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Alamogordo New Mexico.
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A small town, about
30,000 people
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but it seems to attract
more than its fair share
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of strange occurrences.
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It's right around the
corner from where they
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tested the first atomic bomb.
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It's also the grave site of
Ham, the first chimpanzee...
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and really, the first
American... to go into space.
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And it's the place where
this guy broke the land
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speed record in a rocket sled.
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Which is cool, but
also kind of strange.
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Despite all of this, the
thing that Alamogordo is
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best known for is its landfill.
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The dump.
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Because supposedly, that's where
Atari buried E.T., the worst
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video game of all time.
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It's been described
as the worst video game ever.
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E.T. for Atari.
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Today we're going to talk
about the worst of the worst.
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Here's our top 10
worst games ever.
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ET, the Extra Terrestrial.
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Now here's the
thing about ET, it's
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widely regarded as the worst
video game of all time.
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Worst game ever.
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Here We have this myth,
or this legend of something
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that happened 40 years ago.
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Do
do do do do do do do do.
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Son of a bitch, get out
of the fucking hole.
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If you grab a
piece of the phone,
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the FBI agent keeps
attacking you.
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And if you take a
step in any direction,
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you fall into a hole.
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And if you get out of the
hole, you fall right back down.
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One of the
major design flaws of the games
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was that ET fell into pits.
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Dammit.
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Shit.
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Oh, come on.
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And guess what.
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It now lives out it's
days in a landfill.
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It's rumored that decades
ago, truckloads of that game
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were dumped in the
Alamogordo landfill.
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The idea that they had
so many of these things,
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and they were so unable to sell
them, give them away, Whatever,
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they literally had
to drive them out
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into the middle of the desert,
and bury them like a gangster.
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It's almost too
crazy to be believed.
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I think it's kind of silly.
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Because it's urban legend.
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It's just a great
story, I think.
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I
believe that this story
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endures because the
adults just don't get it.
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And that's satisfying
to young people.
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HOWARD SCOTT'
Whenever you
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look at what the reasons are
for it, nothing makes sense.
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What drove someone to need to
hide this stuff so intensely?
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When I was five
years old, Pong came out.
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And my dad got it for me
and my brother and sister.
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When the Atari 2600 came out...
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Atari!
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...I got
every cartridge
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I could get my hands on.
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I played it constantly.
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Atari was like Xbox and
PlayStation rolled into one.
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It had an 80% market share, and
the 2600 was its killer app.
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Adventure was probably my
favorite game on the 2600.
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I spent three weeks
sitting in front
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of my TV trying to find
the first Easter egg
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ever hidden in a video game.
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It looks kind of stupid now.
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You were just a block, who
picked up an invisible dot,
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and carried it into
the special room
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to discover the
programmer's name.
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But to me, finding that hidden
screen was like a revelation.
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As an adult, I still play
a lot of video games.
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But I also write and direct
movies, that's my job.
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I've worked on a lot
of big comic book
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movies, the kind they make
shitty video games out of.
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And I even wrote some of
the shitty video games.
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But I'm also fascinated by
myths and urban legends.
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In fact, 10 years ago, me
and this guy Werner Herzog
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went to Scotland to find
the Loch Ness Monster.
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We never did find
Nessie, but I still
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love an adventure, especially
to unravel an urban legend.
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Today, video games
are everywhere,
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so it might be hard to
understand my generation's
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obsession with Atari.
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But for us, it was the gateway
drug to a lifelong addiction
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to video games.
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And then one day
it was just gone.
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Sometime in the mid '80s,
it just disappeared.
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And there were no
more Atari games.
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And I always wondered
what happened.
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Where did it go?
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So this is the famous landfall.
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Yeah.
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The burial... the final
resting ground of E.T..
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Yeah.
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This is the place.
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This road here, this gate, this
is exactly the way the Ataris
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would have came through.
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Through that ditch,
and up through here.
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This was the only access in.
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Back in those days, it
was just pure desert.
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And is there any way
to get through this,
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or are we, I mean...
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Well, yeah, it's a
high security gate.
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Just duck under.
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Yeah, I guess that works.
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Ha, ha, ha
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Joe Lewandowski's
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been the garbage guru, if you
will, for a number of years.
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He operated various
waste disposal companies
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within Alamogordo
and Otero county.
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And when it comes to
the Atari graveyard,
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I believe he probably
has more direct knowledge
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of anybody else.
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Joe's the guy that's
advising the city,
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and telling the city
where everything is.
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And I think that he's the only
guy that might be able to walk
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out to that dump, and point to
a spot on the ground, and say,
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this is where it's at.
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So, so this whole area,
this is where it's buried?
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Some people don't believe
it's there, but trust me,
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it's there.
