ET Found in New Mexico Landfill

http://kotaku.com/e-t-found-in-new-mexico-landfill-1568100161

For years, legend said that millions of unsold copies of ET for the Atari 2600 were buried in a landfill in New Mexico. Now the legend has proven to be true. Copies of ET, as well as other unsold games from 1982-3 (presumably) have been unearthed.

 

They have unleashed the curse upon us all, we're all doomed! But I do wonder what other games are hidden within the dump.

 

Isn't this the plot to AVGN's movie?

 

What ill omen has 2014 brought us? D8

 

Wonder if they'll find any unreleased stuff.

 

They wont' find anything else. The only thing that was dumped was ET. I wanted to do this back in HS -_-; and yes it's also the plot of the AVGN movie.

 

I dunno, I just saw a picture of a mashed up still sealed copy of VCS2600 Centipede side by side with an in similar state copy of E.T. ...

 

They found some Centipede carts as well, plus one of the the 1980s articles mentions computer equipment being dumped. Itll be interesting to see what comes of this. New Mexico is dry, anything they'll find that wasn't crushed is likely in good condition.

 

Wow, what a waste of plastic. Why did they bury them? Because America is a wasteful nation, and burying cartridges in the desert is just the tip of the iceberg.

 

Yes, Atari dumped stuff in Alamogordo. No, it was not just ET - there were machines and all sorts.

However, I call bullshit on this. It was a huge landfill. It closed that decade, and they built over parts of it with roads. The likelihood of finding games is like finding a needle in a haystack... and they got them almost straight away?! Yeah right! Nobody knew the exact location of the games, even when it was a dump... and they concreted over them.

I have newer games in worse condition sitting in my garage. How do those boxes look so good after 30 years underground?! There's no way. Plus, they didn't have the same standards back then as we do now - there would be a build-up of toxins, gases and such. It wouldn't be a safe place to go digging, and that stuff must surely have contributed to the decomposition of anything buried.

 

Why does the cartridge look so minty? It's been buried, I've got cartridges that havent been buried, havent been chewed up by the dog etc and the cartridge label is a bit funky. I smell BS.

If you think that only America utilizes land fill sites, and more so is the only one that allows something like this to happen [granted now its very expensive], I'm afraid I've got some bad news.

 

I think they look new because they were at the time, being underground there's no oxygen, so the carts wouldn't degrade. The guy could have removed it from a sealed package that was crushed, thereby protecting it from any dirt.

While the cartridges at the top would be crushed by the dozers, alot of the lower stuff at the bottom is probably intact, protected by the upper stuff. Same with the concrete. The concrete cap would probably have prevented further weight crushing from the rest of the trash.

I think they got the location from a former landfill employee who witnessed the dumping. apparently some kids raided the site before it was sealed off. maybe these are loose carts around the concrete and they have yet to find the motherlode.

 

things like this last longer because they are not exposed to any eroding elements and untouched by any human. and yes you touching anything leaves residue that will corrode things over time. even if some things were crushed that doesnt matter if the pcb's are intact with no corrosion like they couldnt be taken apart and put in a newer cartride case. if old newspapers found in dumps that are fully readable like they were just bought then a freakin sealed game cartridge is just good.

 

Don't give it too much thought; he just's trying to be edgy by saying something bad about Americans.

It's really awesome to see that one of gaming's greatest legends get confirmation after so long. Considering the NM environment, as Ironhell brought up, I don't find it too far-fetched to see cartridge video games in decent condition.

 

Excelsior! now to find the Daikatana landfill

 

It seems a bit odd to be honest. Is there any video of them first digging them up?

 

its in John Romero's Backyard Heh.

 

They're making a documentary about it, so there had to be a few cameras around.

 

OK, people obviously have a very poor understanding of the history of this.

There was NEVER any question whether this happened. It did. Those people who speculated on it were idiots. There was ALWAYS proof.



The article clearly states that BFI were paid by Atari to CRUSH and bury the material. The dump was selected because material was crushed and covered nightly.

Paper is biodegradable. However, when compressed and buried, it is difficult for it to decompose. Rubbish is compressed, buried then covered with a layer of soil... and that process it repeated several times. If the Atari stuff was crushed, yes it would potentially survive to be in a readable state. The items found are in too good a condition to have been crushed.

The dump was huge. Nobody, even old workers, knew where the location was exactly even when the landfill was in operation. They covered it over with concrete to stop looters, too. The dump closed sometime between 1989 and 1995. A big road was built on top of it. The chances of finding the plot just like that and it not being under the road are very slim. From some of the reports, they found this stuff on the first day?!

It's all propaganda to sell the documentary. It's as fake as Storage Wars.

 

Lul Storage Wars.

The chances of finding this at day one is pretty suss. Carts looked pretty damn clean too.