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Unearthed E.T. Atari Game Cartridges Score $108K At Auction

Posted by timothy on from the what-humans-actually-do dept.

MojoKid writes: Hundreds of Atari 2600 cartridges of E.T. The Extra Terrestrial that were excavated last year from a landfill in Alamogordo, New Mexico collectively raked in nearly $108,000 through eBay auctions. Some $65,000 of that will go to the city of Alamogordo, while the Tularosa Basin Historical Society will receive over $16,000. Over $26,600 went to shipping fees and other expenses. A team of excavators led by operational consultant Joe Lewandowski unearthed the E.T. cartridges in front of a film crew. The high profile (among gaming historians) dig was the basis a documentary called Atari: Game Over, which is available for free through the Microsoft Store.

11 of 62 comments (clear)

  1. ha by nomadic · · Score: 3, Funny

    Funny, people have been talking about excavating those cartridges for at least 15+ years.

  2. Documentary on Netflix by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    ... was the basis a documentary called Atari: Game Over, which is available for free through the Microsoft Store.

    It's also on Netflix, for those that don't know what the Microsoft Store is or even want to know what the Microsoft Store is.

    1. Re: Documentary on Netflix by popo · · Score: 3, Interesting

      As a former financial analyst I could probably name 100 innovations in Excel alone.

      Don't feed the idiot trolls. Microsoft = Bad is all they know.

      --
      ------ The best brain training is now totally free : )
    2. Re: Documentary on Netflix by houghi · · Score: 2

      As a Fijenoord supporter: I agree!

      --
      Don't fight for your country, if your country does not fight for you.
    3. Re: Documentary on Netflix by ArmoredDragon · · Score: 4, Interesting

      +1000

      That was the start of AJAX and sophisticated asynchronous web applications. Without it we'd still be stuck with get and post.

      Actually if you want to speak of what Microsoft has done for the web...

      During the DOJ investigation, it was found out (by subpoenaing internal Microsoft memos) that the whole reason Microsoft created Internet Explorer was because they perceived the web as being a threat to Windows. That is, when they saw the rise of Netscape, they noticed how developers could write web applications and plugins for the browser, which ran on any platform, so developers were now free to target Netscape instead of their cash cow.

      Microsoft was having none of that, so they explicitly designed IE to break the more advanced web standards, as well as introducing activex, so that if IE reached critical mass (say, over 70% of users) then they could render the web to become something that permanently belongs to Windows. After Windows 98 achieved that (by including it built in, which saved download time for dialup users, which were the vast majority at the time) then the world was stuck with IE5 and IE6 for about 7 years, which fully neglected to implement new web standards, and barely even supported HTML4.

      So in other words, Microsoft deliberately held back web development for 7 years.

      Meanwhile, guess what happened when AJAX did finally come around? Microsoft saw their freemail dominance in purchased hotmail fall flat on its face, as gmail's web interface was even faster than the copy of Outlook that most people ran natively on their desktop (the gig of email space was just to get people in, but the webUI was the real innovation there, which unlike hotmail, didn't require a full page reload every time you clicked anything.) Microsoft also saw Google maps completely wipe out their sales of MapPoint and Streets & Trips.

  3. One man's trash... by Dareth · · Score: 4, Funny

    One man's trash is another man's treasure. Though if they actually try playing the game they might rebury the whole lot.

    --

    I only look human.
    My mother is a halfling and my dad is an ogre, so that makes me an Ogreling
    1. Re:One man's trash... by narcc · · Score: 2

      It's not a bad game at all. With a few tweeks, it's even better.

      --
      Required reading for internet skeptics
  4. 1,200 found by Dan+East · · Score: 2

    It looks like they unearthed around 1,200 cartridges. Does that mean there isn't any truth to the legend that hundreds of thousands were buried, or is that all they bothered to locate and excavate? After all, if they dug up 100,000+ cartridges, they would flood their own market and they wouldn't sell for as much on ebay, etc.

    --
    Better known as 318230.
  5. Re:available for free through the Microsoft Store. by rmdingler · · Score: 2

    How ironic

    Sure, but what people get with this physical game cartridge is a really great story to go with their game.

    Priceless.

    --
    Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know.

    Ernest Hemingway

  6. Microsoft by sjbe · · Score: 2

    List five firms that have made a greater contribution than Microsoft to the specific task of getting a personal computer on every desk.

    I can think of three you could make a solid argument for. IBM, Apple and Intel. Microsoft would certainly fall somewhere in the top 5 though. Exactly where is an exercise for the reader.

    What was available in the '90s that was ruined by Microsoft?

    Web standards and web browsers is probably the best example. Third party OEM operating system installation though restrictive licensing agreements. Security - macro viruses in particular. DRM facilitation.

    What was available last decade that was ruined by Microsoft?

    Nokia comes to mind... The Windows interface also.

  7. Re:Waste of money by moeinvt · · Score: 3, Insightful

    "The only sane reason I could see to dig the things up is so that they could be properly recycled..."

    The "sane" reason for digging them up is that they were apparently worth $108,000 at auction. Very sane.

    As far as a sane reason for buying one, I'm at a loss. Nostalgia?