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Atari landfill yields up ET stash

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  Atari landfill yields up ET stash RS Wood <rsw@therandymon.com> - 2014-04-28 14:29 +0000
    Re: Atari landfill yields up ET stash Scion <a.b@nospam.invalid> - 2014-04-29 10:13 +0000
      Re: Atari landfill yields up ET stash RS Wood <rsw@therandymon.com> - 2014-04-29 17:06 +0000
        Re: Atari landfill yields up ET stash Will Honea <whonea@whonea.net> - 2014-04-29 12:31 -0600
          Re: Atari landfill yields up ET stash Paul Sture <nospam@sture.ch> - 2014-05-01 17:32 +0200

#2494 — Atari landfill yields up ET stash

The rumors were true about a heap of old Atari stock unceremoniously buried in the desert.  Awesome story.  I think I remember that game, and recall I found it really, really ugly.

http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-27187609

//---snip
Atari was thought to have dumped truckloads of unsold games in the landfill site on the outskirts of Alamogordo in 1983 as the company was winding down.

The game maker's descent from its position as the dominant force in home gaming in the late 1970s and early 1980s was swift and has been partly blamed on the gamble it took on making a game of Steven Spielberg's 1982 hit film ET.

The game was made from scratch in five weeks for the Atari 2600 console. Even before the game was finished Atari, committed huge amounts of money and resources to it and produced millions of copies when it was done.

The ET game has been described as one of the worst ever created. Its challenging game play and poor graphics put people off buying it and left Atari with huge amounts of unsold inventory.
//---snip

-- 
RS Wood <rsw@therandymon.com>

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#2518

RS Wood put finger to keyboard:

> The rumors were true about a heap of old Atari stock unceremoniously
> buried in the desert.  Awesome story.  I think I remember that game, and
> recall I found it really, really ugly.
> 
> http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-27187609
> 
> //---snip Atari was thought to have dumped truckloads of unsold games in
> the landfill site on the outskirts of Alamogordo in 1983 as the company
> was winding down.
> 
> The game maker's descent from its position as the dominant force in home
> gaming in the late 1970s and early 1980s was swift and has been partly
> blamed on the gamble it took on making a game of Steven Spielberg's 1982
> hit film ET.
> 
> The game was made from scratch in five weeks for the Atari 2600 console.
> Even before the game was finished Atari, committed huge amounts of money
> and resources to it and produced millions of copies when it was done.
> 
> The ET game has been described as one of the worst ever created. Its
> challenging game play and poor graphics put people off buying it and
> left Atari with huge amounts of unsold inventory.
> //---snip

The BBC headline reads "Desert dig uncovers huge Atari games dump" and 
then the item continues "Video game archaeologists have found a cache of 
Atari games that were buried in the New Mexico desert 30 years ago."

Sounds all very cloak-and-dagger until you read the story. A more 
appropriate (but less dramatic) headline would be "Atari throws away 
unsold stock".

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#2523

> The BBC headline reads "Desert dig uncovers huge Atari games dump" and 
> then the item continues "Video game archaeologists have found a cache of 
> Atari games that were buried in the New Mexico desert 30 years ago."
> 
> Sounds all very cloak-and-dagger until you read the story. A more 
> appropriate (but less dramatic) headline would be "Atari throws away 
> unsold stock".


Yes, I thought that too.  Or, "Atari busted for illegal dumping."  The
thing about them only being able to dig for one day makes me think it
was actually dumped someplace sensitive, like restricted land or
something.  Either way, yay journalism.  Still, I shed a happy tear for
happy memories of playing games on the 2600.  8 bits was good enough
for me, it really was.

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#2529

RS Wood wrote:

> Yes, I thought that too.  Or, "Atari busted for illegal dumping."  The
> thing about them only being able to dig for one day makes me think it
> was actually dumped someplace sensitive, like restricted land or
> something.  Either way, yay journalism.  Still, I shed a happy tear for
> happy memories of playing games on the 2600.  8 bits was good enough
> for me, it really was.
> 

Nothing nefarious there - they have been trying to dig that stuff out for 
some time but were held up by environmental rules and necessary permits.  
Trying to excavate landfill sites apparently generates enough paperwork that 
you then need another landfill site just to file the trash generated by the 
process.  It would probably be easier to excavate a nuclear waste site.  A 
local reporter wrote a long article about the permit process some time back 
and the nests of hoops one has to jump through would be hilarious were it 
not (unfortunately) true!

-- 
Will Honea

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#2567

On 2014-04-29, Will Honea <whonea@whonea.net> wrote:
> RS Wood wrote:
>
>> Yes, I thought that too.  Or, "Atari busted for illegal dumping."  The
>> thing about them only being able to dig for one day makes me think it
>> was actually dumped someplace sensitive, like restricted land or
>> something.  Either way, yay journalism.  Still, I shed a happy tear for
>> happy memories of playing games on the 2600.  8 bits was good enough
>> for me, it really was.
>> 
>
> Nothing nefarious there - they have been trying to dig that stuff out for 
> some time but were held up by environmental rules and necessary permits.  
> Trying to excavate landfill sites apparently generates enough paperwork that 
> you then need another landfill site just to file the trash generated by the 
> process.  It would probably be easier to excavate a nuclear waste site.  A 
> local reporter wrote a long article about the permit process some time back 
> and the nests of hoops one has to jump through would be hilarious were it 
> not (unfortunately) true!

There was a rather good email circulating a decade or so ago about the
obstacles Noah would face today trying to build his ark.

-- 
Paul Sture

The final step of #heartbleed recovery is to call your mother, and advise
her to change her maiden name                                  -- @gojomo

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