Atari's Landfill Adventures, I now have the proof it's true.

[+Andrew Davie]

Urban Legend at it's finest.

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Not so quick, pardner. I traveled to Texas briefly on my sojourns in the USA this past week or so, and had an interesting chat with an engineer who, despite not being an Atari collector -- has quite a few interesting Atari items. He told me that he had at least one -- and probably several ET cartridges which he picked from a large box of similar cartridges from an electronics fleamarket in Texas in the 80s. The interesting thing is that these cartridges did not have cases -- just the bare boards. And *most* of them were ET. He only picked up a couple -- and some internal Atari diagnostic and multi-rom boards as well.

 

It just seemed possible to me that these ET cartridges were indeed the surviving remnants of the fabled hoard of dumped units. It is certainly unusual that they had no cases, were mostly the same game, and included internal Atari items.

 

Just my 2c. Hi Mike, if you're reading

 

Cheers

A

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Mike did eventually write back to me with some pictures. I'll just copy the whole message verbatim, and let this add to the mystery.

 

Cheers

A

 

 

 

Andrew:

 

Sorry for taking an extra week to get these pictures to you.

 

I had an enjoyable afternoon talking to you about calculators, video game

programming, and Atari's ET cartridge fiasco.

 

Attached is a picture of the ET cartridge PCB I purchased at the Dallas

electronic flea market during the mid-80s. Also attached the picture of an

Atari Diagnostic cartridge (Version 2.6D) that I purchased at the same

time from the same person.

 

As I related to you, the ET cartridge PCB came from a box of cartridge PCBs.

The box was approximately one foot square, and filled at least six inches

deep with PCBs without any plastic case. The guy selling them was asking

twenty-five cents each (IIRC), and I got 4 or 5 of them hoping for some

variety. (I believe they were all either ET or didn't work because I don't

have any other cartridges that I put in an empty case and taped a hand

written label onto.)

 

The metal shield has two small dents that are visible inside the top edge

(the right side of the image). This could suggest that the cartridges had

been crushed or damaged in some way - but that would just be speculation

as to the origin of the dents.

 

I believe the diagnostic cartridge cost a dollar or two.

 

I don't know were the other PCBs I purchased are located, other than I

doubt that I intentionally threw them away.

 

I hope you are enjoying the last few days of your US vaction.

 

Later,

 

Mike

[Bruce Tomlin]

If the had been crushed in the landfill, they would have been dirty.

 

Atari stored lots of stuff in El Paso, and that's apparently where the Alamogordo load came from. It's possible someone got a bunch of bare chip boards that had once been in the El Paso warehouse, but never seen New Mexico.

[moycon]

I'd say It's slightly intriguing because the boards were E.T.'s and this is a thread about E.T....but no-where near intriguing enough to begin to consider the possiblity that millions of perfectly good E.T.'s were buried anywhere ....cept maybe in peoples closets.

 

Still....Any info is good info I say.

Edited July 4, 2005 by moycon

[crunchysuperman]

perfectly good E.T.'s

 

[+remowilliams]

I can't see how those tiny dents came from being squashed in a landfill.

 

Hell, you should have seen the dents in my ET cart after the savage beating I gave it after playing it the first time and finding out just how bad something really can be for $.99

[Xebec's Demise]

I wonder if an ET cartridge would resonate, absorb or reflect an identifiable signal when hit with an x-ray or gamma ray?

 

Or maybe even ground penetrating radar:

 

http://www.ndt.net/article/wcndt00/papers/idn667/idn667.htm

Edited July 10, 2005 by Xebec's Demise

[Ezram]

Also although I have it narrowed down to the landfill the exact spot is still unknown. There are hills where items have been covered, if it's just the last section worked on before the landfill was closed or if there were other areas that were flattened down after work has been compleated in the past. ...........

 

I'm not a professional reporter or cameraman, some of the footage looks like it's out of the Blair Witch movie, shaky and all, at the dumpsite. I was filming some while driving and such.

 

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It's now starting to sound like one of those I was abducted by Alien story's shakey camera footage. I know the exact spot it could be anywhere within a 300 mile radius quotemm

 

maybe i'm just too cynical

 

Isnt that bigfoot over there

[Spud]

Anybody build a ground penetrating radar yet?

[Stingray]

My ground penetrating radar is broken. The gerbil died.

 

-S

[rbudrick]

Our best bet is to not let up on McQuiddy. Do not leave a message, do not send a letter. They are too easy to ignore. On top of this, she may be old enough to hav Alzheimers by now.

 

Keep calling until someone answers. Leaving a message makes it annoying when you call back. Sure, they may have caller ID, but who cares. You work for an online international community of collectors, dammit! You're important! Call at a a different hour each day until you've covered all reasonable waking hours. Some WILL answer if you call enough. Even if they think you are a telemarketer, they'll answer to get off your call list. Keep calling, don't be shy. This is history...it must be done!

