax like Geraldo with Capone's vault.

 

[Pondwater]

I had totally forgotten about this until now. O_o

 

[wildstar]

I worked on some early episodes of The Electric Playground, in one of the episodes the hosts interviewed the guys who made the game. I recall them saying that the game wasn't meant to be finished or make much sense. It was coded enough to get it out the door and that's it.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

How can people hate this game and not make any mention of 2600 Pac-Man? That makes the E.T. game look like Call of Duty.

 

[Amaris]

Seriously!

Arcade Pac Man was: Deedeedeedeededededededededededededededededede dee! wrglewrglewrglewrgle..boowup! blgblgblgblgblgblgblg... wokka wokka wokka wokka wokka...

Atari Pac Man was:
Do! do! do! do!
dun dun dun...dun dun dun... dun dun dun dun...

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

2600 Ms. Pac-Man was MUCH better.

 

[Kirby]

I recall them saying that the game wasn't meant to be finished or make much sense. It was coded enough to get it out the door and that's it.

I can believe that. My brothers and I were big into the 2600, and they released games at a pretty fast clip, and they were expensive for the day too. I remember playing the ET game, I think one of my neighbors had it, but I don't recall it being as horrible as described.

 

[Aragorn]

How can people hate this game and not make any mention of 2600 Pac-Man? That makes the E.T. game look like Call of Duty.

I had to look that game up to see what you were talking about. Pac-Man 2600 looks like the textbook definition of a cheap rush job.

 

[Aldo]

I recall them saying that the game wasn't meant to be finished or make much sense. It was coded enough to get it out the door and that's it.

I can believe that. My brothers and I were big into the 2600, and they released games at a pretty fast clip, and they were expensive for the day too. I remember playing the ET game, I think one of my neighbors had it, but I don't recall it being as horrible as described.

I think if you know what you're doing the game isn't super horrible. It's still pretty bad though.

The only problem is the goals of the game are so vague that it's not exactly clear what you're supposed to do. Compared to Pitfall where you ran your guy left and right and collected points.

 

[CaptJimboJones]

IIRC wasn't the development cycle for this game something insane like eight weeks? Basically the movie was a surprise smash hit and they decided they needed a videogame NOW to capitalize on it.

 

[Admiral James Kirk]

This interview with Howard Scott Warshaw should shed some light on E.T. as well as Atari in general. Howard was the designer of E.T and several other major Atari titles from the 80s era.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

^ Ah yes, HSWWSH from Yar's Revenge!

 

[137th Gebirg]

Ah, those were the days. You had to account for every byte of code with a hard memory ceiling and ensure you didn't exceed 32767 lines. Back when coding discipline was mandatory, rather than the quaint idea it's become in the past 2 decades.