They’re going to dig up that ET landfill in El Paso

While it might end up putting a bit of a dampener on the plot of the AVGN movie, one company could finally be about to find out what exactly Atari dumped in the El Paso desert all those years ago. Chances are, it's more than a few E.T. cartridges.

If you don't know of the legend, it's essentially that after spending upwards of $25 million for the E.T. license back in the early 80s, Atari gave its developer, Howard Warshaw, just a few weeks to program a game based around the film. What resulted, is what many would describe as the worst game ever made. Atari were convinced however, that thanks to brand strength it would sell five million copies. Ultimately it's thought that as many as 3.5 million may have remained unsold.

Wishing to rid itself of the stink of failure, Atari supposedly did what many would do in an embarrassing situation, it buried the evidence. Literally, in the El Paso desert.

Who knew a boy and his alien would cause so much trouble?

Now though, Canadian film production company Fuel Industries, has been given permission to excavate the site over the next six months. The idea is to film a documentary surrounding the dig.

KitGuru Says: This could be a pretty interesting documentary, especially if old Atari employees were interviewed about the collapse of the industry that followed the E.T. debacle. 

[Thanks krqe]

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