Dive Brief:

• The Tularosa Basin Historical Society in Alamogordo, NM placed 100 of the infamous "E.T. the Extra Terrestrial” Atari video game cartridges up for auction on eBay. The bids generated a tidy sum for the organization, which netted the city $37,000.
• Bids came in from around the world. The highest bid for the now legendary 80s E.T.-themed cartridge (which was a spectacular flop at its time of release) was for one that was still in its original box: $1,537.
• The city of Alamogordo, NM retained ownership of the cartridges from the Atari game because the excavation site was a landfill owned by Alamogordo. 

Dive Insight:

A documentary film covering the excavation of hundreds of the games, which was deemed a complete sales and critical failure, is opening on November 20. Atari: Game Over was filmed at the landfill in April. The cost of the dig was pegged at over $50,000.

In 1982, when the cartridges were initially released, speculation arose that the video games themselves were a factor in the demise of Atari. Now the recovered games are fetching thousands of dollars each and museums from Washington D.C. to Rome have expressed an interest in showcasing the cartridges. What a difference a few decades can make!