# They dug up those E.T. Atari 2600 cartridges. **URL:** \ **Category:** The Game Room\ **Created:** [April 26, 2014, 10:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/they-dug-up-those-e-t-atari-2600-cartridges/687077 "2014-04-26T22:00:43Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2014, 10:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/they-dug-up-those-e-t-atari-2600-cartridges/687077/1 "2014-04-26T22:00:43Z")
[They really were there.](http://i.imgur.com/bKuAb7V.jpg) [Here is a news story on it.](http://www.kob.com/article/stories/S3413459.shtml#.U1wsOFfj1b4) I heard about this forever ago and it is kind of cool that they managed to find them. ---
**Author:** ![buddha\_david](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ee7513/32.png) [@buddha\_david](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/buddha_david)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2014, 11:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/they-dug-up-those-e-t-atari-2600-cartridges/687077/2 "2014-04-26T23:03:50Z")
Truly, this was one of the greatest cover-ups of our time…literally. ---
**Author:** ![Nonsuch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nonsuch/32/2922_2.png) [@Nonsuch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nonsuch)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2014, 11:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/they-dug-up-those-e-t-atari-2600-cartridges/687077/3 "2014-04-26T23:14:37Z")
One might ask if any were playable, except that game never really was. ---
**Author:** ![Sarabellum](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sarabellum/32/3492_2.png) [@Sarabellum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sarabellum)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2014, 7:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/they-dug-up-those-e-t-atari-2600-cartridges/687077/4 "2014-05-09T19:05:02Z")
It was a bad game, but it wasn’t “unplayable” really. Had nothing to do with the movie, sure. Looked awful, but didn’t they all? Suffered from cover art that implies the game is something good, but all Atari games did that. Just an early example of shovelware. (hee hee) These unearthed cartridges are probably going to be worth a bundle on ebay. ---
**Author:** ![ReticulatingSplines](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e274bd/32.png) [@ReticulatingSplines](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ReticulatingSplines)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2014, 8:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/they-dug-up-those-e-t-atari-2600-cartridges/687077/5 "2014-05-09T20:02:13Z")
> [@Sarabellum1976](#): > > These unearthed cartridges are probably going to be worth a bundle on ebay. I doubt it. There were 728,000 carts buried in the landfill, which means that if every single person who wants a landfill copy (if you can even establish provenance) gets one, you still have 727,998 left. ---
**Author:** ![Sarabellum](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sarabellum/32/3492_2.png) [@Sarabellum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sarabellum)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2014, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/they-dug-up-those-e-t-atari-2600-cartridges/687077/6 "2014-05-09T20:31:59Z")
I thought they only dug up a hundred? ---
**Author:** ![Sicks\_Ate](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/258eb7/32.png) [@Sicks\_Ate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sicks_Ate)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2014, 8:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/they-dug-up-those-e-t-atari-2600-cartridges/687077/7 "2014-05-09T20:47:04Z")
> [@Sarabellum1976](#): > > Suffered from cover art that implies the game is something good, but all Atari games did that. Warlords, by cover art standards, should have been awesome. Here’s a cool article on Atari 2600 cartridge art: > **[How Atari box art turned 8-bit games into virtual wonderlands](https://www.theverge.com/2013/9/19/4716444/how-atari-box-art-turned-8-bit-games-into-virtual-wonderlands)** > > Modern games have nothing on these cartridges ---
**Author:** ![ReticulatingSplines](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e274bd/32.png) [@ReticulatingSplines](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ReticulatingSplines)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2014, 9:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/they-dug-up-those-e-t-atari-2600-cartridges/687077/8 "2014-05-09T21:42:59Z")
> [@Sarabellum1976](#): > > I thought they only dug up a hundred? It’s unclear how many they intend to dig up, the only reference I found was “[The city of Alamogordo agreed to give the documentarians up to 250 cartridges and plan to sell the rest that are unearthed](http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=307031037).” ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2014, 11:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/they-dug-up-those-e-t-atari-2600-cartridges/687077/9 "2014-05-09T23:49:35Z")
Isn’t there one super-rare 2600 cartridge? Airstrike, or something like that? I was so bummed, because I was sure I had that cart… and when I finally unearthed the box with the 2600 set in it (and-and I thought maybe I had given it away when we moved, but no, yay!)… not there. So if there are 5,000 of them in the landfill… what happens to the nerds who paid $3500 for them on eBay? ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2014, 5:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/they-dug-up-those-e-t-atari-2600-cartridges/687077/10 "2014-05-10T05:32:32Z")
> [@Sicks\_Ate](#): > > Warlords, by cover art standards, should have been awesome. > > Here’s a cool article on Atari 2600 cartridge art: > > [http://www.theverge.com/2013/9/19/4716444/how-atari-box-art-turned-8-bit-games-into-virtual-wonderlands](http://www.theverge.com/2013/9/19/4716444/how-atari-box-art-turned-8-bit-games-into-virtual-wonderlands) Wait , Warlords the Breakout- style game? That WAS awesome! We used to play that four players at a time as kids! One of the original party video games. Saw it at the arcade not too long ago, too. Didn’t realize it was a port. But, seriously, that was a fantastic early multiplayer game, one of my favorite games, period, for that system.