Hi it's me, the one who sold you this great treasure. Great video! One correction: it was November, 2014 when they went on Ebay. So glad you got this game, great display case, and your copy is actually BETTER than the one at the Smithsonian. They have just a cartridge, but you have the box, manuals, and everything. :-)
The history of the ET game is interesting. The movie is one of my childhood favorites. I have a copy of the game, but don't play it much because I don't like falling down the pits. I've noticed the pits seem to be wider than they look on screen. You can fall with ET's feet on solid ground. I guess it's a flaw in the game. But I like the game more for the history rather than play. I watched the documentary "Atari: Game Over" and found it interesting.
Hi. Am I the only one who liked the Atari E.T.? I can’t believe they actually buried Atari cartridges. So weird. E.T. was a frustrating game. It was so hard to get out of the holes. So, you don’t think E. T. game ruined Atari? A lot of people think it did. I disagree. Interesting video. 👍👍👍
You are most definitely not, Karyn. E.T. lacked polish, but I played it in regular rotation with Raiders of the Lost Ark and Superman - all three of which were adventure-type games that were different every time. I will always assert that E.T. biggest problem was that players had become comfortable with jumping into a game without reading the manual, and E.T. demanded that you read up in order to understand all the little nuances of the game.
I think they were trying to hold up retail price. Too many retailers got into selling Atari carts in 1982 who hadn't done so in 1981, so once a chip shortage ended, they were able to meet the orders. Only there were too many copies on shelves (supply over demand at that price point), along with some real stinkers (Atari games from 1977-79, and 3rd-party ones no one wanted). But these seem to be reasonably good games from 1981-1983. And they didn't want to pay to store them for another year. Atari, Imagic and perhaps others had a return policy so retailers wouldn't get stuck holding games that didn't sell.
In the grand scheme of things I'm sure this is just a tiny blip on the radar for a native, but it was a pretty big deal if you were a GenX video game player!
As far as the condition, I was part of the dig and took the games from the hole and bagged the games up and went through a lot of them and I can tell you We did take some of the et boxes apart and most of them had cracked on the sides but were intact for the most part. Hope this helps soothe your curiosity 😁
Awesome video, thank you so much for sharing this great experience! I'm kinda disappointed you didn't take the cartridge out. I think it would be nicer to display the broken cartridge in the frame, for all to see. But I understand to each their own. I hope you enjoy your piece of history, and thanks for sharing!
I was born in 78 so I was a bit young when the Atari was a big thing! At the beginning I was wondering how you would display this so that it looks cool and you sir did a tremendous job! I don’t have any attachment to E.T. but I understand nostalgia and the desire to own a piece of history! Great video and keep up the good work!
Hey Jon, Loved this video and so glad you were able to obtain an amazing part of this history. You got yourself a subscriber. I too am a Gen X grown up (born in 1973). I still have my original Atari 2600 that I got on Christmas 1981 along with all 30 games my parents bought for my brother and I over the years (for birthdays, straight A's in school, Christmas, etc). One of those games I still remember buying with my parents was ET. I was so excited to get this game, especially after seeing the movie, thinking the game was going to be amazing. It was pretty bad, but like others say, I don't think it was the worst game ever. But hard it was. I do recall beating the game on the easier setting (without the agents chasing after you). Sadly, although I still have my original Atari system and all the games, somehow all of the boxes for the games that were placed inside my original Atari system box seems to have disappeared from my parent's house. This despite no one admitting they ever threw them away (same with all my original NES and SuperNES game boxes). Thankfully when I got married back in 1999, I took the games/instructions/and systems with me, and was eventually going to get the boxes at a later date. But I'm happy I still have my original games, systems and instruction manuals. Over the years, I've been collecting Atari, Intellivision, NES, and SuperNES games and have quite the collection now....nearly all CIB or brand new....mostly buying on eBay. In fact, I just watched your unboxing of your daughter's Atari 5200 system. I also have one, 100% complete like the one your daughter lent you. Looking forward to more of your videos.
Hey, thanks for watching and for taking the time to post. It's so easy for the artifcats of our youth to get lost over the years. Especially when we didn't know we'd ever cherish them again the way we did back then. Glad you've been able to start re-acquiring. BTW, I finally now own a 5200 of my own - check this video out when you get a chance. I was so excited to finally give one a Forever Home! 😉 ruclips.net/video/wk6FIIpQcbA/видео.html
Fun watching this video you put out 6 years ago. At the 13 minute make you are talking with the ET frame hung up behind you. Was wondering what the frame over your right shoulder is with all of the 2600 boxes displayed... is that something you made or is that something that can be purchased somewhere? Looks really cool!
Thanks for digging in my back catalog. 😁 The Atari cartridge box is just a print of an image I found online. I took it up to Walgreens and had them print it out large, then I grabbed a nice Walmart poster frame and put it together. All in all it probably cost me less than $25 as a DIY project.
The display that you made is quite exquisite. The memories I have of that game are extraordinary. While I was definitely the one that was frustrated with it on my friend Jeff's console, Jeff was one of the original Twitch'ers before Twitch ever existed. His ability to not only play but decode the undecodeable games was next level - and it wasn't just hand-eye-coordination stuff - it was the "think" involved with it. Thanks for the quality and detail in your videos. It is a tremendous piece of legacy and detail that is appreciated by many and I'll share this far and wide. Cheers, friend!
