A new documentary chronicles the excavation of Atari games from a landfill in New Mexico as the discovered game cartridges hit eBay for auction.
The games in the documentary, which is called Atari: Game Over, are also being sold by the Tularosa Basin Historical Society and include the famous Atari 2600 E.T. , The Extra-Terrestrial.
Most of the auctions begin between $50 and $100, with some of the games boasting an asking price of up to $500.
The games were discarded by Atari in the thousands back in 1983. By that time, stores had begun returning the games to the company, signaling the end of the Atari fad was approaching. Atari itself was not equipped to handle the returns, instead deciding to just throw them in a landfill in Alamogordo which had promised to keep looters away, something that had been an issue at the landfill in El Paso, Texas, where its warehouse is located.
Microsoft funded the documentary and it is available for Xbox Live members starting on Nov. 20. There's no word yet as to whether or not the documentary will be released to other platforms, with the exclusivity of the documentary to Xbox stemming from the fact that it is sponsored by Microsoft.
Interested game buyers should perhaps hold off on bidding, however. Joe Lewandowski, the historical society's vice president who supervised the excavation operation, said that after the first 100 games are sold there are around 750 or 800 more games to be sold.
There will be an additional 70 copies of the E.T. game sold through future eBay auctions. "Then that is it. This will never occur again," said the city in a statement.
In addition to selling many of the games, Alamogordo is also giving away copies to museums around the world.
"This game is one of the limited numbers recovered from the "OLD ALAMOGORDO LANDFILL", also known as the "ATARI DUMP". Purchaser will receive the game as portrayed in photo above, City property I.D. tag, the Certificate of Authenticity and a narrative with photos of the 1983 burial and the 2014 excavation proving the legend to be true. The seller does not represent that this item is operable; it was buried for 30 years. SOLD AS IS," says the eBay post from the city.
While around 800 of the games are being sold on eBay, there are reportedly millions at the landfill where Atari dumped the games.
