PSA: The documentary "Playing With Power" is now available on crackle.

[Howard_Casto]

So yeah this one focuses on Nintendo specifically.   I've seen a few VG docs by these guys before and while they aren't top shelf they are entertaining.    Time to download that crackle app long enough to watch this then delete it. 

[Ond]

I've been following most of these docos, the one on Sony was interesting. Have you seen the one on ET Atari burial site?

[pbj]

The ET urban legend was “millions of copies underneath six feet of cement” and the reality was “a bunch of ---steaming pile of meadow muffin--- from someone’s office in garbage bags and thrown out in the middle of the desert.”

 

[Ond]

erhm yeah...but no, they still had to dig around for it. It wasn't just lying there.  Not millions though.  Where did all those cartridges end up though?  They sure did make plenty of them...that didn't sell.

[Howard_Casto]

The ET urban legend was “millions of copies underneath six feet of cement” and the reality was “a bunch of ---steaming pile of meadow muffin--- from someone’s office in garbage bags and thrown out in the middle of the desert.”

 

Seriously man do you not know they dug that up a few years back.   They found at least a truckload worth of atari carts.   They were selling them on ebay at one point.   I've got to imagine the smell would be horrible.   

[pbj]

Yes, one of my childhood friends was at that dig because I tipped him off.  He’s in one of the panning crowd shots in that movie.  I’m aware of it.   

Again, the urban legend was “millions of ET cartridges under six feet of cement.”  Not a few boxes of broken crap.  Which was how he characterized it.... and he was there....


Personally, I think it got conflated with the “thousands of unsold Atari Jaguar games in a cave story” which was also partially true.

 

[Mike A]

People always doubt pbj. He is usually right.

[pbj]

https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2015/08/881-e-t-cartridges-buried-in-new-mexico-desert-sell-for-107930-15/


Sounds like fewer than 2,000 games if I’m doing the cocktail napkin math correctly.  That would fit in the back of a pickup truck.  I remember the eBay auctions.

Anyway, I enjoyed the documentary and it was cool the story had some truth to it. 

 

[Howard_Casto]

I never heard the rumor that millions were dumped there and quite frankly I would laugh anyone out of the room that tried to say that they did.   I heard "a truckload" and considering how long and how deep they were allowed to dig yeah... that's about right.   

[bobbyb13]

erhm yeah...but no, they still had to dig around for it. It wasn't just lying there.  Not millions though.  Where did all those cartridges end up though?  They sure did make plenty of them...that didn't sell.

One of them wound up at my house.
That game was so bad and frustrating I remember that my sister and I thought maybe the joysticks were failing.

Of course by the time we had the disappointment of Pac-Man for the 2600 it was obvious that a lot of games were going to just suck pond water compared to real arcade machines.

[Ond]

erhm yeah...but no, they still had to dig around for it. It wasn't just lying there.  Not millions though.  Where did all those cartridges end up though?  They sure did make plenty of them...that didn't sell.

One of them wound up at my house.
That game was so bad and frustrating I remember that my sister and I thought maybe the joysticks were failing.

Of course by the time we had the disappointment of Pac-Man for the 2600 it was obvious that a lot of games were going to just suck pond water compared to real arcade machines.

And yet the 2600 was hot stuff when I was a kid.  I never was lucky enough to have one so I spent time at friends houses who did have it. 
To comment on the actual doco Howard mentioned.  I like it, it has a nice feel mixing interviews with cool shots of diorama's of scenes of Nintendo workers.  The background story of Nintendo pre toy company era is detailed and shows the gradual transition into video games.  Failed attempts by the company to branch into..of all things a taxi service, a radio station and 'Love Hotels'.  Good stuff.

[pbj]

I never heard the rumor that millions were dumped there and quite frankly I would laugh anyone out of the room that tried to say that they did.   I heard "a truckload" and considering how long and how deep they were allowed to dig yeah... that's about right.

https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/five-million-et-pieces/



That was the version I heard in summer 1999.

 

[Ond]

I never heard the rumor that millions were dumped there and quite frankly I would laugh anyone out of the room that tried to say that they did.   I heard "a truckload" and considering how long and how deep they were allowed to dig yeah... that's about right.

https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/five-million-et-pieces/



That was the version I heard in summer 1999.

 

and there is the answer to my question of where the actual unsold cartridges all went - "While Atari did bury some millions of units of unsold game cartridge overstock, that (publicized) action took place near the company’s headquarters in California, not in New Mexico". 

digging in the wrong spot ... 

[bobbyb13]

Apparently it is part of a series?!
Watched it with the boy, learned a few fun facts actually.

The people who made it get bonus points for having one of the original Nintendo USA guys playing DK on somebody's MAME cab!

 

[Howard_Casto]

Yeah that was cringeworthy.   The cab was like 4 feet wide with a hideous franken panel and they didn't even bother to fix the aspect ratio of donky kong before filming.   This is why we get on to people that make that ---steaming pile of meadow muffin---, so Howard Phillips doesn't cry.