Mass grave of Atari E.T. cartridges to be exhumed

Atari's video game tie-in to the 1982 hit movie "E.T.: The Extraterrestrial" was such a huge flop that most of the cartridges and related merchandise were buried in a landfill, out of sight—until now.

Atari had released the game in 1982, but it fared so badly that the company buried its cartridges in a New Mexican desert. The company reportedly dumped as many as nine semi trucks' worth of of E.T. game cartridges and other merchandise in the site in 1983.

 

But tech site Mashable reported production company Fuel Industries was granted six months' access to the landfill in Alamogordo, New Mexico, where the cartridges were dumped.

 

"The E.T. game was considered by many to be the final straw in a series of poorly manufactured games, which contributed to the United States' video game industry crash of 1983. At that time, the market was saturated with low-quality games, created by just about anyone, for the variety of consoles trying to hold market share. That included the Atari 2600, for which E.T. was created," Mashable said.
 

"But, since the past can never remain buried, a film crew now wants to dig up a stash of those ET The Extra-Terrestrial games, in an attempt to uncover gaming history," Mashable added.

 

Fuel Industries, a multimedia marketing company, hopes to document the unearthing of the games, Mashable cited a report by TV station KRQE.

 

E.T. flop

 

Mashable said the "E.T" game appeared to be a "five-week rush job" seeking to catch holiday sales and tie in with the release of the Steven Spielberg classic film.

 

The game's objective is to gather pieces of E.T.'s phone so he can call his spaceship and go home, while avoiding capture.

 

But the rush resulted in "weirdly-colored characters and backgrounds, nonsensical gameplay and a host of glitches that made it practically unplayable," it added.

 

"After poor reviews by critics and consumers, Atari was left sitting on 3.5 million copies," it said. — TJD, GMA News