Unearthed Atari E.T. Cartridges Will be Up for Sale

By Catherine Cai
published

A little over a month ago, Microsoft headed to New Mexico to dig up the landfill where the Atari game E.T. was rumored to be buried. Microsoft

managed to hit pay dirt, not only on E.T., but on plenty of other cartridges. 

Some of these dug up cartridges will be made available for sale at the New Mexico Museum of Space History, according to the Alamogordo City Commission. The other cartridges will be distributed to museums and to documentary-developers Lightbox and Fuel Entertainment. 

The excavation has already been filled back up. Apparently, something like 700,000 games still remain. Those who aren't willing to pay the premium for E.T. could maybe lead an excavation of their own. 

Catherine Cai
12 Comments Comment from the forums
  • chicofehr
    I wonder if any of them work anymore.
    Reply
  • spookyman
    I bet they work well
    Reply
  • whiteodian
    I would drill holes in mine and wear it around my neck with a gold necklace. Mr. T style.
    Reply
  • TeamColeINC
    I would bet money that they still work. *sigh* Too bad they dont make things like they used to...
    Reply
  • dstarr3
    Maybe this was all a giant marketing scheme along the lines of New Coke to boost sales for Atari. Brilliant.
    Reply
  • milkydoo
    I would bet money that they still work. *sigh* Too bad they dont make things like they used to...
    Yeah, those Atari carts always worked. Now recall the 8 bit Nintendo carts. Many a kid ruptured a lung blowing 'dust' out of those carts trying to get their high dollar games to work. Thinking back on it, it was probably the little drops of spittle landing on the contacts that lubed up the connection and got it working.

    Funny, I remember reading a few years ago on one of those myth/hoax busting sites that this story was just another myth.
    Reply
  • Hanfield
    I would drill holes in mine and wear it around my neck with a gold necklace. Mr. T style.
    Mr. E.T.* style
    Reply
  • nukemaster
    13436188 said:
    I would bet money that they still work. *sigh* Too bad they dont make things like they used to...
    Yeah, those Atari carts always worked. Now recall the 8 bit Nintendo carts. Many a kid ruptured a lung blowing 'dust' out of those carts trying to get their high dollar games to work. Thinking back on it, it was probably the little drops of spittle landing on the contacts that lubed up the connection and got it working.

    Funny, I remember reading a few years ago on one of those myth/hoax busting sites that this story was just another myth.
    Atari cartridges did the same thing to an extent. I remember beating those damn games into the system(and dust got into the systems contacts as well). The issues with NES was that the connector inside the system was just badly made.

    Snes and 64 games seemed to be much more reliable than Atari and NES.

    I am sure I still have Atari games and at least 2 Ataris. Power adapters are another problem. I am sure those are long gone, but I still have a plug that fits so it would not be much of an issue.
    Reply
  • southernshark
    The only thing cool about the game was the hidden areas and cheats. Otherwise it sucked.

    Would not buy it or play it today.
    Reply
  • Blazer1985
    He's the angry videogame neeeeerd :-D
    Reply