I dont know Anything anymore all I know is that it's real, and jeff was wrong.
E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial
Game » consists of 2 releases. Released December 1982
E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial is an adventure game based on the film of the same name. Its major commercial failure is considered an important factor of the Video Game Crash of 1983 and the collapse of Atari, Inc.
The landfill rumors were true
@narujoe93: When this thing started on the Bombcast Jeff said all of this not true and there was enough evidence for this to just be a giant rumor, from what I remember.
A Centipede cart too?! But it was just an innocent bystander!
This is amazing. An urban legend that actually turned out to be true.
When did Jeff say he didn't believe it? Granted, I've only been following him and this site for the last 2 and a half years.
He has said it a couple of times over recent bombcasts, can't remember exactly which. There was one bombcast in particular where they talked about this documentary effort and said that the documentary looked like something that may fake the footage just to be done with it, so I guess some kind of confirmation that these cartridges have really been there for 30 years and not just planted would be great.
Finding three old ET cartridges in landfill is hardly evidence of some mass landfilling of thousands of ET cartridges. It's very possible that it happened, but this isn't evidence of it. Yet, anyway.
A Centipede cart too?! But it was just an innocent bystander!
This is amazing. An urban legend that actually turned out to be true.
Huh, yeah that Centipede cart kinda reinforces the idea that somebody may just have dumped their Atari 2600 collection and it just ended up at the landfill the ET carts were supposedly buried at. They'd need to find a few more copies of ET, I think.
To be fair, that's just a Centipede box. All the photos I've seen so far have been E.T. cartridges and then a bunch of random 2600 boxes and other packaging and promotional materials. For instance:
That looks extremely dangerous. I mean just think about it: what if somebody falls into one of the holes and has to play a shitty mini-game-thing to get out?
That looks extremely dangerous. I mean just think about it: what if somebody falls into one of the holes and has to play a shitty mini-game-thing to get out?
With any luck, there are enough phone parts in those holes to assemble and call for help.
Okay, if were going by rumor/myth there should be, what, millions of cartridges buried? People saying its true kind of jumped the gun
The Wikipedia article on this stated these were discovered in the early part of the dig. There could still be more.
Okay, if were going by rumor/myth there should be, what, millions of cartridges buried? People saying its true kind of jumped the gun
The Wikipedia article on this stated these were discovered in the early part of the dig. There could still be more.
And assuming that the rumor has been true this whole time, we don't specifically know how many cartridges were sent to the landfill. "Millions" is probably a gross overstatement and exaggeration regardless.
Regardless, I think it's fascinating to dig into a landfill as a form of contemporary archaeology. This is a pretty choice photo from Chris Kohler's feed:
hehe, awesome..... by the way, those manuals are beautiful. They might be weathered, torn up, and consumed with mold, but open them up and look at the art for KaBoom. I'm amazed at how well they look from the photos. Me keeping them for over 30 years, that stuff can look all beaten and torn up.
@connerthekewlkid: I think that is just a set up they have with their own stuff.
I don't think that is a cart from the ground
@connerthekewlkid: I think that is just a set up they have with their own stuff.
I don't think that is a cart from the ground
Probably for the best
You know how many people threw the E.T. Atari game in the garbage? I bet you can dig up ANY landfill and find that game.
— cinemassacre (@cinemassacre) April 11, 2014
@casty: uh oh
@gorillamopena said:
@connerthekewlkid: I think that is just a set up they have with their own stuff.
I don't think that is a cart from the ground
It's an event open to the public so that makes sense to have a working setup there. Besides, it's one thing to say it's a god awful game that helped sink Atari, but it's another to really drive it home for yourself.
111% totally not fake trust me, pictures never lie.
Well thanks for telling us what we already know
Well, if there really are hundred or thousands of carts they could be in very good shape. A dump in the desert is a very good place to bury stuff you want to dig up and use again. I wonder in the have the right to haul way the carts and stuff to sell?
Didn't they get environmental permission for the dig because they argued that "Hey, it is probably not there?" LOL.
@wolfgame said:
I didn't realize that people believed this wasn't true, I mean the official story has always been they were buried there, when did so many people start getting the idea that the carts wouldn't be there?
Some people also believe the moon landing in 1969 was faked.
ergo people will believe whatever they want, no matter how illogical it may be.
It seems that the dig found a scattering of E.T. and other Atari carts at first but now they've started digging out the shipping boxes with the genuine article:
It was before my time but I never doubted the story. The way people talk about it as just plain fact always made me believe it to be truth.
Here's what your Atari "lore" or "urban legend" looks like, circa 1983: http://t.co/q2om2oEPWb
— Ian Bogost (@ibogost) April 26, 2014
Huh. That's weird, actual story is so outlandishly stupid and surreal that people don't believe it.
I'm... kinda confused that people that people thought this was an urban legend. I don't even think Jeff denied it, rather he was just skeptical that people would ever find it.
"HOW DO YOU HEADSHOT THESE FBI AGENTS!?!? MOM, LEAVE ME THE FUCK ALONE! GET ME SOME CHOCOLATE MILK! WHERE'D I PUT MY WEED!?!?!"
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