- Feb 19, 2012
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Welcome Back to Digital Pinball Fans - please read this first
By Golly, It Was True!
- Thread starter Jeff Strong
- Start date
dtown8532
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- Apr 10, 2012
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I wonder if this will affect the Angry Video Game Nerd Movie. From what I read it is pretty much about the Atari ET game.
Never mind.
http://cinemassacre.com/2014/04/26/e-t-atari-landfill-unearthed/
Never mind.
http://cinemassacre.com/2014/04/26/e-t-atari-landfill-unearthed/
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Nightwing
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- Aug 1, 2012
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Having lived through the video game implosion of the 80 's - and knowing firsthand how much suck the E.T 2600 game is,then this news is cool!
If you ever see someone selling a 2600 collection nowadays - it's almost guaranteed to have a copy of E.T. with it.
If you ever see someone selling a 2600 collection nowadays - it's almost guaranteed to have a copy of E.T. with it.
superballs
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- Apr 12, 2012
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Is it sad that society has crumbled to the point that we celebrate finding these?
Fungi
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- Feb 20, 2012
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Well, it's more about celebrating something that Geraldo Rivera wasn't able to accomplish with Al Capone's vault.
superballs
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- Apr 12, 2012
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Lol
Kolchak357
Senior Pigeon
- May 31, 2012
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I had that ET game for my 2600. Never did figure out what I supposed to be doing on that one. 
Captain B. Zarre
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- Apr 16, 2013
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I had that ET game for my 2600. Never did figure out what I supposed to be doing on that one.
I don't think you're alone
DrainoBraino
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- Apr 11, 2012
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This is crazy. I have heard these rumors since I was a kid, always thought it was just a myth.
Oddly enough, I never had any problems with ET. But then again, I read instructions. Falling in the holes was a pain, the gameplay itself was ok. Atari games are usually so simple so you don't have to read the instructions, so most folks just played the game and when they couldn't figure out what to do they said "this game sucks!". Raiders of the Lost Ark is another one. You had to use the SECOND JOYSTICK to manage the inventory. Only a dozen of people actually knew this, the rest thought the game sucked.
Oddly enough, I never had any problems with ET. But then again, I read instructions. Falling in the holes was a pain, the gameplay itself was ok. Atari games are usually so simple so you don't have to read the instructions, so most folks just played the game and when they couldn't figure out what to do they said "this game sucks!". Raiders of the Lost Ark is another one. You had to use the SECOND JOYSTICK to manage the inventory. Only a dozen of people actually knew this, the rest thought the game sucked.
N
netizen
Guest
This was in the news when it actually happened. I'm not sure why it is such big news now that the news that we got in the 1980s was true.
Generational Amnesia?
Maybe the theory of the big crunch and time running backwards is actually happening and that's why I keep finding coupons for Hawaiian Punch in the weekly flyers that come in the news paper.
- Feb 19, 2012
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- Thread starter
- #14
This was in the news when it actually happened. I'm not sure why it is such big news now that the news that we got in the 1980s was true.
Because it was considered to be more of a rumor than truth, at least in regards to what exactly was dumped, so it became something of an urban legend.
From Wikipedia:
"Since the burial was first reported in the press, there have been doubts as to its veracity and scope, leading to a minority considering it an urban legend. However, the event has become a cultural icon and a reminder of the North American video game crash of 1983; and was the end result of a disastrous fiscal year which saw Atari, Inc. sold off by its parent company."
Anyway, it's just a funny story, that's all.
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Bowflex
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- Feb 21, 2012
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I always figured it would have been in a pit and filled in with cement just in case. The one thing about atari games is I bet all of them still work with no problem. Those things were indestructible. The only way you could really make them inoperable is to break the actul the rom itself. I've seen firsthand and read second hand accounts of a million things that should make them die and they keep working! Submerging under water, freezing, oven at 350, dropping off a tall building and it all still worked!
Oh and Raiders of the lost ark sucked even if you had the second joystick and knew how to use it.
Oh and Raiders of the lost ark sucked even if you had the second joystick and knew how to use it.
Nightwing
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- Aug 1, 2012
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No it didn't. Well, not compared to E.T. anyways. Doesn't matter - I was by having too much fun playing Dungeons & Dragons on my Intellivision.
brakel
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- Apr 27, 2012
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I agree that it's an interesting story. Kind of an electronic time capsule. I just remember reading about the console gaming crash in Time magazine in 1984 or so about all this junk that Atari buried "in the desert" and it was as much about the crash as it was about the new technology being so disposable and where would we put it all. There was much more in the dump than just video game cartridges. By volume and weight Atari dumped more than just game cartridges though. They dumped computers, dot matrix printers even type writers and other mundane office equipment. The console gaming crash forced Atari to close at least one large office and they dumped everything that couldn't be used in another office or sold. They actually did cap the whole thing off with cement.
Anyway, I wasn't suggesting that it wasn't interesting enough to post or that people much younger than I should have had first hand knowledge of the burial. I just think the whole rumor thing was something that was made up by the current media in order for them to have a snappy headline. But it was well documented at the time. The media should know better and they should know that they don't have to make up a rumor in order to make it interesting. It's already interesting.
- Feb 19, 2012
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- #19
I remember reading up on it around 10 years ago and there were various rumors surrounding it even then, mainly about the E.T. cartridges, so what exactly was buried has been an urban legend of sorts for quite awhile, and a running gag on the interwebs.
It's also funny that the Snopes entry (which was just updated this week) still lists the rumor about the E.T. cartridges as "Legend":
http://www.snopes.com/business/market/atari.asp
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brakel
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- Apr 27, 2012
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Ok. I just remember it as history. Doesn't seem to me that things during my lifetime at my age should be considered legend though.