The Craptacular ‘E.T’ is Finally Being Freed from that Legendary Atari Landfill

Perhaps you've heard the nerdly gaming urban legend? The one regarding 1982‘s E.T the Extra-Terrestrial? This little slice of shite hit the Atari 2600 in the wake of the movie, and was utterly and irredeemably awful. So much so, it is still notorious as one of the worst commercial failures in the history of the medium. And so much so, unsold copies were allegedly buried in a mysterious landfill site.

Such claims have remained unsubstantiated for years, because... it's effing E.T, and no bastard wants to risk digging up thousands of copies of that. It's a little like the curse of Tutankhamun's tomb, but far more terrifying.

But no more, it seems. Kotaku reports that a band of foolhardy souls --all with their wills in order, presumably-- are going in, starting April 23. This New Mexico expedition is a joint venture between Fuel Entertainment, Microsoft and Lightbox Entertainment, all three of whom could surely find better things to do with their time. Rolling in piles of cashtacular, counting their pubes, anything but this.

If you're interested in the fate of E.T and Pac-Man, you can check out more details back at Kotaku.