Atari video game cartridges unearthed from New Mexico landfill

In 1983, during the United States video game crisis, Atari sent trucks filled with video games and consoles to a landfill in Alamogordo, New Mexico. For decades, the story of these buried games remained a legend among enthusiasts.

In 2014, an archaeological excavation confirmed the history by recovering approximately 1,300 cartridges at a depth of nine meters. The find included over 40 different titles, Atari 2600 consoles, and controllers, some still in their original packaging or with store labels.

Among the recovered items were copies of ‘E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial’, a game developed on an extremely tight schedule to meet the 1982 holiday season. While the game was a major commercial failure, the recovered cartridges have since become collector's items, with one copy selling for over $1,500 at auction.