A: When E.T. the Extra Terrestrial became a blockbuster phenomenon in 1982, the Atari Corporation jumped at the chance to ride the movie’s coattails to video game greatness. But with only an eight-week production period (half the normal time necessary to create a game), Atari’s over-zealous actions made for an overwhelmingly boring and frustrating “adventure.”
To be blunt: kids hated it. Even worse? The negative word of mouth spread like wildfire, zapped sales, and left Atari with millions of leftover games. Not wanting the remaining cartridges to reflect poorly on the bottom line, the company sent 14 truckloads of merchandise from their plant in El Paso, Texas, to be dumped in a city landfill in New Mexico.
Once there, they were crushed, flattened, and poured into a concrete slab! An overzealous burial, certainly, but Atari was dead-set on making sure these E.T.’s never found their way home.
Article comments
1 - Peter
The Steerable Ball in Bowling. Easily.
2 - Anand Ramachandran
ATARI's biggest mistake?
Those awful arcade adaptations for their 2600 console must rank right up there.
Terrible versions of classics such as Pac Man, Defender, and Dig-Dug were the cause of many disappointed and disgruntled 2600 owners rightfully feeling shafted.
To give credit where it's due - centipede and phoenix were acceptable, though.