Weird History

How the ET Video Game Ended Atari (2020x88)

: 16, 2020

Perhaps you've heard stories of the mythical Atari landfill in New Mexico full of unsold E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial games. Well, there's actually nothing mythical about it: the E.T. game landfill is very much real. In fact, it's not just the universally panned game based on the beloved Spielberg film that's hidden beneath the earth in Alamogordo, NM. Atari dumped a number of their garbage games in this infamous spot, and they tried to cover it up - literally. Much like the question "What happened to the G4 network?," people are still wondering what happened to Atari. For years, the company was at the forefront of arcade and in-home gaming innovation. They're responsible for Pong and the first video game Easter egg. Plus, they were one of the first consoles to play Tetris, even if they technically didn't have the real rights. But the early '80s got ugly in a hurry for the once-legendary creators of Pac-Man.