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Concrete and Clay: The Life and Afterlife of E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial for the Atari 2600

ABSTRACT In September 1983 Atari Inc. buried truckloads of its poorly designed film/game tie-in E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial in a landfill in Alamogordo, NM. The game was buried with the epitaph, “The Worst Game of All Time,” as its design flaws are often cited as a major catalyst of the video games industry crash of 1983–4. Atari's stealthy attempt to dispose of surplus stock has triggered 25 years of curiosity, rumor, doubt, conspiracy theory and archaeological fantasy. This obituary records several phases of E.T.'s life and afterlife: its conception and compromised design as an Atari game program and “worst game of all time,” its shift from failed product to waste, and its afterlife status as relic and memorialized object. I offer a biography of the deceased in an attempt to understand the life cycle of an infamous artifact.