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The Beige Years

Atari E.T.The Burial Howard Scott Warshaw Called False

Atari E.T. really was buried, yet its programmer Howard Scott Warshaw answered "I say false".

The legend is true, and stranger: the night trucks, the guards, the concrete poured once kids got in, and the dig that found it.

Subject
Atari's E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, 1982: the licensing deal, Howard Scott Warshaw's five-week schedule, the cartridge overproduction, the New Mexico landfill burial, and its role in the 1983 North American video game crash, 1982
Chapters
9
Sources
8
Credits
14
Corrections
0

Sources

8
  • Book5
  • Interview3

Numbered in the order the description lists them. Read dates are when the page was consulted; the live page may have changed since.

  1. [1]
    Book Steven L. Kent

    The Ultimate History of Video Games: From Pong to Pokémon and Beyond

    No online copy on file
  2. [2]
    Book Connie Bruck

    Master of the Game: Steve Ross and the Creation of Time Warner

    No online copy on file
  3. [3]
    Book Marty Goldberg and Curt Vendel

    Atari Inc.: Business Is Fun

    No online copy on file
  4. [4]
    Book Tristan Donovan

    Replay: The History of Video Games

    No online copy on file
  5. [5]
    Interview Digital Press Scott Stilphen

    DP Interviews… Howard Scott Warshaw

    No online copy on file
  6. [6]
    Book Nick Montfort and Ian Bogost

    Racing the Beam: The Atari Video Computer System

    No online copy on file
  7. [7]
    Interview NPR Geoff Brumfiel

    Total Failure: Creating The World's Worst Video Game

    No online copy on file
  8. [8]
    Interview WIRED Jerry Bonner

    Howard Scott Warshaw Pleads Not Guilty to Killing Video Games

    No online copy on file

Image & music credits

14
  • License unknown9
  • CC BY-SA 4.02
  • CC BY 2.02
  • CC BY-SA 3.01

14 photos, from the hosts linked below. Each file name links to the file's page, which carries the full license terms.

#UseFileAuthorLicense
1 Photo https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:FilePath/Atari E.T. Dig- Alamogordo, New Mexico (14036097792).jpg Taylor Hatmaker, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0 License unknown
2 Photo https://www.ataricompendium.com/archives/interviews/james heller/interview james heller 5.jpg James Heller, via the Atari Compendium interview (Scott Stilphen, 2014) License unknown
3 Photo https://www.ataricompendium.com/archives/interviews/james heller/interview james heller 7.jpg James Heller, via the Atari Compendium interview (Scott Stilphen, 2014) License unknown
4 Photo I40Truck.JPG Arne Hückelheim CC BY-SA 3.0
5 Photo https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:FilePath/Howard Scott Warshaw, 2020 (gvtddI1JLDY).jpg UCIBrenICS, Wikimedia Commons License unknown
6 Photo Atari E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial Cartridge.png Miguelon756-5303 CC BY-SA 4.0
7 Photo M-ABEU Learjet 45 Ryanair SCQ.jpg Bene Riobó CC BY-SA 4.0
8 Photo https://www.ataricompendium.com/archives/interviews/james heller/interview james heller 1.jpg James Heller, via the Atari Compendium interview (Scott Stilphen, 2014) License unknown
9 Photo https://www.ataricompendium.com/archives/interviews/james heller/interview james heller 8.jpg James Heller, via the Atari Compendium interview (Scott Stilphen, 2014) License unknown
10 Photo https://www.ataricompendium.com/archives/interviews/james heller/interview james heller 3.jpg James Heller, via the Atari Compendium interview (Scott Stilphen, 2014) License unknown
11 Photo https://www.ataricompendium.com/archives/interviews/james heller/interview james heller 7.jpg James Heller, via the Atari Compendium interview (Scott Stilphen, 2014) License unknown
12 Photo https://www.ataricompendium.com/archives/interviews/james heller/interview james heller 5.jpg James Heller, via the Atari Compendium interview (Scott Stilphen, 2014) License unknown
13 Photo ET! (14027894224).jpg Jason from The Wasteland CC BY 2.0
14 Photo More Atari Products (14047449473).jpg Jason from The Wasteland CC BY 2.0

Corrections

No corrections logged since publication.

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