Very cool, Jon, I still have my Atari 2600 console and a Vans shoebox of games in the garage! Side note I LOVE your wedding ring, I have the exact same type my wife got me from Kauai, HI. *high 5* You have a new subscriber and I'll binge watch your archive.
So much to talk about, Troy. Stoked to hear you still have your childhood 2600. I sold mine to defray the cost of my Atari 800. Good eye on the ring: Kona wood from HI just like you called it. 🙏 High five back atcha, and thanks for watching. See you around the comments, and/or on our Discord if you have interest in chatting with other like-minded GenX'ers.
John, Congrats on owing a unique piece of video gaming history! Being a Gen -Xer myself, I love the content on this channel, It truly feels like I'm getting to look back on my favorite childhood memories. Getting back to the Atari landfill saga, please don't take this as me trying to diminish your prized possession in any, but, I kinda wish the landfill was never dug up.... In my opinion, it was cool that our generation had it's very own one of a kind Urban Legend. It was just on that border line between myth & believable. It was fun knowing in my heart that it was true but at the same time having no proof of that. It sparked lots of interesting conversations & speculation back in the day. As a side note, did you know Apple has it's very own interesting story of dumping unwanted hardware in a landfill too?
Unplayable for 5 or 6-year-olds, which is why their parents took it back to the store. At age 12 it was frustrating but winnable. I played it a few years ago, and ran out of energy on the 7th round, playing on hard.
Sad to see what Atari did with that stuff. I guess the accountants ruled, assume Atari got more financial benefit dumping them as a business loss vs selling off to overstock wholesalers, even for a buck each or less. Really sad to see hardware was dumped too, could see a Star Raiders controller and other bits
I was thinking what Atari carts I got that I was so disappointed with that I might have returned them, like parents did for E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial. Probably Star Raiders and Canyon Bomber. I never won the hardest (4th?) level on Star Raiders, and I can't make the logbook challenge for Canyon Bomber. Probably would have exchanged them for Circus Atari, which was better than either and I ended up getting the version called Clowns for my computer. Of course, I didn't believe that my parents would let me return Atari games; if I did they might take it back and I'd get nothing for complaining.
Thanks, Stephen. It still hangs right where you see me put it at the end of this video, and I look at it every day. Awesome to have a tiny, stinky, piece of gaming history in my home! 😀 Appreciate you watching and commenting; hope you'll subscribe and check out more of our content!
Great video! I was lucky enough to win on ebay an Atari dig site Warlords in the box in pretty good condition. I am going to mount mine too with the certificate. I love gaming history! It a shame so many people throw treasures away not knowing how many people would love to have it.
That's great, Ravenstar! I bid on so many Alamogordo auctions when they were first up, but every one of them zipped past my budget pretty fast. I was quite happy to finally get my hands on an E.T. And I know that E.T. is not the cause of the crash, but one of the last straws on the camel's back, it's the emblematic poster child of the times and it's the one I absolutely wanted. I'd very much like to see your Warlords once you get it framed. Thanks for watching!
@Ravenstar Retro Just curios, what's your favorite game of the era that also had a decent Atari 2600 port? (Yeah I know "decent" is relative when it comes to the 2600.) ;)
@@ravenstarretro4445 Yeah, Wizard of War was awesome. I know everyone hates it, but I kinda liked the Pac-Man port. I know now that it's pretty awful but back then, as a kid, my tiny little brain was blown that I could play Pac-Man at home. :)
Could you list the sizes of the box's that you bought? I bought 2 of the latest auctions that they had and LOVE the way they look. Thanks for your time.
Thanks for watching, Tony. The clear acrylic box is just a standard 8-inch x 10-inch clear photo frame, and the frame was off-the-shelf (not custom made). I did have them cut a custom matte for the certificate, and I used that foam matte cut-out as the backing for the acrylic photo box.
The video game crash was how i got this game so cheap. I believe the price tag was $12. The price of games was liquidated so cheap and i even got a Swordquest Waterworld complete for around $15 at Kaybee Toys. I know it was mail order only but they had 2 copies of it there. I hope John you enjoy the ET game on your wall! I do hope you have one to play also?
Shawn K brought me here I was currious about how much people hate ET for Atari. After Shawn and Matt played, they took it out side and say, "E T is going to phone home allright" and then crushed it with their pickup.
my next door friend bought ET when i was in 2nd grade . he let borrow it and like many others at that time i didnt get far. got frustrated or just plain bored. i had such a variety of other games to play i didnt bother with it. i .think ET was just a name money grab title that went horribly wrong for them. thinking the name would contribute to the success of the game. There was no real design intrigue over all and seemed rushed.
If you haven't researched, the development of E.T. is fascinating. It was definitely rushed, and a miracle that it's as good as it is. It introduced several concepts that were alien to game players at the time (menus, inventory, locational activities, etc.) and if you didn't read the manual, much of that could not be intuited by just looking at the interface.
Absolutely my pleasure. This isn't our most popular video, but one of my favorites because it documents a treasured keepsake that still hangs on my wall to this day.
