Hundreds of copies of what is often regarded as the worst video game in history have been unearthed from a landfill site in the New Mexico desert in the United States.
Documentary filmmakers discovered the E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial cartridges in Alamogordo, about 320 kilometres south-east of Albuquerque.

The failure of the ET game, based on Steven Spielberg’s film, was a major factor in the collapse of the game’s producer, Atari.
Some gamers speculated that thousands or even millions of the unwanted cartridges were buried in the area.
Who dumped the videos, how many they buried and why they did it inspired the dig and a documentary of the event by Microsoft Corp’s Xbox Entertainment Studios.
“For a lot of people, it’s something that they’ve wondered about and it’s been rumoured and talked about for 30 years, and they just want an answer,” the film’s director, Zak Penn, said.
When the game was first released in 1982 it retailed for about $US30. It now often sells on eBay for less than $US5. Continue reading →