Atari 2600 game that was buried?

[kangaroo]

I heard that there was some Atari 2600 game which failed so badly that they buried all the copies under the ground. Is this true? Which game is it? And is that game worth anything?

[atarilad]

That's ET the EXtra Terrestrial.

And no, the it's not worth that much (see in the rarity list)

This is from Wikipedia:

In September 1983, the Alamogordo Daily News of Alamogordo, New Mexico, reported in a series of articles that between ten and twenty semi-trailer truckloads of Atari boxes, cartridges, and systems from an Atari storehouse in El Paso, Texas were crushed and buried at the landfill within the city. It was Atari's first dealings with the landfill, which was chosen because no scavenging was allowed and its garbage was crushed and buried nightly. Atari officials and others gave differing reports of what was buried, but it is widely speculated that most of Atari's millions of unsold copies of E.T. ultimately ended up in this landfill, crushed and encased in cement.

The story of the buried cartridges has become a popular urban legend, which in turn has led some people to believe that the story is not true. As recently as October 2004, Warshaw himself expressed doubts that the destruction of millions of copies of E.T. ever took place, citing his belief that Atari would have recycled the parts instead in order to save money

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E.T._th...l_(Atari_2600)

[Ghost]

Yeah that game was terrible

[wags7121]

haha i think they had little dots in that game, and they said they were supposed to be reces pieces for advertising or whatever