

Landfill search for 'E.T.' Atari video game is halted - cgtyoder
http://www.foxnews.com/tech/2014/03/20/landfill-search-for-et-atari-video-game-is-halted/

======
devindotcom
No, it's still happening: [http://www.nbcnews.com/tech/video-games/search-old-
e-t-atari...](http://www.nbcnews.com/tech/video-games/search-old-e-t-atari-
games-go-new-mexico-landfill-n59101)

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tantalor
Price for a loose cartridge is up 350% in last 12 months!

[http://videogames.pricecharting.com/game/atari-2600/et-
the-e...](http://videogames.pricecharting.com/game/atari-2600/et-the-extra-
terrestrial)

New in box its worth 7x that, around $30.

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cmapes
No one has a rom? Seems less messy.

~~~
gwern
Of course people have ROMs. There are even hacked versions fixing most of the
bugs and adding additional features (I'm thinking here of a very long writeup
explaining exactly how they did it, and claiming it isn't such a bad game when
they're fixed, which was submitted to either Reddit or HN). But the physical
thing is not a ROM.

~~~
chch
It's also not that hard of a game to find, even with the destruction: AtariAge
[1] rates it a 1 out of 10 ("Common") in rarity, and I know I own at least two
copies.

Also, it's interesting to note that HSW (Howard Scott Washaw, who coded the
whole game in 5.5 weeks) has said at least once that he doesn't believe the
landfill incident actually occurred[2].

Quoth HSW: "I had many friends all over Atari, if the company was burying all
these carts someone would have told me. And the moment they did, I would have
immediately grabbed a photographer and hopped the next flight out and gotten
some great protraits of me standing on the pile. How could I possibly not get
that picture as a momento?"

I can't believe that post is over ten years old already!

[1]
[http://atariage.com/software_page.html?SoftwareLabelID=157](http://atariage.com/software_page.html?SoftwareLabelID=157)

[2] [http://atariage.com/forums/topic/7337-5-million-copies-of-
et...](http://atariage.com/forums/topic/7337-5-million-copies-of-et/?p=422889)

~~~
rwhitman
I bought it when the Ames department store was having their final liquidation
sale, the only friggin thing left in the entire store the day before closing
was a pile of the E.T. game on an otherwise empty shelf marked down to a
dollar or so.

