Atari's Desert

We’ve all heard far-fetched theories before: The moon landing being a Hollywood stunt, the many presidential assassination theories. But what about many Atari video game cartridges buried in a New Mexico desert? Ha ha, very funny, right? That would never happen, why on earth would they do something as silly as that? Well, a few weeks ago, the myth was confirmed as true. Naturally, video game fans like me went crazy.

The story goes like this: After the video game crash of 1983, Atari was just about bankrupt. This was mostly due to the failure of the video game adaptation of E.T.: The Extra Terrestrial. There were actually more E.T.

games out there that Atari 2600 consoles that could play them. It didn’t help that the game was absolutely terrible. As CNN states, “…

it was an epic turkey.” To add insult to injury, it was developed by one guy under severe time restraints. Anyway, after Atari realized what an idiotic decision that was, they decided to make another idiotic decision. Apparently, someone at Atari made the decision to bury all the unsold E.T. (and a few other) cartridges in a New Mexico desert.

So the story goes, at least, forgotten for years and years. Until now, that is. That’s right folks; this extremely unlikely story is absolutely 100% true! A few weeks ago, excavators working on the documentary “Atari: Game Over” went to Twitter to confirm the gaming myth. It wasn’t only “E.T.

” that was unearthed. There were also copies of the popular “Defender” among other cartridges. You may be wondering, “How many cartridges were there?” There is no exact answer as of now, but estimates say over 700,000. How could Atari dump that many games and no one notice? To this day, no one knows. I’m sure the big question on everyone’s mind now is “What in the heck was Atari thinking?” I doubt they even know. Being into old games, I knew the myth before it was confirmed.

The whole situation is so bizarre that my jaw dropped to the floor when I read it. Even now I’m still trying to wrap my head around it all. Atari’s made mistakes in the past, and they’ll continue to make mistakes in the future. Nevertheless, they still hold a special place in my heart. Bibliography http://www.cnn.com/2014/04/27/tech/gaming-gadgets/atari-et-video-game/ http://www.ign.com/articles/2014/04/26/the-dig-uncovering-the-atari-et-games-buried-in-new-mexico-desert