Real Story. Real Stupid.
Our story begins in 1976 when Warner Communications bought Atari for $28 million. Atari flourished under Warner and its net worth grew to $2 billion by 1982. At this time Atari (owned by Warner) dominated the video game market and accounted for 80% of the market. Atari seemed unstoppable with popular games like Yars’ Revenge, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Adventure, Space Invaders, and Asteroids, to name a few.
Atari released Pac-Man in March of 1982 and it quickly became a best seller. In preparation of Pac-Man’s release, Atari produced 12 million cartridges despite having only sold 10 million Atari 2600 consoles. Pac-Man sold 7 million cartridges and was Atari’s best selling game of all time, even though they were left with a 5 million cartridge deficit.
In July of 1982 Howard Scott Warshaw, a programmer for Atari was asked to design E.T. the Extraterrestrial. Warner Communications had spent $25 million just on the rights to E.T. and they wanted a game out in time for Christmas that year. Warshaw was under intense pressure to design the game and he was given only five weeks to complete this monumental task. Game design at the time took between 5 months to a year to complete. Warshaw had an office set up in his home and worked around the clock to complete the game design before the September 1st deadline. Atari skipped audience testing on the game due to time constraints. They manufactured 5 million cartridges and felt the game would be very successful based on the success of previous games and based on the success of the movie. Sales started out strong and seemed promising but then people didn’t like the game. It is often referred to as “the worst game ever made” but really the flaw was that it was too hard. E.T. the Extraterrestrial sold only 1.5 million copies.
In September of 1983, the Alamogordo Daily News (of Alamogordo, New Mexico) reported that 10-20 semi-trailer truckloads full of Atari products had been brought to the Alamogordo dump. They reported that Atari boxes, cartridges, and game systems had been crushed and buried in the landfill.
After the article in the Alamogordo Daily News, people flocked to the dump to loot and scavenge for products made by Atari. Kids at the time reported finding E.T. the Extraterrestrial, Ms. Pac-Man, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Defender, and Berzerk cartridges. People were brought in to guard the site against scavengers and to keep reporters away.
September 29, 1983, the Alamogordo dump poured a layer of concrete over the Atari burial site. The city of Alamogordo passed an emergency management act to prevent further dumping by Atari. People had protested and were concerned that Atari was creating an industrial waste site. The next three decades brought speculation and doubt as to what was or what was not buried in the Alamogordo landfill.
On May 29, 2013, the city of Alamogordo granted permission to Fuel Industries of Canada to excavate and have access to the landfill for six months. Fuel Industries of Canada was filming a documentary titled “Atari: Game Over” and wanted to include the excavation in the film. Of course, excavation was stalled by the New Mexico Environmental Protection Division Solid Waste Bureau citing hazards.
Once the environmental issues were resolved, excavation began in April of 2014 and was open to the public. A team of archaeologists were brought in to assist with the recovery efforts. It was estimated that Atari had buried millions of cartridges and Atari claimed it had “only” buried around 128,000 cartridges. The material was much deeper than anticipated and a full recovery of the site was not possible. The effort was considered successful and recovered 1,300 cartridges. Everything recovered is the property of the city of Alamogordo. Of the recovered materials, some were given to the New Mexico Museum of Space Display and one copy of E.T. the Extraterrestrial was donated to the Smithsonian Institution. The city approved selling games on auction and as of September of 2015, 880 cartridges have been sold for $107,000. One copy of E.T. the Extraterrestrial sold for $1,500. The site of the excavation has been filled in and capped again.
My two cents: A problem can’t be solved by burying it in a hole. Aside from the monumental waste of resources and space, I actually find the story of the burial to be comical. When they were having a meeting to determine what to do with all of the excess product, burying it was the best idea? What were the ideas that they turned down?
Rating: I give the story of the Atari burial 2 out of 5 possible slow claps for being wasteful, irresponsible, and moronic on a Tuesday.
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