Urban legends are fun, but most of the times, they're so far fetched that there's no way they are real. However, there's always that grain of "this could actually happen." Well, here's one that is real.
Greetings, and welcome to happy gamer rambles. A blog where I ramble about my thoughts on videogame news and trends. A little over a week ago, I heard about the E.T. landfill dig that will tell us once and for all if millions of Atari E.T. games are buried in a New Mexican Landfill. Well, it happened this weekend and what is probably the best news ever happened, there REALLY WAS MILLIONS OF E.T. GAMES BURIED IN THE LANDFILL!
No really, Atari actually dumped it's excess E.T. games in a landfill. Check out the Kotaku and Yahoo Games articles on it. I'm sure that by the time you're reading this there will be way more articles on it. But it's real. The legend is real. And as a testament to the durability of cartridge games, someone plugged one into an Atari and it worked.
So what do I have to say on this, I'm ecstatic. This is such great news. I loved the legend. I loved telling people about the legend. I just loved the idea of the company responsible for the worst game ever made burying their leftover inventory in a New Mexican landfill that doesn't allow garbage picking just so the public won't be able to get their hands on easy game copies. When I told people about this dig event, I actually had to tell a fair amount of people about the legend and the game. Looks like my original "everyone has heard of Atari E.T." statement was a little inaccurate, but that just meant that I got to tell people the legend and the history of Atari E.T. It was always a fun story to tell, but I always had to preface with "the legend says" or "according to popular theory" or some other "I can't say this is fact but this is what many people say happened." Now I know it's true. Now when I tell the legend, I can say "this actually happened, on April 26th 2014, almost 30 years after the games were buried, a dig crew got permission to dig the landfill and found thousands, maybe millions of E.T. cartridges." I only wish I was there to see it personally and dig up my own landfill Atari E.T. I want one really bad. Hopefully I can buy one for a reasonable price on eBay. That way, I would have a "to play" copy and a "landfill display" copy.
Well this has been happy gamer signing out. And remember, even if an urban legend seems a little far fetched, it just may end up being true.
Saturday, April 26, 2014
Monday, April 14, 2014
E.T. Landfill Dig
E.T. for the Atari 2600 is considered the worst videogame of all time, and rightfully so. It's so bad, it even killed Pokematic once. Don't know what I'm talking about, check out our review of Atari E.T. here. It's also so bad, it didn't sell very well, but millions of copies were made. So what happened to the millions that didn't sell? Well urban legend says they were buried in a landfill in New Mexico. I say "urban legend" because Atari has neither confirmed nor denied that, and there's a landfill in New Mexico that doesn't allow for trash picking and it would be just about the right size to hold millions of Atari cartridges. Well, that is until April 26th 2014.
Yeah, that's right, after 20+ years of secrecy and "no one gets to dig here," archiologists and gamers alike are finally going to be able to see if there really is a landfill full of millions of Atari E.T. carts. Here's the IGN article.
http://www.ign.com/articles/2014/04/10/et-video-game-dig-gets-the-green-light
So what are my thoughts on this historic event. I'm psyched. I mean, this is the worst game of all time. This game almost single handedly destroyed videogames as we know it. I, the Happy Gamer, would not exist if this game was successful in destroying video games. Sure, Catholiccontriversy and Pokematic would still be here, but I wouldn't. But here's the thing, I have a deep appreciation for E.T. It is a testament to how terrible a game can be. I have an actual copy of it, and I'm proud to have such a terrible game in my collection. As a collector, I like my games to have history. I like the history behind the action 52. I like the history behind Conkers Bad Fur Day. But the history behind E.T., that just takes the cake. There are some really terrible games out there, and many people wouldn't know they exist if it wasn't for people like AVGN and Irate Gamer. Those games were just so forgettable. However, E.T. lives in infamy. It is a game that is so monumentally bad, you can't forget about it. We as gamers will never forget about it. I can talk to people who only play modern games, and they will know about E.T. I can talk to people who don't even fully know what an Atari is, but they will know E.T. It's just that powerful.
