2600 ET's buried??

[pokobocket]

i have seen this come up quite a bit, and i would like to hear some details about it. did they really, literally, bury millions of this POS game? hasn't somebody found them? :/

[autobotracing]

from what I understand thousands were buried in a landfill until people found out then atari want back and had them crushed in the landfill .

yes its true

[SoulBlazer]

There's more info here:

http://www.snopes.com/business/market/atari.htm

[hydr0x]

from what I understand thousands were buried in a landfill until people found out then atari want back and had them crushed in the landfill .

yes its true

yeah, that is what happens if u've only got 6 weeks to produce a game, poor Scott Warshaw

btw the landfill was in New Mexico and they even poured cement over the whole messe

but afaik ET by far isn't the only game that was crushed by atari, although the others were not burried in the desert

[AB Positive]

there were also many copies crushed and added to the cement mix when they repaved the sidewalk in front of the Atari buildings.

-AG

[Masco73]

What about the whole mine shaft story?? It sounds very similar to it. Didn't Oshea's buy up the shaft filled with atari games and currently still selling them today?? Does anybody have a link to that whole story? I would love to read that in full.

[Gamemaster_ca_2003]

this makes me laugh

why did atari just take out the et game from the cart and replace them with other games.

[slapdash]

What about the whole mine shaft story?? It sounds very similar to it. Didn't Oshea's buy up the shaft filled with atari games and currently still selling them today??

Um, no... O'Shea's owns a limestone cave which they use as their warehouse. They didn't buy it from Atari, and the games didn't get there until O'Shea's put them there. This is a totally different thing than the ET burial, and there's no mine shaft involved anywhere in Atari history that I know of.

why did[n't] atari just take out the et game from the cart and replace them with other games.

Because that would cost more money (effort) than it cost them to take the writeoff upon destruction.

[Gamemaster_ca_2003]

well didn't atari have the money to make more carts.

[slapdash]

well didn't atari have the money to make more carts.

Uh, yeah, that's why they made more carts.

But, think about if they'd remade the ET carts into other games -- would they be new? Some lawyers might not think so... So why risk it? Destroy the overstock, write it off as a loss on your taxes, cut down game production in general, and hope you survive the multimillion dollar losses. That's what happened, and it almost couldn't have been done any other way.

[Darth Vader]

well didn't atari have the money to make more carts.

Uh, yeah, that's why they made more carts.

But, think about if they'd remade the ET carts into other games -- would they be new? Some lawyers might not think so... So why risk it? Destroy the overstock, write it off as a loss on your taxes, cut down game production in general, and hope you survive the multimillion dollar losses. That's what happened, and it almost couldn't have been done any other way.

Exactly. From a business point of view it was the cheapest solution. If you have to spend more money to get such a little return on investment, you simply aren't going to do it.

Danny

[Gamemaster_ca_2003]

well didn't atari have the money to make more carts.

Uh, yeah, that's why they made more carts.

But, think about if they'd remade the ET carts into other games -- would they be new? Some lawyers might not think so... So why risk it? Destroy the overstock, write it off as a loss on your taxes, cut down game production in general, and hope you survive the multimillion dollar losses. That's what happened, and it almost couldn't have been done any other way.

Exactly. From a business point of view it was the cheapest solution. If you have to spend more money to get such a little return on investment, you simply aren't going to do it.

Danny

Yea your right, but just from a business point of view. i beleve from a gamers point of view is that atari shoulden't have done this.


And that is how i see it.

[Darth Vader]

It's all about the bottom line, how much money have we made/lost. Might not make sense to a gamer, but that is the way it is. And pretty much always will be.

Danny

[Gamemaster_ca_2003]

It's all about the bottom line, how much money have we made/lost. Might not make sense to a gamer, but that is the way it is. And pretty much always will be.

Danny

ok i am not saying you are wrong. i was just trying to give a gamers perpective on this.

And that's the bottom line.

[SoulBlazer]

Not really.

Rumor has it he was so vain he stapled his one million dollar check from Atari on the front of his office door.

[dave2236]

Darth Vader wrote:
slapdash wrote:
Gamemaster_ca_2003 wrote:
well didn't atari have the money to make more carts.


Uh, yeah, that's why they made more carts.

But, think about if they'd remade the ET carts into other games -- would they be new? Some lawyers might not think so... So why risk it? Destroy the overstock, write it off as a loss on your taxes, cut down game production in general, and hope you survive the multimillion dollar losses. That's what happened, and it almost couldn't have been done any other way.


Exactly. From a business point of view it was the cheapest solution. If you have to spend more money to get such a little return on investment, you simply aren't going to do it.

Danny


Yea your right, but just from a business point of view. i beleve from a gamers point of view is that atari shoulden't have done this.


And that is how i see it.

Why would games care if atari destroyed their carts. If there were millions of copies in circulation sealed, they'd be worth . What? a buck. The game now is worthless.

plus there are more than enough atari games to go around. With the countless combat, ET's, asteroids, pac mans, missile commands, and defenders out there, you can make as many homebrew carts as you want.