Fanboys Anonymous

Back in 1982, Steven Spielberg licensed out the use of E.T. for a video game to the tune of tens of millions of dollars. Atari took the likeness and created what has been since heralded as one of the single worst video games ever made. In the game, the player took on the role of E.T. and evaded FBI agents while collecting telephone pieces with the ultimate goal of phoning home. Sound exciting? Apparently it wasn’t.

Sadly found in originally shipped condition.

So piss-poor was this game that millions of copies were dumped in a landfill in New Mexico decades ago, never to be seen again—until now.

Fuel Entertainment and LightBox Interactive announced plans to excavate the landfill early 2014 and uncover the cache of cartridges. Why, you (understandably) ask? They plan to film the dig for a documentary to be featured on the Xbox One console. To further interest, the landfill had been a well-known dumping ground since the 1920s until being closed in the ’80s. Folklore has the site as the home of potentially even more video game history as well as who-knows-what from decades before. Fuel and LightBox have offered fans a contest with a chance to win anything that might be unearthed.

The documentary had already begun production with interviews, but the New Mexico Environment Department has put a stop to the excavation after “22 compounds of concern” were discovered on the site. A waste excavation plan was finally approved and then rejected. Now, after months of paperwork, testing and hard work, the potential cache of cartridges has been discovered.

The game of the movie of the guy who just wanted to be left alone.

As of today it has been only one E.T. cartridge and several copies of Centipede, but hopes are high. I recall our local Costco had original Atari consoles on sale for $50 and I didn't pick one up. I'm regretting that. Perhaps I'll hop on Craigslist if I can get a copy of E.T. The Extra Terrestrial.

Anyone want to join me for multiplayer?