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

[Esc]

To throw a little light on the "they wouldn't throw away good stuff" arguement... the company I formerly worked for was forced to move locations (because they couldn't pay rent) last week. When they moved, they threw out 25-50 fully functional computers w/ monitors, as well as a lot of good office furntiture that there were no longer employees to fill and use. No helicopters were overhead recording the event. Did it make the local paper? Couldn't tell you, it's possible, but doubtful. Regardless, since most of the stuff was scavaged from dumpsters, I doubt there is little remaining evidence of this incident in the way of photos or video. Only the few eyewitnesses who saw the whole thing go down remain as evidence.

 

Companies throw away stuff because it's easier or cheaper for them... even if the process is dumb. It happens. Did Atari do it? I think so, because there are old stories and grainy photos that (argueably) "recorded" the event. I hope our new visitors can help resolve this once and for all when they go to New Mexico. If not, then I hope some fresh arguements pop up or a new approach to proving/disproving the event happens.

 

-JD

 

Yes, companies do this all the time. I've worked for some where they just gave the stuff to the employees that wanted it. The rest went in the trash.

 

Commerical disposal is a big business. The company that was mentioned in the Alamagordo article that was said to handle the Atari disposal contract is still in business today.

[moycon]

Did it make the local paper? Couldn't tell you, it's possible, but doubtful.

Could someone ask you 3 years from now if you ever saw PCs being thown away?? Yes

6 years from now....Yes

I can remember my company throwing stuff away 10 years ago. I will remember it till I die if I dont get Alzheimer's.

Some people think...Eh your company throws stuff away all the time...Workers dont pay attention. That's a false statement. When you see 20 PCs being loaded into a truck and start talking about it to your co-worker. (Hey whats going on?? Why are they throwing those away?) And this is exactly the kinda nosey talk that goes on in big companies when something out of the norm is going on....Do you honestly think you'd just forget over time? Dont you find it weird that no-one remembers this taking place? Millions of carts?? LOL MILLIONS. Or do you suppose Atari did it secretly? Gave everyone the day off...had armed guards at the entrance of the driveway...had a crew of highly trained super secret warehouse workers, truck drivers and contruction workers (to drive the bulldozers and cement trucks) that were sworn to secrecy under the threat of death if they EVER admited involvement? Please.

 

I do use the throwing perfectly good things away as an argument...Because the difference here is...Your company didn't throw away 25-50 ten year old 386 computers and then rebuy 25-50 of the same computers 2 months later!!

 

The company that was mentioned in the Alamagordo article that was said to handle the Atari disposal contract is still in business today.

 

Now that's what I'm talking about... Looking forward to what you uncover Esc.

 

Godzilla, Let me know what other evidence I can help uncover that this didnt happen.

This is reminding me more and more of the Bigfoot believers aurguments.

If it didnt happen..... proof it didnt happen is kinda hard to get.

If it did happen, it's just a matter of time before you uncover it..... There should be PLENTY of evidence out there. Hell even the Bigfoot people have more proof that a giant apeman exist (Altho it's almost surely all hoaxed...thousands of eye witness accounts...plaster cast footprints HEE) And thanks to the internet this type of research is made all the easier. I suggest scouring resumes. Atari employed a lot of people. Maybe try digging up old Atari tax records.....And I'll bet alot of folks living in Alamagordo..grew up there. I'll tell you now...If some dumb-ass creates an AA account and says it happened and he was there...he best have creditials and be able to verify or a smart person would assume he was FOS. LOL

 

Edit : We really should plan some sort of expedition to the area. Would be fun. Sometimes the best results come from field work. Altho...Like Bigfoot...When you go out interviewing people one on one the eye-witness accounts seem to be plentiful and the concrete proof always seems to be lacking. Still. Would be kinda cool.

Edited June 16, 2006 by moycon

[Philflound]

I almost was hired to do a job for this company here near Newark, NJ. This was part of a garbage hauler, which was the recycling division. The cans, bottles, etc, went to recycle, but they also hauled in tons of computer stuff. They had a side thing going where they would sell chips or parts on Ebay that companies were throwing away, or they were hired to clean out offices. Perfectly good printers, copiers, monitors, and other hardware all was going to go to waste. In fact, they got ahold of like 50 brand new Commodore 64 units mint in the box. It was a huge warehouse.

