'E.T.'s March' To Document Legend Of Atari Failure Disposal
I couldn't help but take note of Fruit Brute's write-up on Kotaku this weekend. Our very own second cutest guy in gaming where he highlights E.T.'s March, a project in which four Auburn University students will document their journey from their home of Auburn, Alabama to Alamogordo, New Mexico to a landfill where, in the fall of 1983, Atari used the local landfill to dispose of ten to twenty tractor trailer loads of excess inventory from an Atari warehouse in El Paso, Texas. At the time, Atari cited the transition from the Atari 2600 to the Atari 5200 as the reason for disposing of Atari boxes, cartridges andsystems, but this is contradicted by landfill workers who indicated that the items buried were just cartridges. Due to the timing of the incident, many speculated the struggling company was disposing of thousands of copies of what is considered by many to be the original "FAIL" in movie licensed games.
The students will be documenting their experiences and releasing the documentary for free over the internet this summer. I am anxious to see how this works out for them. In my wildest dreams, the trip would result in a bit of self-discovery and a handful of damaged but identifiable cartridge remnants. Maybe they can talk some anthropology students into going along so they can perform their own archaeological dig?
About E.T.'s March: What is E.T.'s March?
[via: Kotaku]
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TexCub
Posted to Video Games on 17 February 2008
· Comments (2)
Other stuff like this: atari, atari 2600, e.t., landfill, licensed games, new mexico, steven spielberg, urban legend
I know that E.T. wasn't that good of a game and it is often blamed (at least in part) for the fall of the videogame industry, but I actually enjoyed the game back when I was a kid.
I thought they covered over the cartridges with cement. As an archaeologist, I sure as hell wouldn't want to dig through that. ;-)