Launch of Atari’s ‘ET, the Extra-Terrestrial’ is considered as biggest flop in video game history, leading to Atari’s ‘death’, but it left an ‘El Paso warehouse mystery’ that continues to haunt
Atari released E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial in 1982, and it is considered one of the worst failures in video game history. By then, Atari was experiencing financial difficulties, with falling console sales and increased competition. Unsold copies of the game were discovered in a warehouse in El Paso and were rumoured to have been disposed of in a landfill in Alamogordo, New Mexico. The landfill’s location remained a mystery for many years.The mystery unfolded in 2014, when a dig at a New Mexico landfill led to the discovery of 1,382 Atari game cartridges, including games such as “E.T.”, “Centipede”, and “Pac-Man”. The discovery confirmed the myth that some of the company’s games were dumped at the landfill; it also raised questions about the landfill’s size, since the digging was not extensive enough. From a failure of business, it became a mystery of the “El Paso warehouse”.How Atari’s “E.T.” game became a huge problem“E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial” was launched by Atari before Christmas in 1982, at a time when Atari was having a hard time in the market. Competing games were taking over the market, the console was no longer popular, and reviews were poor.Sales fell far below Atari’s initial projections, leaving large numbers of copies sitting unsold in the company’s El Paso warehouse. With little prospect of selling the remaining inventory, Atari eventually sent the cartridges to New Mexico for disposal.This was one aspect of the mystery of this dumping. Reports immediately following the incident said Atari dumped the games, and even Atari officials at the time referred to the dumping. However, the specific location and number of games were not known.
What the man who buried 750,000 video games said
Atari’s former employee James Heller was reportedly in charge of the dumping the unsold merchandise from El Paso to Alamogordo, N.M. “I had been charged with getting rid of it as quickly and inexpensively as possible and so I did.”Former Atari manager James Heller claimed that he at the excavation, and confirmed that 728,000 games had been buried there, many of them successful titles, as well as inoperable spare parts. Heller, who used to work for Atari, told the news agency Associated Press that he was asked to get rid of 728,000 game cartridges in 1983. “I had been charged with getting rid of it as quickly and inexpensively as possible and so I did. That was my job,” he said.“There [were] many many things written: that it was done in the middle of the night; it was not. That Atari was trying to hide something; they were not,” he said. “It was just my job.” In a Q&A with an Atari ephemera-based blog, Heller said that in 1983 he brought 12 truckloads containing 728,000 cartridges to a site measuring about 50 by 100 feet.After three days of dumping, Heller stated that they had laid six truckloads of concrete over the spot, as children were found scavenging for cartridge cases there. But even this much concrete was not sufficient to cover up all the games.“I would say that 95 percent of the cartridges dumped were new,” Heller said. “There were a number of different titles.”His report gave archaeologists a definitive spot to dig, but it would take years to figure out whether the legendary Atari cartridge dump really had the millions of cartridges eyewitnesses claimed.
Microsoft funded the excavation project
The project, in which Andrew Reinhard was one of the archaeologists, was filmed in 2014 in collaboration with Fuel Entertainment, Lightbox, and Microsoft. The filming crew was given permission to dig at the Alamogordo landfill; however, they were allowed to do so for only two days on four acres of the total 300-acre site.Although the digging area was small, they dug up to 30 feet into the trash pile and retrieved 1,382 Atari game cartridges, along with other pieces of equipment.The first discovery was a boxed copy of “E.T.” that still contained its game instructions, catalogue and a “Raiders of the Lost Ark” insert. Reinhard later described finding more games and hardware as the excavation continued, with thousands of cartridges representing dozens of titles being exposed.A sandstorm eventually halted the excavation. The trench containing the games was photographed, while thousands of recovered objects were collected for analysis and cataloguing.
What was found beneath the New Mexico dump
The excavation confirmed that “E.T.” cartridges had been buried at the site, but the discovery wasn’t limited to Atari’s infamous game. Archaeologists also found copies of “Centipede,” “Pac-Man” and other titles, along with additional Atari equipment.In 1983, Joe Lewandowski, who worked for the company responsible for collecting waste from the site, observed the dumping of the material. With Heller’s help, he guided the filmmakers and the excavation team to the spot where the cartridges were buried.Only 1.3% of the landfill had been investigated; thus, the 1,382 cartridges found were only a fraction of what could have been found in the whole landfill.