 

In the end, I didn't get hired. It was supposed to take place through an agency, and the agency told me the company was a little fishy. i.e. NJ...garbage....mob.

 

Phil

[Rik]

seems to me that if 'something seemed stupid' that was actually a pretty good reason FOR atari to do things back then. Still, as I said way back in the thread, I've seen evidence that it's real and NONE that it's fake. The honus is on the haters and I haven't seen them produce one shred of evidence to back up their doubting.

Yeah,very well put,Atari has done pretty stupid things,anything is possible with Atari!

[Esc]

Did it make the local paper? Couldn't tell you, it's possible, but doubtful.

Could someone ask you 3 years from now if you ever saw PCs being thown away?? Yes

6 years from now....Yes

I can remember my company throwing stuff away 10 years ago. I will remember it till I die if I dont get Alzheimer's.

Some people think...Eh your company throws stuff away all the time...Workers dont pay attention. That's a false statement. When you see 20 PCs being loaded into a truck and start talking about it to your co-worker. (Hey whats going on?? Why are they throwing those away?) And this is exactly the kinda nosey talk that goes on in big companies when something out of the norm is going on....Do you honestly think you'd just forget over time? Dont you find it weird that no-one remembers this taking place? Millions of carts?? LOL MILLIONS. Or do you suppose Atari did it secretly? Gave everyone the day off...had armed guards at the entrance of the driveway...had a crew of highly trained super secret warehouse workers, truck drivers and contruction workers (to drive the bulldozers and cement trucks) that were sworn to secrecy under the threat of death if they EVER admited involvement? Please.

 

I do use the throwing perfectly good things away as an argument...Because the difference here is...Your company didn't throw away 25-50 ten year old 386 computers and then rebuy 25-50 of the same computers 2 months later!!

 

The company that was mentioned in the Alamagordo article that was said to handle the Atari disposal contract is still in business today.

Now that's what I'm talking about... Looking forward to what you uncover Esc.

 

Godzilla, Let me know what other evidence I can help uncover that this didnt happen.

This is reminding me more and more of the Bigfoot believers aurguments.

If it didnt happen..... proof it didnt happen is kinda hard to get.

If it did happen, it's just a matter of time before you uncover it..... There should be PLENTY of evidence out there. Hell even the Bigfoot people have more proof that a giant apeman exist (Altho it's almost surely all hoaxed...thousands of eye witness accounts...plaster cast footprints HEE) And thanks to the internet this type of research is made all the easier. I suggest scouring resumes. Atari employed a lot of people. Maybe try digging up old Atari tax records.....And I'll bet alot of folks living in Alamagordo..grew up there. I'll tell you now...If some dumb-ass creates an AA account and says it happened and he was there...he best have creditials and be able to verify or a smart person would assume he was FOS. LOL

 

Edit : We really should plan some sort of expedition to the area. Would be fun. Sometimes the best results come from field work. Altho...Like Bigfoot...When you go out interviewing people one on one the eye-witness accounts seem to be plentiful and the concrete proof always seems to be lacking. Still. Would be kinda cool.

 

You seem to think that employees in a company always know what is going on. Wrong. I'll give you an example. Our company owners were in talks to sell the company to another company. It was a multi-million dollar deal, over $500 million dollars. The deal was planned 6 months or more ahead before it actually happened. None of the employees knew about it. The planning to sell went for at least 6 months, maybe longer. You think someone in the company would know about it and it would trickle down to the rest of the employees? You think the media even had a hint that this was going to happen, or even if they were in negotiations? Nope. The day before the sale was officially announced, rumours started flying throughout the company. Employees knew something was up, but didn't know what. We all found out the next day. In fact, I found out the real story in the morning paper before I headed to work. Did I believe the story I read in the paper? Yeah I did.

