Atari Dump To Be Excavated In New Mexico, Finally

A legendary Atari dump’s excavation in New Mexico has been approved by local authorities, and the long-storied contents of the dumping grounds of a failed title nearly 30 years ago will be part of a coming documentary.

The Atari dump’s excavation follows three decades of intrigue regarding the video game graveyard in Alamogordo, New Mexico. Several truckloads of Atari junk was dumped in the desert graveyard — most notably reams of the notoriously despised title E.T., which has gone down in gaming history as an unplayable failure.

Explosion.com has a dim view of the Atari dump’s excavation, opining:

“Fuel Industries has been given a permit by the City of Alamogordo to take a six month period to excavate the site that is believed to be where Atari dumped a bunch of stuff. They plan on filming the whole thing to show the world what they discover, but the reality is that they might just uncover a bunch of junk.”

The writer adds:

“For me, I live in New Mexico and could, in theory, head down for this, but the reality is that no one wants to go to Alamogordo unless they have a very good reason, and old copies of E.T. doesn’t sound that promising.”

NPR quotes a source on the possible contents of the Atari dump, which is likely to pique gaming fanatics either way:

“That September, according to newspaper accounts, 14 trucks backed up to the dump and dropped their loads … Company spokespeople told the local press that the waste was mostly broken and returned merchandise — consoles, boxes, and cartidges.”

NPR also quotes one person who repeated speculation at the time that the Atari dump was a method of handing excess game and console inventory:

“The rumor is that Atari decided to deal with its oversupply by simply burying all of those extra cartridges in the Alamogordo landfill, crushing them with bulldozers and covering them with cement.”

Are you interested in seeing what the Atari dump has been hiding for 30 years?