http://news.xbox.com/2014/04/ent-atari-dig?linkId=8077377

Well. I guess that solves that. Just wanted to share news of this "urban legend" being officially confirmed.

Never heard of the legend but thats pretty damn cool. It brings back a lot of memories as a kid. I actually really liked that game. Thanks for link

Ars is kind of live-blogging this (slowly, there's not that much happening).

http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2014/04/landfill-excavation-unearths-years-of-crushed-atari-treasure/

https://twitter.com/MeganGeuss

Some of us never questioned it as an urban legend because everyone knew the game was one of the worst ever made and didn't sell.

Even if they didn't end up at that precise landfill, they most assuredly made it to one.

It's funny to see gamers complain today about how bad a game is, and yet none of them come anywhere close to the crap that was "ET".

That game may have had the biggest effect than any other game on the gaming industry. And not in a good way!

Looks like ET...*puts on glasses*... can finally phone home.

LOL that cool and hilarious, hahaha. Some companies should do this as well, would be a nice surprise in the future.

Exactly. Folks these days will complain and call any game "bad" and have no idea what a http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/1/1f/YOU%27RE_WINNER_trophy.jpg is.

You fools! You relesed them from their prison. Now the only thing that awaits us is ten thousend years of bad games.

I am unsure of the "urban legend" is disproved or proved. I did not see any "numbers" for excavated cartridges. I did, however, read this little gem from the article:

It sounds like more of a publicity stunt than anything else

I kind of like the game, too. It's not as bad as everyone says. In fact, the gameplay is a bit ahead of its time. The problem is that the dev was given almost under a month to complete a game. This game could have been finished and better made if it simply copied Space Invaders, but a less commonly used type of gameplay was attempted, instead.

Oddly, E.T. for the 2600 sold very well. Atari just overestimated how many sales the game would get. Their 2600 version of Pac-Man had the same problem. Atari was trying to rely on big names only when they made more copies of these things than they should have.

E.T. is just a dull game compared to Big Rigs, anyways. Big Rigs deserves the title of being the worst game of all time. It hardly even functions. E.T. at least functioned.

I wonder if these cartridges still work. Doubt it, but never know until you try.

Except... ET was released as a completed game.

WOW someone must have really not liked that game!

Someone?

Yeah, it was a really, really bad game. Many of today's gamers never got to experience it, and they're lucky. I guess when one's point of reference has scaled with games, it's hard to imagine a "bad game" when ET isn't in the scale.

I can't say there haven't been bad games since then, of course, but I suppose my scale will always be more lenient because ET is on my scale.

*shivers*

My goodness, was it ever a bad game.

Didn't really read it til just now. Oh poor atari.

The legend was that Atari dumped a whole whack of ET, as well as some others, games in the landfill because they couldn't sell them. Of course Atari denied this.

What was found was a large pit of cartridges, many of which are ET. I think it's proven.

Mujokan posted a link that goes a bit more indepth.

That game was so bad. So was that Pac-Man version. Like Legion64 said today's bad games can be considered GoaT's compared to some of the **** sandwiches of yesteryear.

Isn't part of the legend they made more copies of the game than there were actual consoles? This was one of those moments that forever changed the gaming industry.

I just stumbled on this news and was coming here to post it but it appears I was late to the party.

I wonder if they're going to sell copies of the game they they exhumed. That would be the ultimate irony.

Sounds familiar. I'm not sure, though.

I was always more interested in the Swordquest stories than the ET ones.

YYYYYYEEEEEEAAAAAAHHHHHHHHhhhhhhhh!!!!!! {Cue The Who's Won't Get Fooled Again}.

I wander if these will be put on Ebay.