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Comment count is 50
oddeye - 2014-04-26

They should reboot this movie.


Scrotum H. Vainglorious - 2014-04-27

Staring Jaden Smith and soundtrack by Jayz.


oddeye - 2014-04-27

Walkies or Guns? The debate rages on.


Pillager - 2014-04-26

An omen of the next cyclical video game industry crash...


StanleyPain - 2014-04-26

Hah, holy shit I said the exact same thing at work when I first heard of this.


MacGyver Style Bomb - 2014-04-26

...

We go through this doomsaying shit at the start of every generation now.


StanleyPain - 2014-04-27

Not that I've noticed. The video game crash of 1982 and its associations with E.T. is because basically the bubble of video games that cost insane amounts of money to produce on the expectation that they would sell so well as to double or triple the investment popped rather insanely. This really wasn't a problem until this particular generation which is seeing this problem surface in a much more pronounced way than ever before (see: all the studio closings or "restructurings" in the last few years). Even the last Call of Duty game, despite making more money than the GDP of a small first-world country, did not meet its expected sales goals which is why the plans to release two CoD games in 2014 has now changed to just one.

The triple A game bubble is going to burst just like 1982, only in this case it won't take the whole industry down with it.


Pillager - 2014-04-27

@StanleyPain,

Also, I point to the massive amount of shovelware that came out for the 2600. Seeing the mountain of garbage that Steam is inundated with, I'm not exactly filled with hope.


MacGyver Style Bomb - 2014-04-27

I'm not sure you can compare Steam to retail stores in 1983.


Pillager - 2014-04-27

@ MacGyver Style Bomb, Atari's lousy offerings are the main reason Nintendo created the "Seal of Quality". Poorly made games like Custer's Revenge or shoddy ports like Pac Man caused the '83 crash.

Look at what Steam now offers: Uprising44: The Silent Shadows, Guise of the Wolf, & Earth: Year 2066. Steam is chock full of broken, worthless tripe.


Old_Zircon - 2014-04-27

There's a good 2005 interview with the guy who designed ET:

http://www.avclub.com/article/howard-scott-warshaw-13912


"Atari, for years, was using the leverage that they had to just screw distributors everywhere. When they had a hot game, they would force distributors to buy copies of the old games that weren't selling anymore, just to get copies of the new game. This is the kind of stuff they were doing. So when things started to turn on them, everyone in the industry was waiting to jump on them with both feet. That's what killed Atari, was the ill will that they had generated through their cutthroat business practices on their way up. "


SolRo - 2014-04-26

Trash found in landfill! Film at 11!


infinite zest - 2014-04-26

Now if they can only prove that Polybius was real..


memedumpster - 2014-04-27

Let's take a ride in a space ship past the moon and stars
All over the universe, stop by the degobars
Upon my interstellar knee we can bounce with glee
From star to star don't matter how far we are
ET the lizard creature and me
Neil Diamond's little ET (I love you ET!)
ET
I love you ET


infinite zest - 2014-04-27

turn on your heart light let it shine wherever you go
(includes landfills)


Cube - 2014-04-27

Finally... The legends were true!


Caminante Nocturno - 2014-04-27

This is our generation's equivalent of uncovering King Tut's tomb. I hope everyone involved in this dies so we can start spreading rumors about a curse.


Bort - 2014-04-27

Dangit, you beat me by seconds I think.


Seven Arts/H8 Red - 2014-04-27

"Beware the shadow feeder, he who rests within. Break the seal that restrains him, and know eternal doom!"

BUM BUM BUM


Bort - 2014-04-27

Wave after wave of demons freed from their slumber, all looking like the dragons from "Adventure".


Spaceman Africa - 2014-04-27

I wonder if any of those still work.


Old_Zircon - 2014-04-27

I wouldn't be surprised at all.


EvilHomer - 2014-04-27

I hope the film crew got permission from the tribal council of Indigenous Gamers. This is sacred ground for our people, and whether the legends are scientifically verifiable or not, outsiders must respect them.


Jack Jammer - 2014-04-27

There's a reason that game was buried in the desert. They need to put it back before it too late.


boner - 2014-04-27

The angry video game nerd just got angrier!


dairyqueenlatifah - 2014-04-27

I heard about this yesterday and thought it was just some fake viral marketing thing for the AVGN movie, but this appears to be legit.

It's a tad unsettling how in tact all that shit is after 30 years in the groud. I mean, I understand the plastic cartridges, but why are the paper boxes and lables still in such good shape? How long does it take this stuff we're throwing in landfills to finally start breaking down?


Binro the Heretic - 2014-04-27

A dry climate, buried deep out of the sunlight, no oxygen and it's really only been about three decades.

The same conditions kept mummified pharos and their loot in good condition for thousands of years.


