Does the E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial video game burial site really exist? Yes. Yes it does – though the extent of it remains to be seen.
Filming as part of documentary series, Fuel Entertainment and Xbox Entertainment Studios have unearthed – and confirmed the existence of – hundreds of copies of the E.T. game in a landfill in the small New Mexico town of Alamogordo.
The companies have started their excavation of the site, where legends say millions of unsold E.T. video game cartridges and Atari consoles still lay buried.
The first batch of E.T. games was discovered under layers of trash after about three hours of digging, a Microsoft spokeswoman told Reuters – but exact numbers couldn’t be confirmed.
Atari ET uncovered
The legend goes that the Atari Corporation disposed of the E.T. cartridges after the game received an overwhelmingly negative response from gamers and critics.
E.T. has since been credited with irreparably damaging Atari – and almost killing the entire US gaming industry. Ouch.
These claims, as well as the extent of the disposal, will ultimately be covered by the documentary, which aims to “reveal the true story of Atari’s bizarre burial”.
Source: Reuters
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