ET found in the desert

[The Enigmatic Dr X]

And so, it seems, the rumours are true...

http://www.polygon.com/2014/4/26/5656282/atari-et-landfill-new-mexico-found-cartridges

[Trout]

This story is funny as hell. Also, I liked that game.

[Professor Bear]

Given the well-known woes of their current console, it's especially funny that Microsoft is bankrolling a documentary about a console manufacturer that came a cropper by gambling everything on exclusivity deals.

[Fungus]

Is this an exercise in schadenfreude?
At a loss over the significance of this story.

[Professor Bear]

It's nerd clickbait, as the rumored existence of such a landfill has been an urban legend for decades among gamers and sci-fi fans - though fair play the website reporting this (Polygon) is a notorious shill for Microsoft and the story is being used to promote XBL original programming.
Personally, I would have promoted programming by announcing "OUR FIRST ORIGINAL DRAMA IS A SERIES ABOUT SEXBOTS" on every forum on the web and then sat back and watched the cash roll in.  Nerds sure do love their sexbots.

[TordelBack]

Robophobe.

[JOE SOAP]

It's nerd clickbait, as the rumored existence of such a landfill has been an urban legend for decades among gamers and sci-fi fans

It was never even an urban legend; said burial was reported at the time of its taking place in numerous articles and reports, including The New York Times for whom the landfill operation was confirmed by Atari.

Indeed it is nothing more than a promotion stunt.

[Frank]

Doesn't news of this excavation belong in the 2000ad Predicted The Future thread, alongside a picture of Filmore Faro wearing a couple of Atari cartridges as earrings?

[Spaceghost]

Nerds sure do love their sexbots.

Because they never say "Euur, I'm not doing it with a NERD". Unless you program them to. Which I would.

ET on the Atari 2600 was one of the first video games I ever completed which had more to do with my obsession for ET than it did with the quality of the game.

[IAMTHESYSTEM]

ET meets the Emperors Space Marines. A very,very short game.

[Professor Bear]

Nerds sure do love their sexbots.

Because they never say "Euur, I'm not doing it with a NERD". Unless you program them to. Which I would.

It is almost always part of the sexbots' evil plan that they have to specifically shag someone geeky, socially inadequate, and/or devoid of physically attractive traits.
For some reason this is a very popular trope in sci-fi - I think the Japanese name for the Battlestar Galactica remake even translates as "Sex Robots In Space".

[GrinningChimera]

Because they never say "Euur, I'm not doing it with a NERD". Unless you program them to. Which I would.

Could Spaceghost be Lobster Random?

[ThryllSeekyr]

I own one of those Atari E.T. game cartriges and might still have it somewhere.

I didn't think the game was so bad....