I just bought a copy of E.T from my local game store because I wanna expand my Atari collection I know people say it’s bad but I still want it and my cartridge has brown spots and the label looks dirty and I think mine could possibly be one that was buried in the land fill but I have not tested it yet because I’m at my moms house and my Atari is at my dads house
A lot of factors led to the crash of 83. You very much oversimplified it in this video. Home computers becoming popular was one of the factors that eventually led to the crash of 83.
I remember getting this for Christmas in 1982 and while it was hard to figure out, I grew to like it (my brothers, however, not so much). I thought the worst game ever was the Atari 2600 version of Pac Man. Considering the impossible challenges that Howard Scott Warshaw had to face just to make E.T., the game is not the disaster everyone has made it out to be and it’s really unfair that he got the blame for its failure. Ray Kassar deserves the scorn 100%.
If Atari Pac-Man was one of the worst, then why did I (and others) play it for hours?! A little disappointing to me at age 11-12; probably very disappointing to teens and adults. So to them, strike one. E.T. would be strike 2. Was Donkey Kong strike 3, or does that honor go to Raiders of the Lost Ark or Swordquest: Earthworld? All of these sold over a million, some multiple-millions, while Earthworld did not.
Hi ! I like your Pitfall/Donkey Kong mash up screens (featuring classic arcade characters) poster! Where can I get one? Thanks! .. been having a lot of fun binge watching your content.. (got myself an Atari Gamestation Pro thanks to your reviews)
A nice piece of gaming history. However, in the dead of night seven ET game cartridges and three Atari game consoles in perfect condition were quietly removed to an undisclosed location.
Are you suggesting these items were found "in perfect condition" in the Alamogordo landfill? I'd find it hard to believe there was anything in perfect condition found underground there after 30+ years! 😀 Glad you found us and hope you'll subscribe to check out much more of our GenX-inspired content!
Gosh Jon, take that ET cartridge out and see kid it still works, if not put it back in the box you still have a historical ET cart . I want to see if it still works!!!
STRAIGHT FROM THE LANDFILL!!! Atari ET and Atari Pac Man were really considered the worst! But ET isn't that bad! You just need the manual to know how to play it! We did a podcast on the crash if your interested in checking it out! Direct Link: wearepodcasts.podbean.com/e/we-are-bagu-s01e08-crashcast-atari-pacman-and-et/
Thanks, SilverAge. As a fellow collector, I bet you can appreciate that I don't want to part with this great piece! 😀 I hope you will subscribe and check out much more of our GenX-inspired content!
I got an original Atari shortly after release in 1977 because my father was in the army and an army shrink told my parents to buy me one, that it would help me. My father wasn't pleased because it was $199.99 which is roughly $884 in 2021 money. Thanks to my mother I got one anyway because my father wasn't going to argue with my mother. I got lots of games as well. $20 to $30 a game which is $88 to $134 in today's money. My stupid self threw it away a few years after I got my NES system in I think in 1985. I threw my Atari out around 1990 with about 40 games. Everything still worked, and I wish I still had it because of the money it is worth. Funny thing is a new Nintendo system was $50 on release in 1985, and was far superior. Nintendo took over the world, then Sega got it's share soon after, and the race is still going to this day, only the players have changed. I just build over priced PC's and don't mess with getting new consoles every few years. I like my fast computers anyway, not just for gaming which I still do daily at the age of 50. I'll never grow up mentally I suppose. Where's the fun in that anyway? I did the adult thing and I'm comfortably retired, so I can do whatever I want when I want. This my friend is a wonderful thing. Work hard and stay in the same business your whole life. You have to save your money and invest it properly, then you can retire at 50 years old. Then you're truly free, or as free as we get to be, but I'll skip politics that make me sick to my stomach, especially at the moment. Our freedom today consists of us being able to choose what value meal we want at the drive thru, and that's about it.
I regret selling my original Atari 2600, too. I sold the whole lot to raise money for an Atari 800. And while I loved my 8-bit, there were carts in there that would be tough to replace today: like the club-exclusive Crazy Climber!
$200! I remember buying my 2600 in 1980 for $100, still a lot of money, especially for 6 year old me at the time. The games seemed expensive too, some of them were $25 then. There were cheaper titles. I even got Spider-Man for free by sending in box tops from Lucky Charms cereal, took 5 of them to get the game.
I'll bet if we wanted to, it could be cleaned up and made to work, but I really didn't want to disturb its condition all mushed up together in that crushed box as it is.
Wow great vids dude! nice editing that's sick you got one of those ET's! Display piece looks amazing! I do some retrocollecting on my channel too feel free to take a look ;-)
Technically my copy is "unopened" too -- unless you count the years of age and decay that have the left contents peekable! Thanks for watching, Titan's. 😀 Glad you found us, and hope you'll subscribe to check out much more GenX-inspired content!
I remember when this was just a myth and i think i liked the story more back then when there was no real information on it other that a few articles or rumors as it made it mysterious and creepy to think they buried videogames for some unknown reason.
Poor E.T. wasn't as bad as it's made out to be. It was complex beyond the Atari's ability to communicate that complexity to the player (see "action zones") and its being rushed meant it lacked the play-testing that could've taken the rough edges off (falling in those damn holes). But I still occasionally pick it up & play it, and it's more fun than you remember!