 

There's other people from those articles to contact too. No word on any of those?

 

Hell, I don't care, I'll call these people if you have the contact info. I'm on the phone all day at work (I work in sales...it involves some cold calling), so I'm certainly not shy about calling anyone. Lemme know a list of questions you want asked, and I'll call whoever you want. This has gone on way too long with no movement, heh heh.

 

-Rob

[Zonie]

Isn't this horse dead yet?

[rbudrick]

Nah. I revived it. Besides, someone woulda forgot about this ten years from now and made a new thread starting it all over again. Figured I'd start early.

 

-Rob

[kuifje76]

I DO NOT BELIEVE ANYTHING OF A STORY OF BURIED CARTRIDGES.

But hey, what do I know.

It seems like all those people who worked there are vanished, I mean if it was true, there would be great money in this, and everybody is keeping his mouth shut, even the people who buried the junk, to get no bucks? simpley because they are buried with it, like in the piramides, yeah RIGHT.

 

This would be the only good thought, otherwise they would be found already.

 

I wonder who was the last guy, which drove the shovel, and did end his life after the job was done.

 

Maybe anybody here has email contact with him. tsssk

[trusty]

Heya Spud!! I used to live in Alamogordo too! I lived there from around 1973 - 1982. Father was stations at Holloman AFB. I loved that place! I just recently found out about this Atari landfill. I'm trying to do some more research on it. I'm sure I'd know where it was if I could just get some more info...

 

Shawn

[Spud]

Heya Spud!! I used to live in Alamogordo too! I lived there from around 1973 - 1982. Father was stations at Holloman AFB. I loved that place! I just recently found out about this Atari landfill. I'm trying to do some more research on it. I'm sure I'd know where it was if I could just get some more info...

 

Shawn

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Good luck with the hunt, let me know if I can help in anyway.

[okto]

Have any of you ever tried to dig through concrete?

It's HARD. You'll need at least a jackhammer and a lot of time, if not small explosives.

 

If any of the stories are accurate, and they all seem to agree on this point, they poured concrete on TOP of the carts. Not made them a nice molded concrete coffin, poured concrete on top of a pile of black plastic. So the carts are now part of the concrete, just like gravel is.

[Bruce Tomlin]

Concrete and time aren't cheap, so I don't think they took the time to stir them in like aggregate. I figure the concrete would have been thick enough (viscosity, not depth) to not sink very deep into the "treasure" layer.

[frogstar_robot]

Concrete and time aren't cheap, so I don't think they took the time to stir them in like aggregate.  I figure the concrete would have been thick enough (viscosity, not depth) to not sink very deep into the "treasure" layer.

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At this point, I don't the object of this hypothetical exercise to exhume thousands of E.T. carts and sell them as archeological finds at classic gaming conventions. A chunk of concrete encrusted with that black textured Atari cart plastic would be sufficient as far as this thread and urban legend goes.

 

A "core sample" from the supposed "sweet spot" would be more than enough to satisfy most of us here.

[Spud]

Maybe could use a drill, like used for water wells, or a powered hole digger, (that spinny thing used to plant telephone poles, whatever it's called) with a long extension it would break up a little cement and bring it to the top. Try a spot here a spot there. Just a thought.

[A.J. Franzman]

At this point, I don't the object of this hypothetical exercise to exhume thousands of E.T. carts and sell them as archeological finds at classic gaming conventions.

942645[/snapback]

That sentence seems to be missing a verb or two. Hint: the subject is "I". What is "I" doing?

[BigFairy321]

just find the edge of the concrete and dig down beside it then tunnel underneath..

 

no drilling necessary

[Philflound]

Can we bury this thread already?

 

Phil

[Foxsolo2000]

Just one final question. What did Sega and Nintendo do with all their old stock that didn't sell? They must have had a backlog of old Master System, Mega Drive, NES and SNES carts left over so were they too buried in a landfill site or recycled? If we can answer that one then perhaps we might at last come to a conclusion on what happened to the ET carts?

[frogstar_robot]

At this point, I don't the object of this hypothetical exercise to exhume thousands of E.T. carts and sell them as archeological finds at classic gaming conventions.

942645[/snapback]

That sentence seems to be missing a verb or two. Hint: the subject is "I". What is "I" doing?

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I meant to say "I don't 'think that' the object....."

 

Ooopsie.

[Godzilla]

i still havent seen anything compelling enough to make me doubt the original claims aside from people saying 'i cant / dont want/ to believe for reason (x)' where reason 'x' does nothing to refute the original claims and evidence.