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You can kind of feel it.
Right?
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It that just me?
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Ah, that's pretty much you.
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It's just me.
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So what are these
little boxes, here?
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Each one of those boxes
represents where garbage is.
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I see.
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Someone would write
down, oh, that's
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where we put the Atari trash.
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That's where we put, you know.
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That's the problem.
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Nobody did.
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We do today.
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So it's looking for... it's
like looking for a haystack
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in a pile of haystacks.
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Pretty much.
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And then looking for the
needle inside that haystack.
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And find the needle.
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So it's two levels.
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This picture, here, is actually
out of an old El Paso Times
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article.
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This is actually that
day, and that event,
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when it actually occurred.
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00:06:06,449 --> 00:06:07,792
So what we did, is
just to figure out,
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00:06:08,076 --> 00:06:10,955
OK, if this reporter
took this picture here,
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then the reporter
had to be standing
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somewhere in this area.
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So here's the two cells that
we've pinned it down to, now.
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So when you come
back here, and put
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the reporter taking the
picture, and you make that line.
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And what you're looking for,
is to make sure the line
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intersects with the buildings.
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Joe Lewandowski
wasn't just a guy
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who knew his way around a dump.
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He was also an
amateur archaeologist,
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kind of like Indiana
Jones, but without the gun.
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Or the whip.
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See, the newspaper photo
was like the medallion,
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and Joe had used it to
construct his own version
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of the Staff of Ra.
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And that pinpointed the
location of the Atari
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dump, which is exactly how
Indy would have done it.
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Joe was clearly obsessed.
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He believed in the legend.
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He'd spent over three
years constructing
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a plan to dig up the landfill,
and prove it to the world.
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But he wasn't a gamer.
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00:07:06,551 --> 00:07:08,849
He wasn't trying
to find out why.
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And that's what
I wanted to know.
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Why would the company I loved so
much decide to bury its future?
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The whole ET story is a very
small part of the Atari story.
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Let me go back and let me
explain how Atari started out.
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The video game
came because of the convergence
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of me working in an
amusement park summers,
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00:07:34,704 --> 00:07:36,172
while pursuing an
engineering degree
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at the University of Utah.
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I knew the economics of the
coin operated game business.
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They made a lot of money.
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Nolan designed
these incredibly elegant
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circuits.
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Put together in a way that's
so clever that modern engineers
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00:07:52,555 --> 00:07:54,432
have a hard time, you
know, understanding
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00:07:54,724 --> 00:07:55,725
and repairing these things.
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My partner and I,
Ted Dabney, started
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working on a ping-pong game.
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By the end of '72,
we did $3.5 million.
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00:08:06,903 --> 00:08:08,997
And then we did $19 million.
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00:08:09,280 --> 00:08:10,873
Then we did $35 million.
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It was a hockey stick.
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00:08:13,535 --> 00:08:16,664
This electronic medium,
which was just beginning,
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00:08:16,955 --> 00:08:18,548
had some traction with people.
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00:08:18,832 --> 00:08:22,553
And once you played some of the
more sophisticated arcade games
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of the day, and understood
that maybe there
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00:08:24,838 --> 00:08:28,217
was a chance you could
duplicate that in a home game,
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00:08:28,508 --> 00:08:29,725
your eyes got big.
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00:08:30,010 --> 00:08:31,512
Home video
games have been a success
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00:08:31,803 --> 00:08:34,101
from the moment a
company called Atari
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00:08:34,389 --> 00:08:36,767
launched this basic game, Pong.
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00:08:37,058 --> 00:08:39,982
Which has been imitated by at
least 40 other manufacturers.
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00:08:40,270 --> 00:08:41,772
They are selling like crazy.
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00:08:42,063 --> 00:08:44,157
300,000 last year.
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00:08:44,441 --> 00:08:45,943
This year, three million.
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00:08:46,234 --> 00:08:48,828
Next year, six,
maybe 10 million.
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We felt, well, maybe
this is a time to sell
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00:08:52,073 --> 00:08:53,916
to a company with deep pockets.
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00:08:54,200 --> 00:08:56,453
I was in my office
at Warner in 1976.
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00:08:56,745 --> 00:08:59,089
The phone rang, and it was
a guy named Gordy Crawford,
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00:08:59,372 --> 00:09:01,090
and he asked the question
I've never forgotten.
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00:09:01,374 --> 00:09:04,674
Would you guys be interested in
acquiring a technology based,
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00:09:04,961 --> 00:09:06,338
fast growing
entertainment company?
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00:09:06,629 --> 00:09:07,846
And I said yes.
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00:09:08,131 --> 00:09:10,725
I didn't know what I said
yes to, but I said yes.