 

In big business, things change quickly. That same company that bought us out, the current CEO at the time later admitted that they made a mistake in purchasing us. Within a few years, they shut that company site down.

 

My first point is that you can keep things from employees, especially pre-internet days, and saying that employees know everything about the operations of the company is totally FALSE.

 

The second point is companies can and do make bad business decisions. What may have been a good idea at the time, later turned into a financial loss.

 

Also, It's totally possible that not many Atari employees were involved. It was 1 warehouse, probably not that many employees left (1983 layoffs). You can also confirm if Atari had outsourced the warehouse in Texas. Atari may have STORED all the stuff in this warehouse but none of the employees were from Atari. So, you could be asking the wrong people!

 

The entire job would have been handled by the disposal company. Any Atari employees that would know about it would be the guys that were left working in the warehouse when they cleared the stuff out and probably the guy who contacted the company paid to handle the disposal.

 

Like I said before, Atari probably didn't make it a big secret, but didn't advertise the fact either for many reasons.

[Alamogordo Bound]

Wow, so I don't think we're getting anywhere. The city manager is kind of a douchebag.

 

 

There is no way I will agree to permit this dig. The landfill was closed

under special conditions. I will not jeopardize those conditions to

permit you to hunt for old atari games or pursue urban legends. Nor

would we be interested in encouraging other parties to dig in the old

landfill for items under any conditions. Go Hoosiers

 

I think someone's on a power trip about controlling an old landfill.

[Alamogordo Bound]

P.S. Adding to the preforementioned accounts of douchebaggery, I go to Purdue, not Indiana.

[Rik]

It amazes me the various actions of some top company execs,mistakes so stupid,a child can see them,must be all the cocaine they snorted,Tramiels anyone?

Edited June 26, 2006 by Rik

[Shawn]

Wow, so I don't think we're getting anywhere. The city manager is kind of a douchebag.

 

 

There is no way I will agree to permit this dig. The landfill was closed

under special conditions. I will not jeopardize those conditions to

permit you to hunt for old atari games or pursue urban legends. Nor

would we be interested in encouraging other parties to dig in the old

landfill for items under any conditions. Go Hoosiers

 

I think someone's on a power trip about controlling an old landfill.

 

Is that a direct quote from the "city manager" ? Also WTF is a City Manager? I have never heard of that position before. Are they a dump manager or the Mayor of the city or something? IF you have the phone number for this person I would like to know what it is so I can call myself. If the site was closed for a "specific reason" that would be public record and we all have full right to know what the reason was, I'm not saying for usre it was cause a bunch of commercial product was dumped and covered up by closing the site, but it would be cool if it was.

[Red 5]

Wow, so I don't think we're getting anywhere. The city manager is kind of a douchebag.

 

 

There is no way I will agree to permit this dig. The landfill was closed

under special conditions. I will not jeopardize those conditions to

permit you to hunt for old atari games or pursue urban legends. Nor

would we be interested in encouraging other parties to dig in the old

landfill for items under any conditions. Go Hoosiers

 

I think someone's on a power trip about controlling an old landfill.

 

What if it was closed due to toxic waste and now the E.T. carts have super powers !

When you plug it in, it sucks you into the game like Tron !

[A.J. Franzman]

What if it was closed due to toxic waste <SNIP!>

That might actually be a very good thing, for us anyway. I believe authorized hazardous materials disposal sites must keep meticulous records of everything that goes into them, which would be available for research if someone knows where to look.

Edited June 26, 2006 by A.J. Franzman

[Alamogordo Bound]

I'm not exactly sure what a city manager does. I looked at some old minutes and it seems like there's a board that has the ultimate say in what happens, not like that would be any more likely. Anyways, his name and number aren't hard to find, but here's a couple links: (Contact info, scroll down to city manager)- http://ci.alamogordo.nm.us/COA/coaphonedir.html#CMAN- Also, http://www.ci.alamogordo.nm.us/CityManager...nager.html----I don't know what exactly this page is, but it's got a picture and the title. Or just google him, he comes up.

