
E.T. cartridges found in infamous Atari landfill - Doubleguitars
http://www.polygon.com/2014/4/26/5656282/atari-et-landfill-new-mexico-found-cartridges
======
WalterBright
This story reminds me of the B-17s used in the 1963 Steve McQueen movie "The
War Lover".

3 B-17's were procured, put in flying condition, and flown to England. With
some clever photography and editing, the movie makes those 3 airplanes look
like a fleet. After the movie, what was to be done with the planes?

The British government wanted some large import tax on them, but the movie
production budget was exhausted. They couldn't even afford to buy the gas to
fly them back to the US. The movie company tried to GIVE the airplanes to a
British museum, but the government still wanted their import tax, and the
museums couldn't pay the tax, either.

The solution was to pour gasoline on them and burn them to the ground.

~~~
benbojangles
I love this story. thanks for sharing. It's a great conundrum dealing with the
HMRC machine. I imagine it as a robot relying on syntax. If it doesn't get the
right syntax it defaults to "You owe HMRC £xxxxxx. Please pay within 7 days."
To tackle the machine I imagine creating an equal machine that will churn out
replies, forever in a loop with the HMRC machine. Then I exit stage left and
continue with my everyday happy life.

------
nostromo
I saw a funny, but also sad, bit by a comedian once. I wish I could remember
his name.

" _Everything_ you've ever owned is still out there," he said. "Remember those
rollerblades you used once in 1994? Those still exist. Except maybe in little
pieces. Maybe in the ocean."

Maybe in 20 years someone will dig up a few of those millions of plastic
Guitar Hero guitars that are now wasting away in landfills for a documentary.

~~~
grecy
I look forward to the day humans are forced to mine landfills to get previous
goods.

It will be amazing when the cheapest (maybe only?) way to get <raw material>
is to recycle old discarded stuff.

~~~
joezydeco
I always thought we would have swarms of nanobots that chewed on the landfills
for a decade or so and sorted the mess into tidy piles of pure elements.

~~~
otterley
What do you then do with the nanobots?

~~~
philwelch
Turn half off and have the other half chew through them, recursively.

------
leddt
This guy is making a movie about that game:
[http://cinemassacre.com/2014/03/23/avgn-movie-timeline-
updat...](http://cinemassacre.com/2014/03/23/avgn-movie-timeline-
updated-91913/)

------
TehCorwiz
I'm both amazed and disappointed that this urban legend turned out to be true.
The former because who the ____would do that in the first place? The latter
because who the __ __would do that in the first place?

~~~
gregd
Well this happened back when we really didn't give a shit about the
environment AND just before conspicuous consumption more or less defined the
80s.

What I'm dumbfounded by is why they didn't simply give them away? It reminds
me of all the stupid YouTube videos of people who wait in line to buy the
latest Apple product only to smash it in front of everyone else waiting in
line...

~~~
callesgg
It Is a shity game. Allowing people to play it would have been bad for the
brand.

Where I work, we(someone) burns the stuff that we can't sell not cause the
stuff is bad, it is done to make shore the brand does not get associated with
Cheap stuff.

Brand status is important.

(I know it is somewhat insane but it is the way capitalism works)

~~~
gregd
And yet look where Atari is today..

~~~
callesgg
Classical
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Correlation_does_not_imply_caus...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Correlation_does_not_imply_causation)

------
gambiting
there is a fantastic article about fixing bugs in the game, I am pretty sure
that HN will appreciate:

[http://www.neocomputer.org/projects/et/](http://www.neocomputer.org/projects/et/)

------
kstenerud
I actually liked the E.T. game. It was probably one of the games I played the
most as a child (next to Pitfall). Pac Man, on the other hand, was terrible on
the Atari.

~~~
morganvachon
Atari Pac-Man was terrible, but my dad loved it. My first Atari (along with
that game and many others) ended up in the closet throughout the 80s. In the
early 90s, while I was playing SNES with all of my high school friends, my dad
pulled the Atari out of the closet to "show us kids a real game". Apparently
he had grown up on arcade Pac-Man in the 70s, and found the Atari Pac-Man to
be much more difficult and therefore a worthy challenge.

------
oldmanpants
I just don't understand _why_ anyone would want to find the games. Is it just
for the documentary? I'm sure there's all sorts of 'new old stock' in
landfills all over the world. Stuff much more interesting than a [very] bad
video game for a console very few of us still have.

I suppose it wouldn't surprise me if limited edition numbered authentic
landfill ET cartridges were a sought after collectible in the near or distant
future.

~~~
rockyleal
Microsoft. It is a convoluted PR stunt for Xbox.

[http://www.tekrevue.com/excavate-atari-
landfill/](http://www.tekrevue.com/excavate-atari-landfill/)

[http://www.vg247.com/2014/04/10/microsoft-invites-you-to-
att...](http://www.vg247.com/2014/04/10/microsoft-invites-you-to-attend-the-
atari-landfill-excavation-on-april-26/)

Everyone, including HN, is falling for it.

------
mtgentry
Keith Schofield did a fun little music video about this a few years ago:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Rt_3_bQVJU](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Rt_3_bQVJU)

------
aye
Here's a video showing various "Easter eggs" inside the game:

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WUsgtNxCOOk](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WUsgtNxCOOk)

------
wslh
I remember playing the game for hours and thinking that was my fault not
understanding or having fun with the game... I laughed a few years ago when I
read the real story.

