Atari games buried in landfill net US$37,000 on eBay
PUBLISHED : Tuesday, 18 November, 2014, 4:10am
UPDATED : Tuesday, 18 November, 2014, 4:10am
Associated Press in Alamogordo, New Mexico
A screengrab from the ET: The Extra-Terrestrial game. Photo: Reuters
What some have called the worst video game ever has fetched thousands of dollars for a city in New Mexico.
An old ET: The Extra-Terrestrial game cartridge drew the highest bid among 100 Atari games auctioned on eBay by Alamogordo officials.
The games were part of a cache of 800 Atari games buried more than 30 years ago in a landfill and dug up in April.
Joe Lewandowski, a consultant for the film companies that documented the dig, says the online auction, which ended on Thursday, generated US$37,000.
"It's really gratifying to see that happening because again to everybody it was a bunch of garbage in the landfill," Lewandowski said.
The "ET" game, still in its original box, sold for US$1,537 to a buyer in Canada. The interest in the games has gone global, with online bidders from countries including Germany and Sweden snapping up items. A museum in Rome has opened an exhibit on the dig.
"I keep getting messages from people around the world asking me if there are any more left, it's crazy," Lewandowski said.
Reports that truckloads of the game were buried in the landfill have been legend since the early 1980s.
More than 1,300 games were found, including other such titles as Centipedes, Warlords and Asteroids. The dig cost more than US$50,000.
LightBox Entertainment and Fuel Entertainment funded the dig, for a documentary that is due to come out on Thursday.