Unearthing E.T.: A Legendary Atari Mystery Finally Gets Closure

Are millions of E.T. game cartridges for the Atari 2600 really buried in a New Mexico landfill? That question will finally be answered on Saturday, as film and excavation crews gather to dig up one of the greatest video game stories of all time.

The story dates back to 1983, when Atari dumped millions of unsold game cartridges and other Atari hardware in a landfill in Alamogordo, New Mexico. Legend has it one of the games dumped in the landfill was E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial. In fact, it may constitute the majority of the cartridges buried there.