@@GenXGrownUp If they'd fix the hit-detection so you didn't fall right back in, that would have gone a long way. Or put your character in a safe spot. Also, I think that paper you showed recommends people try game 3 first, which doesn't have the scientist and FBI guy. They turned away from Adventure and Haunted House's design which had the easiest variation be game 1. Of course 5-year-olds aren't going to read.
@@GenXGrownUp Ha ha, yes. I remember the huge 3D like cardboard advertising inside the theatre at the top of the stairs for E.T. the uplighters were showing off the BMX bikes and we all pestered our parents for a bike after seeing the movie. So many memories and the whole gaming crash of '83 I didn't really recall. Maybe being the UK, I don't know? but the way you presented the game here for lasting display is very impressive.👍
"How intact we'll never find out" is a measure of degree. We know it's not 100% intact, but as I'm not dismantling the fragile artifact, we will never know the degree of damage. It's not a binary measurement.
I enjoyed E.T. It does some things that were new to video games and that the VCS just wasn't equipped to present to a player, requiring the player to really study to manual in order to understand what was going on.
@@GenXGrownUp If they would have given the programmers more time it probably would have been better,I went in think it would play like the earlier Raiders of the Lost Ark game which I liked only to be so disappointed at how unfocused it was.
@@mikeburkhart8336 I don't think they could have given them more time for E.T. or Donkey Kong, but I think they could have assigned them help with sound/music and graphics. One-programmer-does-everything mentality needed to go. Or it could have been a bicycle action game.
Not the worst game ever, but probably the worst game that sold over a million copies. Swordquest Fireworld is considered Atari's worst, with 3rd party stinkers like Chase the Chuckwagon (made in 3 days?!), I Want My Mommy, and Dishaster being some of the worst, unplayable games for the system.
Thanks for watching, Evan! When you do decide to give E.T. a try, you must start by reading the instruction manual. Despite it's problems, I'm still largely convinced that E.T. gets such a bad rap because it's not intuitive to play. It was very ambitious, and games of that era didn't have space to store tutorial levels or instructions so HSW had to rely on the end-user reading the instructions to understand what's going on. Without that context it's easy to dismiss E.T. as meandering and pointless.
@@GenXGrownUp I think Plumber's Don't Wear Ties is the worst game ever. It's a slide show of images. At least E.T. you can actually move the character around.
hey! great video, I want to know how much you ended up paying for this. I am super curious 😅 if you want to keep it a secret understand 😊 or send me a dm 👍
Hi it's me, the one who sold you this great treasure. Great video! One correction: it was November, 2014 when they went on Ebay. So glad you got this game, great display case, and your copy is actually BETTER than the one at the Smithsonian. They have just a cartridge, but you have the box, manuals, and everything. :-)
Thanks, Don. I was stoked to finally acquire one for my private collection, and was nice working with you.
I super love the way you chose to display this instead of sending it to Wata or something!
I think you did a Professional Job framing this extremely rare Gem of Atari History.I am glad you have this displayed in your home!
Thank you, Chris. It's truly one of my prized collectibles!
"I'm not taking the manuals out cuz I don't want to damage it"
🤣🤣something about that made me laugh
The history of the ET game is interesting. The movie is one of my childhood favorites. I have a copy of the game, but don't play it much because I don't like falling down the pits. I've noticed the pits seem to be wider than they look on screen. You can fall with ET's feet on solid ground. I guess it's a flaw in the game. But I like the game more for the history rather than play. I watched the documentary "Atari: Game Over" and found it interesting.
What's ironic is one of the best-selling game of 1982 was called Pitfall!
Love this video. Great job! Gen X was the best generation to grow up in….
Glad you enjoyed it!
Hi. Am I the only one who liked the Atari E.T.? I can’t believe they actually buried Atari cartridges. So weird. E.T. was a frustrating game. It was so hard to get out of the holes. So, you don’t think E. T. game ruined Atari? A lot of people think it did. I disagree. Interesting video. 👍👍👍
You are most definitely not, Karyn. E.T. lacked polish, but I played it in regular rotation with Raiders of the Lost Ark and Superman - all three of which were adventure-type games that were different every time. I will always assert that E.T. biggest problem was that players had become comfortable with jumping into a game without reading the manual, and E.T. demanded that you read up in order to understand all the little nuances of the game.
I think they were trying to hold up retail price. Too many retailers got into selling Atari carts in 1982 who hadn't done so in 1981, so once a chip shortage ended, they were able to meet the orders. Only there were too many copies on shelves (supply over demand at that price point), along with some real stinkers (Atari games from 1977-79, and 3rd-party ones no one wanted). But these seem to be reasonably good games from 1981-1983. And they didn't want to pay to store them for another year. Atari, Imagic and perhaps others had a return policy so retailers wouldn't get stuck holding games that didn't sell.
Looks great. Nice job preserving that piece of 80’s history!
Thanks, Roger. I appreciate you taking the time to watch.
I was born and raised in alamogordo nm and would've never thought this I missed the escavation event though. Good to see this vid though.
In the grand scheme of things I'm sure this is just a tiny blip on the radar for a native, but it was a pretty big deal if you were a GenX video game player!
As far as the condition, I was part of the dig and took the games from the hole and bagged the games up and went through a lot of them and I can tell you We did take some of the et boxes apart and most of them had cracked on the sides but were intact for the most part. Hope this helps soothe your curiosity 😁
Thanks, Jess. Cool to hear from someone who was so close to the process.
