Atari collapsed in the early 1980s but its legend did not. For decades, a story circulated among video game enthusiasts claiming that the company dumped thousands of unsold game cartridges into a landfill in the New Mexico desert. More than 30 years later, an archaeological excavation finally set out to determine whether this so-called urban legend actually held any truth, and Microsoft played a surprising role in getting to the bottom of it.
A ‘legendary’ flop and a ‘legendary’ landfill story
Atari’s launch of “E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial” is widely regarded as one of the biggest failures in video game history, and its release coincided almost exactly with Atari’s own downfall in the early 1980s. Back then, in a world without digital distribution, this meant hundreds of thousands, possibly even millions, of unsold or returned Atari cartridges piled up inside a warehouse in El Paso. At some point, those cartridges simply disappeared from the warehouse, and in their place emerged a persistent rumour: that Atari had secretly shipped enormous quantities of game cartridges off to a dump site in New Mexico.But things changed in 2014, when archaeologists set out to uncover the truth, backed by funding from Microsoft, Fuel Entertainment and Lightbox – all three of which were working together on a documentary chronicling Atari’s collapse.The documentary team sought permission to travel to Alamogordo, New Mexico, and physically dig through the landfill in search of answers. Their request was granted, though with significant restrictions attached, they were given just two days and access to only four acres out of the site’s sprawling 300-acre expanse.Even with such limited access, it turned out to be more than enough. Working alongside insights from James Heller, the former Atari employee originally tasked with disposing of the cartridges, and guided by a team of archaeologists, the crew arrived at the New Mexico site in 2014. They dug more than 30 feet into the mountain of trash and managed to pull out 1,382 cartridges within their limited window of time, enough evidence to transform decades of rumour into confirmed, museum-worthy fact.
What Atari’s own employee revealed
In a Q&A shared on an Atari-focused blog, Heller recalled that in 1983, he personally oversaw 12 truckloads carrying a total of 728,000 cartridges, all dumped into an area roughly 50 by 100 feet in size. After the third day of dumping, he had six additional loads of concrete poured over the site, since local kids had already begun scavenging through the trash looking for cartridges. Even that massive amount of concrete wasn’t enough to fully bury everything.“I would say that 95% of the cartridges dumped were new,” Heller said, adding that the dumped cartridges spanned a wide range of different game titles, not just the infamous “E.T.” title.
What the teams actually found in landfill
The very first discovery during the 2014 excavation was a boxed copy of the “E.T.” game, complete with its original instructions, a product catalogue, and even a “Raiders of the Lost Ark” promotional insert tucked inside, according to Reinhard’s account published in Archaeology Magazine. He described the process as similar to digging through an ancient pottery dump or shell mound, with every scoop of the shovel or bucket loader revealing more cartridges and hardware, ultimately uncovering thousands of artefacts representing dozens of different game titles.The game-filled trench was thoroughly photographed, and thousands of items were carefully collected, bagged and catalogued for further study before a sandstorm cut the operations. Once the dig concluded, the city had the site covered back over, and it hasn’t been excavated since.Alongside numerous copies of “E.T.,” the dig also turned up other well-known titles like “Centipede” and “Pac-Man,” along with various pieces of Atari hardware buried in the same spot.
What happened to the recovered cartridges
Joe Lewandowski, who owned the waste collection company responsible for managing the landfill, said he auctioned off a significant number of the recovered items, raising more than $100,000 that went toward supporting local institutions, including a library and a museum. Fuel Entertainment also donated a recovered “E.T.” cartridge to the Smithsonian Institution, where it remains part of the collection at the American History Museum, though it isn’t currently on public display.
