Atari: Game Over Page #4

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This was an explosion.

Even those of us who

were in the middle of it

were shaking our heads, going,

oh my god, this is amazing.

We were the most

successful coin-op company,

we were the dominant

consumer company.

And we sat around literally

saying to ourselves,

what are the

categories of games?

What are the

capabilities of the 2600?

Where is this industry going?

Everything that Joe

has put together on this

Atari graveyard, so far,

seems to be coming true.

I'm in favor of the

Atari games being dug up,

because it is the largest

myth in the gaming world.

I believe that Joe

just thinks it would

be an outstanding

event for Alamogordo,

and a way to get us on the map.

On Tuesday,

Alamogordo's city commission

approved a deal to dig

in the old landfill

within the next six months.

The city

has given its OK,

and now the state has

given them approval.

Film crews will

be in Alamogordo.

The documentary

film crews will

start probing the dump for

their strange buried treasure

at 9:
30 AM.

So, this is an

impressive looking machine

out here.

What the hell is it doing?

What's this drilling rig does,

it goes down, straight down,

and takes out core

samples, and brings

up whatever's in the ground.

We've narrowed it down

from 300 acres down

to about 5 to 10 acres.

And so, What we're doing now is

trying to get it even closer.

We're looking for things

like somebody's mail...

you know, the postmarks...

newspapers, things like that.

Looking for dates.

We're looking for

September of '83.

Don't you think

people are going

to be disappointed

if we dig it up,

and we don't actually

find the E.T. games?

I mean, wouldn't that be?

That would be very

disappointing for all of us.

All the work.

Three years of work

put into this thing.

So what do we do then?

You're just going to dig up the

whole landfill, or something'?

No, we can't.

The environment department

will not allow that to happen.

You're saying that

there's a possibility

that this could turn out to

be a giant waste of time.

I think I've said it

before, I'll bet the car,

I won't bet the house.

Most everybody, at least

in the Western world,

has played a video

game of some kind.

They've gone to an arcade.

They know the Atari brand.

They certainly know E.T.

And so I think there's

a universal curiosity

about this game.

You know, something did happen

those couple of nights in 1983

that I think it merits

serious investigation.

So why did I

decide to go to Alamogordo?

I'm very much

interested in the impact

that a particular

game or an industry

has made within a cultural

and social context.

What's striking about

the Atari E.T. game

in the Alamogordo

landfill is that they're

there and not in museums.

I think this is what

excites many people

who keep this narrative alive

is they want to get these items.

They want visible proof.

They want some kind

of tangible evidence

that that dump did take place.

I've

been professionally

making games since about '94.

But more than that,

I'm somebody who

has been chiefly doing

a lot of historical work

with video games.

Trying to preserve

video games, and get

people to understand that

video games are more like art.

And so I've been doing

a lot of video game

preservation and education.

I always thought, one day,

I'm going to get over there,

I'm going to see,

finally, once and for all,

like, where it's buried.

I almost don't even really

need to know what's in it.

I almost want to keep

that mystery alive.

To me, under that landfill

is actually the burial

site of an entire industry.

Because what affected Atari at

the time, affected everyone.

And everything that I thought

was going to go on forever

stopped.

And it stopped almost

at that same moment

that these... whatever's

there... was buried.

So, for me, I want to

find out what is there.

It's like opening the

Ark of the Covenant.

It's like, you kind

of want to look,

but is my face

going to melt off?

I don't know.

I have told my wife that I

will be going to New Mexico.

And she asked me why.

And I started to

explain, and she said,

I don't... I don't need to know.

Just go do it.

You want

it Ernest on screen?

Oh, whatever.

Ernest is my fancy writer name.

Ernie is what

everybody calls me.

All right, so

we'll use your writer's name.

How would you describe yourself?

Screenwriter, novelist,

gentleman adventurer.

The thing about having an Atari,

for me, was it was a simulator.

Like, I could simulate

being Indiana Jones,

or simulate being E.T.

Having access to that.

And coming from a family

of, like, modest means,

and not having to, you

know, beg for quarters.

And just being able to

play as much as you wanted.

That was such a huge

part of my childhood,

and fed my imagination.

And that was the inspiration

for Ready Player One, my novel.

The idea of, like,

what if Willy Wonka

had been a video game designer?

And he held his golden ticket

contest inside his greatest

video game creation?

That all came from

finding those Easter

eggs in all those Atari games.

I feel like a little

kid, this past week.

Like, getting ready

to go to camp.

Alamogordo, and the

Atari graveyard.

For me, it's like holy ground.

And that was when I

realized my DeLorean

is already in New Mexico.

I just have to fly to Santa Fe,

pick up my DeLorean from George

R. R. Martin... who was

using it for the Back

to the Future screening... and

drive it down to Alamogordo.

I could stop at the

very large array,

and also hit Roswell, and

then go to Alamogordo,

and be there for the excavation

of the Atari graveyard.

As soon as those, you know,

tumblers clicked into place,

I'm like, the most epic

road trip of all time.

I have to go.

It's like I'm Indy going to

Westeros to meet Doc Brown,

and then save E.T.

Boom.

Have a great drive, and a

great time in Alamogordo.

George, thank you so much.

I appreciate it man.

My pleasure.

This is

a good piece of evidence,

because right here.

Is that the

date, right there?

Yeah, a date.

You've got Sunday, October

2, 1983, right there.

That's good, right?

Yeah.

Atari was from the 23rd

to the 29th of September.

So this is like a week later.

Well, it's not even a week.

It's like two or

three days later.

Well, I'm not

very good at math.

The Ataris

would have been on the bottom,

then garbage from

the following weeks

would've been piled on top.

So where are the games?

This is following week.

No games yet.

No Atari stuff at all?

No, not yet.

Not yet.

OK.

I love the challenges.

I love the mystery.

I love the... especially when

people say they'll never

be found, or they're not there.

That just makes the

challenge even better.

I put three to four years

of this research, planning,

the politics, the

environment department.

I mean, many, many, many

things to get to this point.

Yeah, no.

It's very important

that we find them.

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