Hasta La Gadget!

So what is the real story with the fate of millions of unsold E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial and Pac-Man video games made for the Atari 2600? They were a big time flop and legend says that tons of unsold copies were dumped into a New Mexico landfill never to be seen again. But no one seems to know if this is fact or just urban legend.

Fuel Entertainment has been trying to get permission to dig up the games for several months, and they finally have a green light. Fuel has acquired the exclusive rights to excavate the landfill, and they took the opportunity to Xbox Entertainment Studios. So now Microsoft is including the dig in a documentary series. This may finally solve an age-old nerd mystery.

They will excavate the burial site on April 26, 2014, and the public is invited to attend. Director Zak Penn will be recording the dig, and people involved with the creation of the E.T. game will even be there. Maybe they can ask them why it sucked so bad. Will they find a massive pit full of games? If they do, how many will they sell as souvenirs? Stay tuned.

[via Kotaku via Nerd Approved]

You’ve heard the stories about Atari suffering such poor sales with the E.T. game for the Atari 2600 that they were forced to dump millions of copies into a landfill somewhere. Is it true? There seems to be some debate over this. Is it an urban myth, or not? Now a documentary film crew wants to settle it once and for all.

They’ve been given permission by the Alamogordo, New Mexico city council to excavate the landfill believed to be E.T.’s final resting place. No one seems to know for sure if this tale is even accurate, however, both The New York Times and the local paper The Alamogordo Daily ran stories about Atari dumping back in 1983 when it allegedly happened. The article in The New York Times claims that 14 truckloads of games went in along with other Atari hardware. Ars Technica says that number varies anywhere from nine to twenty depending on the source.

The crew will excavate the site within the next six months. Then we will find out how many E.T. cartridges are in there, if any, and what other treasures they dumped.

[via Ars Technica via Geekosystem]

Universal has finally revealed a release date for Steven Spielberg’s classic E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial on Blu-ray, which will hit shelves October 9th. In line with the box art and trailer we saw previously this Anniversary Edition Combo pack will include Ultraviolet, a DVD and Digital Copy of the flick, as well as a slew of extras including a new interview with Spielberg, behind the scenes journals, and deleted scenes from the 2002 release of the film. Curiously there’s no mention of the Spaceship Limited Edition copy that Blu-ray.com notes recently popped up on Amazon, check out a video of the case for that $139.98 package after the break as well as a standard Blu-ray movie trailer and press release. Those willing to settle for a more conventional form of packaging can pre-order on Amazon for $23.99.

Continue reading E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial Blu-ray release date set for October 9th

Filed under: Home Entertainment

E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial Blu-ray release date set for October 9th originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 26 Jul 2012 17:58:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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