Microsoft invite you to attend the Atari Landfill excavation on April 26

[Luzur]

But what about the prices on ebay now?

they never where that high to begin with.

 

[taxalot]

Now to send all those bulldozers quickly to Nolan Bushnell's house to see if we can find more stuff.

 

[Konjad]

I went onto excavation quest as well, when I was young. My digging results were pretty similar. I dig out in a sandpit quite a few dog turds.

 

[Outlander]

Now they should fill the hole with retail copies of Oblivion, X: Rebirth and Daikatana.

 

[MisterStone]

Watch as the codex turns apologist even for piece of shit titles like ET.

I got this game when it came out (was purchased for me as a Christmas present I think?). And you know what? I had no idea it was the shittiest game ever sold. I played the hell out of it. Why? BECAUSE I WASN'T A SPOILED LITTLE SHIT, AND ANY NEW VIDEO GAME WAS A GOOD VIDEO GAME DAMMIT.



You kids these days with your downloadable timelines and free games...

 

[Abelian]

Well, what do you know, they actually found them. I was more inclined to think that it was an urban legend.

 

[Misconnected]

I'm wondering why millions of copies were ever made. It seems insanely optimistic, to put it mildly.

 

[circ]

This was the movie of the year yo. I remember when I was like, lemme quickly wiki when it opened...

...7 years old, and they had a copy on a projector at the local um community house or whatever, and that was as big as a movie theater, and me and three buddies went and the doorman said YO HOW OLD ARE U GAIZ SUPPOSED TO BE??

And not knowing it was a trick question, we said 7.

Fuck.

 

[Metro]

I'm wondering why millions of copies were ever made. It seems insanely optimistic, to put it mildly.

Like he said, the movie was HUGE. It's been decades now but the publicity it got Reeces Pieces lasted years and years.

 

[Misconnected]

I'm fairly sure I was one of those kids, and I watched it in the childrens' part of a library

 

[Sunsetspawn]

I'm wondering why millions of copies were ever made. It seems insanely optimistic, to put it mildly.

Like he said, the movie was HUGE. It's been decades now but the publicity it got Reeces Pieces lasted years and years.

Yeah, but that publicity wouldn't have made a difference if Reeces Pieces were made of dogshit.

 

[MisterStone]

I'm wondering why millions of copies were ever made. It seems insanely optimistic, to put it mildly.

Like was said, it was a huge huge film, and not only that, I think that beginning with Tron marketing types figured out that there were huge merchandizing opportunities involved with video games based on films. But same marketing types had absolutely no idea what a good video game looked like. Remember back then, video games were truly kids stuff... I was like 7 and playing this stuff. At the high end you had maybe high schoolers. Sometimes a bored adult might play an arcade game at the local restaurant, but in general adults did not seem to give a fuck about this kind of thing. So it would have been easy I think for some Hollywood executive types to assume that one video game was about as good as another. They probably just rushed the release and figured they'd be better off getting it out there while the movie was still hot.

I seem to recall it was hit-and-miss with console video games based on films back then. The Raiders of the Lost Ark/Indiana Jones game was terrible. The Superman 2600 game (considered by some to be the first adventure game) was decent I think. The Tron 2600 game might have been good, never played it. The best film franchise in video games had to be Star Wars. The The Empire Strikes Back game was friggin awesome and very addictive, and I remember the RoTJ game where you try to take out the Death Star as being pretty decent.

 

[Infinitron]

E.T Enhanced Edition: http://www.neocomputer.org/projects/et/

 

[Outlander]

Shit can't be enhanced.

 

[Gord]

E.T Enhanced Edition: http://www.neocomputer.org/projects/et/

That site is great.

 

[Jaesun]

Well, what do you know, they actually found them. I was more inclined to think that it was an urban legend.

Yeah same here. I was always curious about this as well... and now we know.

 

[Luzur]

Well, what do you know, they actually found them. I was more inclined to think that it was an urban legend.

Yeah same here. I was always curious about this as well... and now we know.

now, i am more curious about the supposed "landfill" with Ultima: Escape from Mount Drash rumored to be hidden somewhere.

For a long time, a lot of the details surrounding the game were very vague. For example it was believed the game was acartridge, while in fact it was released on cassette tape. One of the rumors about the game was that Sierra sold a minimal number of the games, barely enough to break even, then buried the remaining stock at a foot of a mountain somewhere. (This parallels the ultimate fate of Atari's E.T. game - the remainder of unsold E.T. cartridges were allegedly buried in a landfill.) In fact, some retailer near Vancouver, B.C. had dumped unsold software over a cliff, and this is where one of the only known complete copies were eventually found.

 

[Necroscope]

E.T Enhanced Edition: http://www.neocomputer.org/projects/et/

What a great metaphor of modern gaming: somebody dug up shit after 30 years and turns out it may not be shit after all. IGN should review it, I'm sure they would rate it at least 7/10.

 

[Severian Silk]

E.T. was one of the first isometric video games.

 

[MisterStone]

E.T. was one of the first isometric video games.

See? ET gave us Fallout.

 

[Astral Rag]

 

[Jaesun]

After unearthing hundreds of Atari cartridges from the Alamogordo Landfill in April, the public will be able to buy copies of the games which include the infamous E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial through Ebay Monday.

 

[Abelian]

As the saying goes, one generation's trash is another generation's historical treasure

 

[Angthoron]

Microsoft teaches us how recycling really works.

 

[Astral Rag]

Unearthed ET copies now going for up to $500 on eBay "Buried for 30 years. Sold as is."

Spoiler

 

[pippin]

Buy ET in a fleamarket for $1.
Sell it on ebay for $500.
Thanks Microsoft!