So why should we care if millions of copies were disposed of in a landfill? I'm sure many that were bought are in landfills as well. And while that may be true, that was consumer choice and those are scattered around the world amongst egg shells, wrapping paper, and other garbage. However, this was Atari dumping millions at once in one spot. These E.T. cartridges are amongst millions of other cartridges, and there isn't an egg shell or wrapping paper within miles. As the legend goes, this was a land fill that was basically made for E.T. And if it wasn't made for it, the landfill was the only one that was remote enough and didn't allow for garbage picking. This is the perfect place to unload millions of dollars worth of game cartridges.
Where will I be when this happens? Unfortunately I will be back home unpacking and sorting my college stuff. If I had the money and the time, I would be out there in the New Mexican dessert with my shovel in hand, hoping to get a landfill copy of E.T. If I didn't get a copy, I would just be happy being part of the history. And that's why people care about it, it's history. We're going to put to rest the urban legend of millions of Atari E.T. games just getting dumped in a New Mexican landfill. This is history in the making. Aside from the spectators uploading cell phone videos of the event, apparently there's going to be actual documentary filmmakers shooting a documentary on it. Really, this is history in the making. I'll keep you posted when we actually get details on it. Well, this has been Happy Gamer, signing off, and remember, if you dispose of your terrible game in a landfill hoping people will forget about it, 20 years later, they'll still remember, and will want to dig it up.
Yeah, that's right, after 20+ years of secrecy and "no one gets to dig here," archiologists and gamers alike are finally going to be able to see if there really is a landfill full of millions of Atari E.T. carts. Here's the IGN article.
http://www.ign.com/articles/2014/04/10/et-video-game-dig-gets-the-green-light
So what are my thoughts on this historic event. I'm psyched. I mean, this is the worst game of all time. This game almost single handedly destroyed videogames as we know it. I, the Happy Gamer, would not exist if this game was successful in destroying video games. Sure, Catholiccontriversy and Pokematic would still be here, but I wouldn't. But here's the thing, I have a deep appreciation for E.T. It is a testament to how terrible a game can be. I have an actual copy of it, and I'm proud to have such a terrible game in my collection. As a collector, I like my games to have history. I like the history behind the action 52. I like the history behind Conkers Bad Fur Day. But the history behind E.T., that just takes the cake. There are some really terrible games out there, and many people wouldn't know they exist if it wasn't for people like AVGN and Irate Gamer. Those games were just so forgettable. However, E.T. lives in infamy. It is a game that is so monumentally bad, you can't forget about it. We as gamers will never forget about it. I can talk to people who only play modern games, and they will know about E.T. I can talk to people who don't even fully know what an Atari is, but they will know E.T. It's just that powerful.
So why should we care if millions of copies were disposed of in a landfill? I'm sure many that were bought are in landfills as well. And while that may be true, that was consumer choice and those are scattered around the world amongst egg shells, wrapping paper, and other garbage. However, this was Atari dumping millions at once in one spot. These E.T. cartridges are amongst millions of other cartridges, and there isn't an egg shell or wrapping paper within miles. As the legend goes, this was a land fill that was basically made for E.T. And if it wasn't made for it, the landfill was the only one that was remote enough and didn't allow for garbage picking. This is the perfect place to unload millions of dollars worth of game cartridges.
Where will I be when this happens? Unfortunately I will be back home unpacking and sorting my college stuff. If I had the money and the time, I would be out there in the New Mexican dessert with my shovel in hand, hoping to get a landfill copy of E.T. If I didn't get a copy, I would just be happy being part of the history. And that's why people care about it, it's history. We're going to put to rest the urban legend of millions of Atari E.T. games just getting dumped in a New Mexican landfill. This is history in the making. Aside from the spectators uploading cell phone videos of the event, apparently there's going to be actual documentary filmmakers shooting a documentary on it. Really, this is history in the making. I'll keep you posted when we actually get details on it. Well, this has been Happy Gamer, signing off, and remember, if you dispose of your terrible game in a landfill hoping people will forget about it, 20 years later, they'll still remember, and will want to dig it up.
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