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TechAtari

These once-buried Atari games sold for more than $100,000

By
Ben Geier
Ben Geier
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By
Ben Geier
Ben Geier
Down Arrow Button Icon
September 1, 2015, 11:28 AM ET
Courtesy of Universal Pictures

Perhaps the most infamous product in the history of video games has just sold for $107,000, reports Engadget.

Here’s the background: in 1982, Atari made a game based on the movie E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial. The game was terrible. So terrible, in fact, that is is considered one of the worst video games of all time. Really, it’s the The Room of video games. This game was so bad, in fact, that rather than try to sell all of the copies, Atari decided to bury them in the desert.

A few years ago, they dug them up — an event chronicled in the documentary “Atari: Game Over“. And a whole bunch of them, plus some other games that were buried at the same site, just sold for a total of $107,930.15. A copy of ET was the highest selling item, fetching more than $1,535.

No word on if any Reese’s Pieces were included in the sale.

About the Author
By Ben Geier
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