Old_Zircon - 2014-04-27

It's legit, but according to the Guardian the documentary that funded the dig is some kind of Microsoft thing that will only be available to stream on XBox. Which is almost as bad.


infinite zest - 2014-04-27

Lame, but hopefully it'll go up on Youtube. G4 had a show devoted to urban gaming legends like these, but I think it was cancelled. Probably the only thing I'd ever watch if I had cable and G4.. like the special code in Medieval Madness to unbleep the curse words (doesn't exist) or Dot Matrix Elvira tits in Scared Stiff (does exist)


BorrowedSolution - 2014-04-27

Really? You'd be happier if all of the ink and plastic was degrading into the water table?

Different strokes for different folks, I guess.


SolRo - 2014-04-27

our shit lasts a long time without oxygen and mechanical agitation. cultural archeologists find readable newspapers from 100 year old landfills.

moisture has little to do with it, as shipwrecks in anoxic areas have been preserved for thousands of years.


TeenerTot - 2014-04-27

I had this game. It was repetitive and not very fun.
Is it possible to dig them up and recycle them now? I'm pretty sure the earth is getting indigestion.


Binro the Heretic - 2014-04-27

For all its faults, "E.T.: The Extraterrestrial" was far from the worst game made for the 2600. I think t gets an undeservedly bad rap.

The 2600 port of "Pac Man" was awful and buggy as Hell. In fact, just about any arcade port for the 2600 was worse than "E.T.".


Old_Zircon - 2014-04-27

Yeah, it was bad but it wasn't terrible. I actually beat it a couple times as a kid because my family couldn't afford Nintendo until '89 or '90.


Scrimmjob - 2014-04-27

It seems like the more complex an atari 2600 game is, the more it will suck, but then you also have games like pac man, which are quite simple and still suck. Taz was one of my favortie games, as was journey:escape.


Old_Zircon - 2014-04-27

7800 Galaga for me. I never had a 2600.


infinite zest - 2014-04-27

sooo.. ET was the Shenmue of Atari games?


oddeye - 2014-04-27

Any game that includes repeated and deadly serious inquisitions consisting of "I'm looking for some sailors" is a great game.


Unmerciful Crushing Force - 2014-04-27

Now, to see if they can find Heisenberg's money.


Billy the Poet - 2014-04-27

His treasure was video games. His treasure was video games.


infinite zest - 2014-04-27

Kind of unrelated, but I didn't know where else to put it (facebook would think I'm insane) but I had a dream where Stephanie from Full House was taken down to New Mexico where she buried her real parents alive in a land fill sometime during the run of Full House, because Danny and the gang were now her real parents.

It was some urban legend that I apparently came up with in a dream.. they brought Stephanie down to dig up her parents like it was an episode of Mythbusters but sure enough there they were, somehow still alive. I have weird dreams.

I'd be curious to know if any of these cartridges still work, since they were buried in the packaging. A few years ago my parents' basement was flooded and with it went a lot of my old Nintendo games and I tried them and a few still worked.

Little protip, if you own property, get flood insurance. I think for each one of those NES games they were awarded the original MSRP, even though you can find them in bargain bins for $.50 these days.


infinite zest - 2014-04-27

oh. Didn't see Spaceman's comment above.


Bhiu - 2014-04-27

Unless there was some scamming going on, no they were not paid MSRP for games from the 80s. Personal property insured by the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) is always paid out as Actual Cash Value (ACV) which is: replacement cost - physical depreciation. They would likely get about a nickel per cartridge.


EvilHomer - 2014-04-28

I would like to hear more about Stephanie burying her parents alive.


Old_Zircon - 2014-04-28

Yeah, I stopped bothering with renter's insurance after I talked to a few people who had tried to collect it when they lost their record collections in fires or otherwise. Basically unless you buy everything new and have documentation, it's not going to do you much good at all. For records (and we're talking stuff that's worth tens of thousands at collector prices, even my modest collection that only cost a tiny fraction of that spread out over years) are basically worthless in the eyes of insurance companies, just like most things that aren't new. I guess if you had photo documentation of everything AND a professional appraisal of its value you might get somewhere but probably not.


Bhiu - 2014-04-29

You don't purchase renters insurance solely to protect your belongings. You buy it for the liability protection. If someone in you apartment injures another person, you will be sued for letting it happen. Renters insurance covers liability lawsuits the same way homeowners does.

tl;dr DO NOT rent without renters insurance. It's cheap and can save your ass.


fluffy - 2015-04-26

Sounds like we also need Stephanie insurance.


Jet Bin Fever - 2014-04-27

Here's an interesting article about the worst video game flops.

http://fivethirtyeight.com/datalab/where-ataris-e-t-ranks-amon g-video-game-flops/


Nikon - 2014-04-27

This is great stuff.


The Mothership - 2017-07-01

Had this game, it is as bad as they say.


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