ALBUQUERQUE: A copy of a vintage ET Atari video-game extracted from a New Mexico landfill where hundreds of the cartridges were dumped after the game flopped in the 1980s has made its way to the Smithsonian Institution in Washington.
The games were found earlier this year near Alamogordo, 320 kilometres southeast of Albuquerque. The mystery behind who dumped them, and why, inspired a documentary film by Microsoft Corp’s Xbox Entertainment Studios.
Among the black cartridges unearthed by archaeologists were hundreds of copies of ET the Extra-Terrestrial, widely considered to be one of the worst video games ever made. It flopped after being rushed out to coincide with the release of Steven Spielberg’s 1982 hit movie, and it contributed to the near-collapse of the game industry in its early years.
Atari is believed to have been saddled with most of the 5 million ‘ET’ game cartridges that were produced. It was speculated at the time that the manufacturer had the games buried in the New Mexico desert in the middle of the night.