Awesome video, thank you so much for sharing this great experience!
I'm kinda disappointed you didn't take the cartridge out. I think it would be nicer to display the broken cartridge in the frame, for all to see.
But I understand to each their own. I hope you enjoy your piece of history, and thanks for sharing!
Thanks for watching. If I ever re-mount it I may consider unpacking it, but I'm just afraid all the contents would just kind of crumble! 😊
@@GenXGrownUp Aah, I see. That is a valid concern!
This is so cool, I remember the exploration and digging of the sight. I didn't know the buried games were a thing. But that is awesome.
I was born in 78 so I was a bit young when the Atari was a big thing! At the beginning I was wondering how you would display this so that it looks cool and you sir did a tremendous job! I don’t have any attachment to E.T. but I understand nostalgia and the desire to own a piece of history! Great video and keep up the good work!
One of my absolute favorite pieces of nostalgic memomorabilia, Dan.It has a proud and permanent place in my collection! 😀
Hey Jon,
Loved this video and so glad you were able to obtain an amazing part of this history. You got yourself a subscriber. I too am a Gen X grown up (born in 1973). I still have my original Atari 2600 that I got on Christmas 1981 along with all 30 games my parents bought for my brother and I over the years (for birthdays, straight A's in school, Christmas, etc). One of those games I still remember buying with my parents was ET. I was so excited to get this game, especially after seeing the movie, thinking the game was going to be amazing. It was pretty bad, but like others say, I don't think it was the worst game ever. But hard it was. I do recall beating the game on the easier setting (without the agents chasing after you).
Sadly, although I still have my original Atari system and all the games, somehow all of the boxes for the games that were placed inside my original Atari system box seems to have disappeared from my parent's house. This despite no one admitting they ever threw them away (same with all my original NES and SuperNES game boxes). Thankfully when I got married back in 1999, I took the games/instructions/and systems with me, and was eventually going to get the boxes at a later date. But I'm happy I still have my original games, systems and instruction manuals.
Over the years, I've been collecting Atari, Intellivision, NES, and SuperNES games and have quite the collection now....nearly all CIB or brand new....mostly buying on eBay. In fact, I just watched your unboxing of your daughter's Atari 5200 system. I also have one, 100% complete like the one your daughter lent you.
Looking forward to more of your videos.
Hey, thanks for watching and for taking the time to post. It's so easy for the artifcats of our youth to get lost over the years. Especially when we didn't know we'd ever cherish them again the way we did back then. Glad you've been able to start re-acquiring. BTW, I finally now own a 5200 of my own - check this video out when you get a chance. I was so excited to finally give one a Forever Home! 😉 ruclips.net/video/wk6FIIpQcbA/видео.html
Fun watching this video you put out 6 years ago. At the 13 minute make you are talking with the ET frame hung up behind you. Was wondering what the frame over your right shoulder is with all of the 2600 boxes displayed... is that something you made or is that something that can be purchased somewhere? Looks really cool!
Thanks for digging in my back catalog. 😁 The Atari cartridge box is just a print of an image I found online. I took it up to Walgreens and had them print it out large, then I grabbed a nice Walmart poster frame and put it together. All in all it probably cost me less than $25 as a DIY project.
The display that you made is quite exquisite. The memories I have of that game are extraordinary. While I was definitely the one that was frustrated with it on my friend Jeff's console, Jeff was one of the original Twitch'ers before Twitch ever existed. His ability to not only play but decode the undecodeable games was next level - and it wasn't just hand-eye-coordination stuff - it was the "think" involved with it. Thanks for the quality and detail in your videos. It is a tremendous piece of legacy and detail that is appreciated by many and I'll share this far and wide. Cheers, friend!
Thanks for watching and for your kind comments! 😀
I do the same thing with Punk Rock flyers from bands that seen. I really respect what you have done here.
What a cool way to preserve historic memorabilia! Thank you for watching. 😀
Very cool, Jon, I still have my Atari 2600 console and a Vans shoebox of games in the garage! Side note I LOVE your wedding ring, I have the exact same type my wife got me from Kauai, HI. *high 5* You have a new subscriber and I'll binge watch your archive.
So much to talk about, Troy.
Stoked to hear you still have your childhood 2600. I sold mine to defray the cost of my Atari 800.
Good eye on the ring: Kona wood from HI just like you called it.
🙏 High five back atcha, and thanks for watching. See you around the comments, and/or on our Discord if you have interest in chatting with other like-minded GenX'ers.
As a fellow "steward" its great to hear a positive take on the dig carts. Looks great by the way
Thanks so much, jasinner! 😀 Glad you found us, and hope you'll subscribe to check out much more GenX-inspired video content!
John, Congrats on owing a unique piece of video gaming history! Being a Gen -Xer myself, I love the content on this channel, It truly feels like I'm getting to look back on my favorite childhood memories. Getting back to the Atari landfill saga, please don't take this as me trying to diminish your prized possession in any, but, I kinda wish the landfill was never dug up.... In my opinion, it was cool that our generation had it's very own one of a kind Urban Legend. It was just on that border line between myth & believable. It was fun knowing in my heart that it was true but at the same time having no proof of that. It sparked lots of interesting conversations & speculation back in the day. As a side note, did you know Apple has it's very own interesting story of dumping unwanted hardware in a landfill too?
