Which Game Did Atari Bury in a New Mexico Landfill?

The infamous video game burial in Alamogordo, New Mexico, was primarily caused by the commercial failure of Atari’s E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial. This article explores the history behind the 1983 video game crash, the rushed development of the E.T. cartridge, and the eventual excavation that confirmed the legend of thousands unsold copies being dumped in a landfill.

In 1982, Atari Inc. secured the licensing rights to create a video game based on Steven Spielberg’s blockbuster movie, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial. Hopeful that the title would replicate the film’s massive success, Atari produced an estimated 4 million cartridges for a console install base that was significantly smaller. The development process was notoriously rushed, with programmer Howard Scott Warshaw given only five weeks to complete the game in time for the holiday season.

Upon release, the game was met with critical disdain and poor sales. Players found the gameplay confusing, buggy, and frustratingly difficult. Combined with a market saturated with low-quality titles, the failure of E.T. contributed significantly to the North American video game crash of 1983. Atari was left with a massive surplus of unsold inventory that they needed to dispose of quickly and discreetly.

To manage the loss, Atari transported thousands of unsold cartridges to a landfill in Alamogordo, New Mexico. The items were crushed and buried under layers of concrete to prevent scavenging. For decades, the event was considered an urban legend within the gaming community, with skeptics doubting the scale of the burial.

The mystery was finally put to rest in 2013 when a excavation team dug up the site. They recovered numerous Atari cartridges, including many copies of E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, confirming the story. The discovery served as a tangible reminder of one of the most notorious failures in the history of the video game industry.