Is E.T. Really Buried In That New Mexico Landfill? [VIDEOS]

The year was 1982, and E.T., the movie produced by Steven Spielberg was ready to take off!  Unfortunately, the Atari video game produced in a hurry to accompany the movie did not.

Spielberg had signed a $25 million dollar deal with Atari, one of the first makers of video game consoles and games themselves, to develop the E.T. video game. It took only six weeks, and it was then rushed to the shelves in time for Christmas.  It bottomed out.  No one bought it.  We're not exactly talking quality craftsmanship here.

I remember this.  I was working at DeOrsey's Audio and Video store in the Maine Coast Mall in Ellsworth at the time and video games were just taking off.  We couldn't keep the Atari game consoles in stock that Christmas, they were flying off the shelves.  Although, the E.T. video game was not.

People complained that the game just featured "E.T. falling through holes" and that the storyline was nothing like the movie.

Atari ended up sitting on 5 million unsold E.T. video games.  Now legend has it that Atari contracted to have the exorbitant amount of unsold video game cartridges and other gear buried in the Alamogordo Landfill in New Mexico, in the middle of the night.

Recently, New Mexican authorities has cleared the way for three companies funded by Microsoft Corp. to unearth the video game cartridges and film the doings for an XBoxOne documentary.  Film makers may even hold a contest to giveaway what is unearthed, if anything.

The landfill has been closed since the late 1980s.

No date has been set for the dig at this point.  We'll keep you informed!