One of the greatest sadness, in my life and this is no joke, was seeing "any" type of arcade machines/consoles just being "dumped" anywhere.
I’m so grateful I never played that E.T Atari game. Complete and utter nightmare fuel of a game from what I’ve seen
It's not as bad as its reputation. Read the manual fully and then give it a try!
no, not even close and a top 10 fave on many lists
Unplayable for 5 or 6-year-olds, which is why their parents took it back to the store. At age 12 it was frustrating but winnable. I played it a few years ago, and ran out of energy on the 7th round, playing on hard.
Sad to see what Atari did with that stuff.
I guess the accountants ruled, assume Atari got more financial benefit dumping them as a business loss vs selling off to overstock wholesalers, even for a buck each or less.
Really sad to see hardware was dumped too, could see a Star Raiders controller and other bits
I was thinking what Atari carts I got that I was so disappointed with that I might have returned them, like parents did for E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial. Probably Star Raiders and Canyon Bomber. I never won the hardest (4th?) level on Star Raiders, and I can't make the logbook challenge for Canyon Bomber. Probably would have exchanged them for Circus Atari, which was better than either and I ended up getting the version called Clowns for my computer. Of course, I didn't believe that my parents would let me return Atari games; if I did they might take it back and I'd get nothing for complaining.
Not into games myself but can appreciate the nostalgia and it looks really cool how you've displayed it
Thanks, Stephen. It still hangs right where you see me put it at the end of this video, and I look at it every day. Awesome to have a tiny, stinky, piece of gaming history in my home! 😀 Appreciate you watching and commenting; hope you'll subscribe and check out more of our content!
Great video! I was lucky enough to win on ebay an Atari dig site Warlords in the box in pretty good condition. I am going to mount mine too with the certificate. I love gaming history! It a shame so many people throw treasures away not knowing how many people would love to have it.
That's great, Ravenstar! I bid on so many Alamogordo auctions when they were first up, but every one of them zipped past my budget pretty fast. I was quite happy to finally get my hands on an E.T. And I know that E.T. is not the cause of the crash, but one of the last straws on the camel's back, it's the emblematic poster child of the times and it's the one I absolutely wanted. I'd very much like to see your Warlords once you get it framed. Thanks for watching!
@Ravenstar Retro Just curios, what's your favorite game of the era that also had a decent Atari 2600 port? (Yeah I know "decent" is relative when it comes to the 2600.) ;)
I loved Tutankham, as far as ports go and Wizard of War.
@@ravenstarretro4445 Yeah, Wizard of War was awesome. I know everyone hates it, but I kinda liked the Pac-Man port. I know now that it's pretty awful but back then, as a kid, my tiny little brain was blown that I could play Pac-Man at home. :)
Could you list the sizes of the box's that you bought? I bought 2 of the latest auctions that they had and LOVE the way they look. Thanks for your time.
Thanks for watching, Tony. The clear acrylic box is just a standard 8-inch x 10-inch clear photo frame, and the frame was off-the-shelf (not custom made). I did have them cut a custom matte for the certificate, and I used that foam matte cut-out as the backing for the acrylic photo box.
@@GenXGrownUp thanks for the information. I love yours.
@@tonygodsey1806 No problem, Tony. Thank you for watching. 😀
The video game crash was how i got this game so cheap. I believe the price tag was $12. The price of games was liquidated so cheap and i even got a Swordquest Waterworld complete for around $15 at Kaybee Toys. I know it was mail order only but they had 2 copies of it there. I hope John you enjoy the ET game on your wall! I do hope you have one to play also?
Thanks. I most certainly have several more I can play! 😀
You may enjoy our pod episode remembering the crash: genxgrownup.com/bt-160/
It's a beautiful thing. I still have my copy of ET in a bin somewhere. Not sure if it still works or not, but I wouldn't part with it.
Shawn K brought me here I was currious about how much people hate ET for Atari. After Shawn and Matt played, they took it out side and say, "E T is going to phone home allright" and then crushed it with their pickup.
That's sad. 😢
my next door friend bought ET when i was in 2nd grade . he let borrow it and like many others at that time i didnt get far. got frustrated or just plain bored. i had such a variety of other games to play i didnt bother with it. i .think ET was just a name money grab title that went horribly wrong for them. thinking the name would contribute to the success of the game. There was no real design intrigue over all and seemed rushed.
If you haven't researched, the development of E.T. is fascinating. It was definitely rushed, and a miracle that it's as good as it is. It introduced several concepts that were alien to game players at the time (menus, inventory, locational activities, etc.) and if you didn't read the manual, much of that could not be intuited by just looking at the interface.
Great video. Really love your vcs content!
Thanks so much!
Thanks for sharing this..
Absolutely my pleasure. This isn't our most popular video, but one of my favorites because it documents a treasured keepsake that still hangs on my wall to this day.
@GenXGrownUp Yeah I really enjoyed it and that shadow box came out looking awesome!
I just bought a copy of E.T from my local game store because I wanna expand my Atari collection I know people say it’s bad but I still want it and my cartridge has brown spots and the label looks dirty and I think mine could possibly be one that was buried in the land fill but I have not tested it yet because I’m at my moms house and my Atari is at my dads house
A lot of factors led to the crash of 83. You very much oversimplified it in this video. Home computers becoming popular was one of the factors that eventually led to the crash of 83.
