Las Vegas Sun

March 29, 2024

Unearthed Atari games fetch $100K-plus

atariGames

Juan Carlos Llorca / AP file

Workers sift through trash April 26, 2014,in search for decades-old Atari “E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial” game cartridges in Alamogordo, N.M. A cache of Atari game cartridges dug up in an Alamogordo landfill last year has generated more than $100,000 in sales. An estimated 850 games that sold on eBay over the last several months in 2015 brought in close to $108,000.

A cache of Atari game cartridges dug up in a New Mexico landfill last year has generated more than $100,000 in sales in the last several months.

The Alamogordo Daily News reports (http://bit.ly/1hlj3l2 ) that an estimated 850 games that sold on eBay has brought in close to $108,000.

Joe Lewandowski, a consultant for the film companies that documented the dig to retrieve the games, announced the figure at an Alamogordo City Commission meeting earlier this week.

Of the revenue, Alamogordo will receive about $65,000. The Tularosa Basin Historical Society will get $16,000.

About $26,000 will go toward expenses such as shipping fees.

The April 2014 dig ended speculation surrounding an urban legend that Atari had discarded hundreds of games, including "E.T. The Extraterrestrial," more than 30 years ago.

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