[Alamogordo Bound]

Sorry, I messed up the second link. Here it is: http://www.ci.alamogordo.nm.us/CityManager...itymanager.html

[Alamogordo Bound]

P.S., that is a direct quote except the part I added about someone being on a power trip about controlling an old landfill.

[moycon]

BWahahaha Even the City Manager admitted it's an Urban Legend. Of course he doesn't want you to prove there's nothing buried there but trash. ...He probably got his palms greased back in the day and don't want any meddling kids uncovering the scam.

[else]

BWahahaha Even the City Manager admitted it's an Urban Legend. Of course he doesn't want you to prove there's nothing buried there but trash. ...He probably got his palms greased back in the day and don't want any meddling kids uncovering the scam.

 

If you read his Bio, he's only been in Alamogordo since 1998. So if there were any palms getting greased, I don't think it was his....

[moycon]

If you read his Bio, he's only been in Alamogordo since 1998. So if there were any palms getting greased, I don't think it was his....

 

Thanks for ruining my Scooby-Doo theory.

[Ferris]

Just go dig anyway. The most that can happen is they take you away for trespassing and let you off with a warning or a fine. Just use tact. Who gives a rip what some “city manager” says, it’s his job to say no.

 

Go Hoosiers.

Edited June 27, 2006 by Ferris

[else]

Just go dig anyway. The most that can happen is they take you away for trespassing and let you off with a warning or a fine. Just use tact. Who gives a rip what some “city manager” says, it’s his job to say no.

 

Go Hoosiers.

 

I agree. And if the City Manager does come after you, a little "palm greasing" of your own might take care of things

[super_dos_man]

I doubt that they put whole E.T. carts in a landfill. they would sell them for ay cheap or just give them away. They us said they did for publicity. Just like when topps said they put a honus wagner in one pack of topps baseball cards. The only way someone can convince me carts were buried is to bring me to the site, start digging and pull one out of the ground.

[else]

I doubt that they put whole E.T. carts in a landfill. they would sell them for ay cheap or just give them away. They us said they did for publicity. Just like when topps said they put a honus wagner in one pack of topps baseball cards. The only way someone can convince me carts were buried is to bring me to the site, start digging and pull one out of the ground.

 

Actually, that is probably _not_ how it would have worked. First off, Atari was probably looking for a quick tax writeoff to help inprove their quarterly numbers, so that would have ruled out any prolonged sale of them, even at cheap prices -- and in doing so they probably saved more money by taking a writeoff than selling them cheap. Secondly, in order to write something there are laws that in most cases say you have to destroy the goods you are writing off -- you can't give them away for free and still take the writeoff. These laws are to prevent fraud -- because if you give something away for free that implies that it still has some residual value thus it can't be written off. Yea, it seems kinda messed up, but that's the way our accounting system works, and there are good reason for why it is this way (to prevent looting of a company).

 

Whether Atari destroyed a bunch of carts I don't know, but destroying things and taking a tax writeoff is done all the time in business....for financial and legal reasons....

Edited June 28, 2006 by else

[Bruce Tomlin]

Is that a direct quote from the "city manager" ? Also WTF is a City Manager? I have never heard of that position before.

Probably because you're up there in Canadia?

 

A City Manager is a type of city government here in the states where they hire some guy as a manager to handle the day-to-day business of the city, so that 1) city council doesn't have to be retrained every time you get new people elected, and 2) the city council and mayor can have more time to do stuff that looks good in the newspaper.

[mos6507]

There is no way I will agree to permit this dig. The landfill was closed

under special conditions. I will not jeopardize those conditions to

permit you to hunt for old atari games or pursue urban legends. Nor

would we be interested in encouraging other parties to dig in the old

landfill for items under any conditions. Go Hoosiers

 

He should talk to the mayor of Roswell about what urban legends can do for a city's economy.

[mos6507]

Whether Atari destroyed a bunch of carts I don't know, but destroying things and taking a tax writeoff is done all the time in business....for financial and legal reasons....

 

Like the GM EV-1.

[super_dos_man]

I was reading game pro and it said that after ppl discovered the landfill they (atari) filled it with cement