I remember getting this for Christmas in 1982 and while it was hard to figure out, I grew to like it (my brothers, however, not so much). I thought the worst game ever was the Atari 2600 version of Pac Man. Considering the impossible challenges that Howard Scott Warshaw had to face just to make E.T., the game is not the disaster everyone has made it out to be and it’s really unfair that he got the blame for its failure. Ray Kassar deserves the scorn 100%.
If Atari Pac-Man was one of the worst, then why did I (and others) play it for hours?!
A little disappointing to me at age 11-12; probably very disappointing to teens and adults. So to them, strike one. E.T. would be strike 2. Was Donkey Kong strike 3, or does that honor go to Raiders of the Lost Ark or Swordquest: Earthworld? All of these sold over a million, some multiple-millions, while Earthworld did not.
Very cool!
Nice video, and good desicion, greatings from México City. Your Channel its so good. Congratulaciones about it.
Thank you very much!
Hi !
I like your Pitfall/Donkey Kong mash up screens (featuring classic arcade characters) poster!
Where can I get one?
Thanks! .. been having a lot of fun binge watching your content.. (got myself an Atari Gamestation Pro thanks to your reviews)
A nice piece of gaming history. However, in the dead of night seven ET game cartridges and three Atari game consoles in perfect condition were quietly removed to an undisclosed location.
Are you suggesting these items were found "in perfect condition" in the Alamogordo landfill? I'd find it hard to believe there was anything in perfect condition found underground there after 30+ years! 😀 Glad you found us and hope you'll subscribe to check out much more of our GenX-inspired content!
What?
Gosh Jon, take that ET cartridge out and see kid it still works, if not put it back in the box you still have a historical ET cart . I want to see if it still works!!!
Maybe one day - right now I can't imagine opening up my frame and letting any of that stink out! 😀
i had this game to in the 80's
Great video ! Your awesome man !
I appreciate that!
That cartridge would probably still work if you put it in a 2600!
Probably so!
Definitely a Holy Grail item there!
It certainly was for me! Thank you for watching. 😀
I wished they had dug deeper and got more.
STRAIGHT FROM THE LANDFILL!!!
Atari ET and Atari Pac Man were really considered the worst! But ET isn't that bad! You just need the manual to know how to play it! We did a podcast on the crash if your interested in checking it out!
Direct Link: wearepodcasts.podbean.com/e/we-are-bagu-s01e08-crashcast-atari-pacman-and-et/
I’m looking for one. Love your display too. Any chance you want to sell? Thanks
Thanks, SilverAge. As a fellow collector, I bet you can appreciate that I don't want to part with this great piece! 😀 I hope you will subscribe and check out much more of our GenX-inspired content!
Any chance you know anyone selling one? If you do lmk and I’ll share my email. Thanks
Also. Can you provide measurements of the large and smaller shadow boxes? I have a Centipede from the dig and want to do the same. 👍🏻
@Genxgrownup can you provide measurements of the display you made for it? Thanks.
@@WirzWorld are you looking specifically et from the landfill or other games as well?
How did you get your hands on one? And how much did it cost you?
I purchased it from someone who first got theirs during the Alamagordo auction, but was looking to liquidate.
I got an original Atari shortly after release in 1977 because my father was in the army and an army shrink told my parents to buy me one, that it would help me. My father wasn't pleased because it was $199.99 which is roughly $884 in 2021 money. Thanks to my mother I got one anyway because my father wasn't going to argue with my mother. I got lots of games as well. $20 to $30 a game which is $88 to $134 in today's money. My stupid self threw it away a few years after I got my NES system in I think in 1985. I threw my Atari out around 1990 with about 40 games. Everything still worked, and I wish I still had it because of the money it is worth. Funny thing is a new Nintendo system was $50 on release in 1985, and was far superior. Nintendo took over the world, then Sega got it's share soon after, and the race is still going to this day, only the players have changed. I just build over priced PC's and don't mess with getting new consoles every few years. I like my fast computers anyway, not just for gaming which I still do daily at the age of 50. I'll never grow up mentally I suppose. Where's the fun in that anyway? I did the adult thing and I'm comfortably retired, so I can do whatever I want when I want. This my friend is a wonderful thing. Work hard and stay in the same business your whole life. You have to save your money and invest it properly, then you can retire at 50 years old. Then you're truly free, or as free as we get to be, but I'll skip politics that make me sick to my stomach, especially at the moment. Our freedom today consists of us being able to choose what value meal we want at the drive thru, and that's about it.
I regret selling my original Atari 2600, too. I sold the whole lot to raise money for an Atari 800. And while I loved my 8-bit, there were carts in there that would be tough to replace today: like the club-exclusive Crazy Climber!
$200! I remember buying my 2600 in 1980 for $100, still a lot of money, especially for 6 year old me at the time. The games seemed expensive too, some of them were $25 then. There were cheaper titles. I even got Spider-Man for free by sending in box tops from Lucky Charms cereal, took 5 of them to get the game.
Not gonna risk damaging it.. hahaha awesome collectable
Ha! The irony is not lost, CreepingDeath. 😊 Wouldn't want to damage that garbage, right?
