AI-generated representative image: Unsold video game cartridges are depicted being buried under landfill waste, illustrating the reported disposal of Atari cartridges in a New Mexico landfill in 1983. Credits: ChatGPT
Atari’s launch of “E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial” is widely regarded as one of the biggest failures in video game history, and its release coincided almost exactly with Atari’s own downfall in the early 1980s. Back then, in a world without digital distribution, this meant hundreds of thousands, possibly even millions, of unsold or returned Atari cartridges piled up inside a warehouse in El Paso. At some point, those cartridges simply disappeared from the warehouse, and in their place emerged a persistent rumour: that Atari had secretly shipped enormous quantities of game cartridges off to a dump site in New Mexico.
Joe Lewandowski, who owned the waste collection company responsible for managing the landfill, said he auctioned off a significant number of the recovered items, raising more than $100,000 that went toward supporting local institutions, including a library and a museum.
The very first discovery during the 2014 excavation was a boxed copy of the “E.T.” game, complete with its original instructions, a product catalogue, and even a “Raiders of the Lost Ark” promotional insert tucked inside, according to Reinhard’s account published in Archaeology Magazine. Fuel Entertainment also donated a recovered “E.T.” cartridge to the Smithsonian Institution, where it remains part of the collection at the American History Museum, though it isn’t currently on public display. He described the process as similar to digging through an ancient pottery dump or shell mound, with every scoop of the shovel or bucket loader revealing more cartridges and hardware, ultimately uncovering thousands of artefacts representing dozens of different game titles.