So is there anything stopping me from taking a hammer to a copy of ET tomorrow, rolling it through the dirt, and listing it on ebay tomorrow as having come from this landfill?
So is there anything stopping me from taking a hammer to a copy of ET tomorrow, rolling it through the dirt, and listing it on ebay tomorrow as having come from this landfill?
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I like how many of those games have cleaner labels than my copy. :/
Or that they still work after all that time being exposed to the elements, while flea market copies in the sun are a coin toss.
If I read the article correctly they were sealed under concrete. That would protect them pretty well from rain water.
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Actually, what I believe was 'urban legendy' about the dump was that it was nothing but 1000's (or millions) of copies of ET. But, what this dig has actually done is debunked the legend. As you stated, there was no doubt (or shouldn't have been) that Atari dumped a lot of games and stuff there, but now we know it was mostly non-ET games (at least based on what's been dug up so far), not that it was just a place to hide a warehouse of a single game title...
That's the part that became legend though, that it was all just ET because they made _SOOO_ many of them.
ET wasn't even the first cartridge found... The press is just using ET to make headlines since no one would give a sh*t if they said 'bunch of worthless common 2600 games found in landfill'.
Actually, I think there were and still are some people that don't believe this really happened despite all the earlier documentation. I think the dig was just a huge publicity stunt and not necessary, but even after the find yesterday, there are still people posting on various forums claiming that the items were planted. It kind of makes me sad that there are people that go for conspiracy theories despite overwhelming evidence contradicting their crazy beliefs.
I remember the first article I read about the dumping stated that in addition to the cartridges, failed Atari prototypes were also thrown into the landfill. All the articles I am reading seem to only be focusing on the ET game, but mention "other computer equipment." Has anyone discovered any of the "other computer equipment?"
What's probably lending to the conspiracy theories is that they are finding complete, intact copies of the game. That really shouldn't be surprising, giving the whole sealed in concrete thing. But the story most people know is that the games were either crushed first, then buried or the other way around. Looking at the documentation shows that the only crushing that took place was pretty much what was standard protocol for a landfill, but that's not the story people have been reading for 30 years. So, skepticism.
I'df be curious if there was any prototype stuff in there
They were in the desert under concrete...should be good. I've pulled 2600 carts out of a plastic box full of water at a flea and they still worked.
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Everytime I see something on or read about this story all I can think of is the CODE MONKEYS episode.
I'm always amazed at how much fascination ET still commands, and how many people who weren't even alive at the time of its release are dead set on the idea that "it caused the great craaaaash!" It's simply one of hundreds of terribad licensed games for the 2600. That's it.
So they found copies of the game buried in the landfill, but they haven't found the body of the guy who programmed it?
Howard Scott Warshaw is still very much alive, and was there at the dig