@@GenXGrownUp technically it isn’t garbage anymore. I’m jealous I want a copy. I still have my 2600 box and all
I thought you'd pop it into the console and give it a spin.
I'll bet if we wanted to, it could be cleaned up and made to work, but I really didn't want to disturb its condition all mushed up together in that crushed box as it is.
@@GenXGrownUp Do you really think it would still work? I assued it was crushed.
Wow great vids dude! nice editing that's sick you got one of those ET's! Display piece looks amazing! I do some retrocollecting on my channel too feel free to take a look ;-)
Hey, Ed! Thanks, I'm still in awe of finally having this baby in my collection. We'll check you out, and welcome to the channel.
I have an unopened copy of ET in my glass display case.
Technically my copy is "unopened" too -- unless you count the years of age and decay that have the left contents peekable! Thanks for watching, Titan's. 😀 Glad you found us, and hope you'll subscribe to check out much more GenX-inspired content!
How did you find this
Hi, Gabe. I've been monitoring eBay for years now waiting for just the right one to come available for resale. I finally got lucky at the right time.
Ok thanks
I.love atati 2600jr
I am Pakistani
But sir thanks you video is very good video is like
Welcome, Irshad! 😀 I hope you will subscribe and check out much more of our GenX-inspired content!
I remember when this was just a myth and i think i liked the story more back then when there was no real information on it other that a few articles or rumors as it made it mysterious and creepy to think they buried videogames for some unknown reason.
That game sucked, I'm a 50 year old gamer and had that bad game. Atari made worse games if you can believe it. Some were good though.
Poor E.T. wasn't as bad as it's made out to be. It was complex beyond the Atari's ability to communicate that complexity to the player (see "action zones") and its being rushed meant it lacked the play-testing that could've taken the rough edges off (falling in those damn holes). But I still occasionally pick it up & play it, and it's more fun than you remember!
@@GenXGrownUp If they'd fix the hit-detection so you didn't fall right back in, that would have gone a long way. Or put your character in a safe spot. Also, I think that paper you showed recommends people try game 3 first, which doesn't have the scientist and FBI guy. They turned away from Adventure and Haunted House's design which had the easiest variation be game 1. Of course 5-year-olds aren't going to read.
that is a relic of time 😝
Need a Kuwahara BMX now👌
To complete the nostalgia trip to 1983?
@@GenXGrownUp Ha ha, yes. I remember the huge 3D like cardboard advertising inside the theatre at the top of the stairs for E.T. the uplighters were showing off the BMX bikes and we all pestered our parents for a bike after seeing the movie. So many memories and the whole gaming crash of '83 I didn't really recall. Maybe being the UK, I don't know? but the way you presented the game here for lasting display is very impressive.👍
@@chathamabs2011 I think they should have made E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial a bicycle chase game. We got Paperboy a few years later.
Poor ET 😢
What if Nintendo buried some Wii U games somewhere?!?!😮
They did. In the bargain bin. 😜
8965 of 1800?
Pardon?
"How in tact well never find out" it's obviously not in tact....
"How intact we'll never find out" is a measure of degree. We know it's not 100% intact, but as I'm not dismantling the fragile artifact, we will never know the degree of damage. It's not a binary measurement.
@@GenXGrownUp fuck off will ya.... the paperboard would have disintegrated after being buried nearly 40 years...you've been got.
Sad to say I bought that awful E T game when it first came out on Atari 2600...what a waste of money. I wanted to bury my copy too.
I enjoyed E.T. It does some things that were new to video games and that the VCS just wasn't equipped to present to a player, requiring the player to really study to manual in order to understand what was going on.
@@GenXGrownUp If they would have given the programmers more time it probably would have been better,I went in think it would play like the earlier Raiders of the Lost Ark game which I liked only to be so disappointed at how unfocused it was.
@@mikeburkhart8336 I don't think they could have given them more time for E.T. or Donkey Kong, but I think they could have assigned them help with sound/music and graphics. One-programmer-does-everything mentality needed to go. Or it could have been a bicycle action game.
Not the worst game ever, but probably the worst game that sold over a million copies. Swordquest Fireworld is considered Atari's worst, with 3rd party stinkers like Chase the Chuckwagon (made in 3 days?!), I Want My Mommy, and Dishaster being some of the worst, unplayable games for the system.
Maybe it's not the worst game ever but it looks terrible I never actually played it. The video game crash is part of history.
Thanks for watching, Evan! When you do decide to give E.T. a try, you must start by reading the instruction manual. Despite it's problems, I'm still largely convinced that E.T. gets such a bad rap because it's not intuitive to play. It was very ambitious, and games of that era didn't have space to store tutorial levels or instructions so HSW had to rely on the end-user reading the instructions to understand what's going on. Without that context it's easy to dismiss E.T. as meandering and pointless.
@@GenXGrownUp I think Plumber's Don't Wear Ties is the worst game ever. It's a slide show of images. At least E.T. you can actually move the character around.
Should of opened it 😅
No, I really should not have. So smelly! 👃
hey! great video, I want to know how much you ended up paying for this. I am super curious 😅 if you want to keep it a secret understand 😊 or send me a dm 👍
DM me on Discord. Our channel linked in the description.
Bad condition
Not bad for being buried under tons of trash and concreted for a few decades. Perspective. 😉