Did E.T. have a second print run?

[MegaManFan]

I know, it's common knowledge this game was so crap-tacular and unsellable that millions of them were buried in a desert landfill. Yet oddly enough, I found one in a commons bin today that has a © 1986 date on it, as opposed to the familiar © 1982 I already owned and which is scanned in for the AA availability ratings guide. Did they actually make +MORE+ of this turd later hoping a new generation of gamers would buy it?

[dirtboy69]

i don't know about a second print but i liked that game growing up it was one of my fav.s

[Room 34]

Did they actually make +MORE+ of this turd later hoping a new generation of gamers would buy it?

Hmmm... sounds like they did. Of course, by 1986, the Tramiels were running the show, and they were willing to try out any stupid idea as long as it was cheap.

 

Maybe they had a warehouse full of E.T. ROMs that Warner had never bothered to put into cartridges, and they had to print up new labels to get the things out the door...

[MegaManFan]

Hmmm... sounds like they did.  Of course, by 1986, the Tramiels were running the show, and they were willing to try out any stupid idea as long as it was cheap.

 

Maybe they had a warehouse full of E.T. ROMs that Warner had never bothered to put into cartridges, and they had to print up new labels to get the things out the door...

 

That makes perfect sense, other than the fact I would have believed before now they didn't have any "leftovers" because they all got crushed and buried in the desert. Perhaps we were misled about that all along.

[Video]

Well, after crushing, burning, burying, using in nuclear expiriments, whatever they did with the games. They probably had millions left over still. And simply reprinted a lable and slapped it on, hoping people wouldn't remember the pile of crap from four years earlier.

 

I'm assuming it's exactly the same game.

[MegaManFan]

I'm assuming it's exactly the same game.

 

Oh it is. I threw it in and ran it, and copyright label variation aside it's the same piece of you-know-what. The internal game date displayed on the TV still says '82 as well.

[Room 34]

That makes perfect sense, other than the fact I would have believed before now they didn't have any "leftovers" because they all got crushed and buried in the desert.  Perhaps we were misled about that all along.

I assumed the ones crushed and buried in the desert were just the ones that had been fully packaged and sent out to stores. That doesn't mean there weren't parts for even more being stored in a warehouse somewhere. (2600 PCBs take up a lot less space than boxed 2600 carts...)

 

I have another theory though. Weren't these E.T. carts supposedly buried in the New Mexico desert? Maybe in fact, E.T. is real, still hiding out at Area 51, and he either demanded that they round up all of the carts to keep his story quiet (too late), or his diet consists of silicon and plastic, and the unsold carts represent a lifetime supply of food for him. :wink:

[AtariDude]

That makes perfect sense, other than the fact I would have believed before now they didn't have any "leftovers" because they all got crushed and buried in the desert.  Perhaps we were misled about that all along.

I assumed the ones crushed and buried in the desert were just the ones that had been fully packaged and sent out to stores. That doesn't mean there weren't parts for even more being stored in a warehouse somewhere. (2600 PCBs take up a lot less space than boxed 2600 carts...)

 

I have another theory though. Weren't these E.T. carts supposedly buried in the New Mexico desert? Maybe in fact, E.T. is real, still hiding out at Area 51, and he either demanded that they round up all of the carts to keep his story quiet (too late), or his diet consists of silicon and plastic, and the unsold carts represent a lifetime supply of food for him. :wink:

 

Note to self: send out CIA operative to arrest Room 34 for releasing top secret information regarding E.T. project on a public internet board.