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00:09:11,009 --> 00:09:13,637
And that led to my
introduction to Atari.
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00:09:13,928 --> 00:09:16,477
Atari, where
the future comes from.
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00:09:16,765 --> 00:09:19,518
What excited
me about Atari wasn't Pong,
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00:09:19,809 --> 00:09:23,063
it was the chipset that
led to the Atari 2,600.
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00:09:23,354 --> 00:09:27,359
Pong was sort of OK, you banged
up and back, and up and back.
224
00:09:27,650 --> 00:09:30,494
But this meant you could
constantly change the games.
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00:09:30,779 --> 00:09:33,282
And that was a
very exciting idea.
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00:09:33,573 --> 00:09:38,573
We introduced the 2600 in
1977, with nine cartridges.
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00:09:45,335 --> 00:09:49,135
The home video game was a
very close approximation
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00:09:49,422 --> 00:09:51,049
of the coin-op experience.
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00:09:53,802 --> 00:09:58,148
It changed
the mindset of the world.
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00:09:58,431 --> 00:09:59,603
Turning the television
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00:09:59,891 --> 00:10:02,986
from a passive medium into
an active medium, that
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00:10:03,269 --> 00:10:04,737
was what we knew we were doing.
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00:10:05,021 --> 00:10:07,865
And that was super exciting to
be the pioneers in that field.
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00:10:08,149 --> 00:10:10,243
It just blew people away.
235
00:10:10,527 --> 00:10:11,369
Nobody knew any this stuff.
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00:10:11,653 --> 00:10:12,524
They made it up as they went.
237
00:10:12,612 --> 00:10:13,483
And they were good at it.
238
00:10:13,571 --> 00:10:15,744
And it started everything.
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00:10:16,032 --> 00:10:19,912
It was playing
those games that taught people
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00:10:20,203 --> 00:10:22,205
the potential of a computer.
241
00:10:22,497 --> 00:10:25,626
Atari,
at some level,
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00:10:25,917 --> 00:10:26,884
brought the computer revolution.
243
00:10:36,845 --> 00:10:38,188
They
started experimentally
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00:10:38,471 --> 00:10:40,644
hiring smart kids, with this
idea that maybe they can
245
00:10:40,932 --> 00:10:44,027
come up with other stuff to do.
246
00:10:44,310 --> 00:10:46,859
And they inadvertently
were trying to create
247
00:10:47,147 --> 00:10:48,194
the job of game designer.
248
00:10:52,193 --> 00:10:54,366
Microprocessor real
time control programming
249
00:10:54,654 --> 00:10:55,780
is just where it's at.
250
00:10:56,072 --> 00:10:57,324
So, there's two kinds of
things you typically do
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00:10:57,615 --> 00:10:59,288
with that in the early 1980s.
252
00:10:59,576 --> 00:11:01,419
You can do missile
guidance systems...
253
00:11:01,703 --> 00:11:04,923
or like we say, kill
people for 12 cents a head.
254
00:11:05,206 --> 00:11:06,753
Or you could make
video games, which
255
00:11:07,041 --> 00:11:08,293
I thought was a much
better application
256
00:11:08,585 --> 00:11:11,384
for the whole thing.
257
00:11:11,671 --> 00:11:14,675
What went on at
Atari from the very beginning
258
00:11:14,966 --> 00:11:16,593
was, basically, that
the engineers are
259
00:11:16,885 --> 00:11:17,886
going to drive this company.
260
00:11:18,178 --> 00:11:19,270
Because they weren't
just engineers.
261
00:11:19,554 --> 00:11:20,646
They were creative guys.
262
00:11:20,930 --> 00:11:24,810
They're like musicians,
or movie directors.
263
00:11:25,101 --> 00:11:26,728
They're artists.
264
00:11:27,020 --> 00:11:29,068
Through
luck, or providence, or both,
265
00:11:29,355 --> 00:11:31,483
they ended up with this
department of game designers
266
00:11:31,774 --> 00:11:33,947
that became this
dream team at Atari.
267
00:11:34,235 --> 00:11:37,364
These guys who made all of
these classics... Tempest,
268
00:11:37,655 --> 00:11:40,499
and Asteroids, and Centipede,
and Gauntlet, and, you know,
269
00:11:40,783 --> 00:11:41,830
think of a game.
270
00:11:42,118 --> 00:11:43,085
The
culture was these guys
271
00:11:43,369 --> 00:11:44,712
do what they want to do.
272
00:11:44,996 --> 00:11:46,464
One day, I was standing in
the men's room, at a urinal,
273
00:11:46,748 --> 00:11:50,719
and I looked down, and I saw a
pair of bare feet next to me.
274
00:11:51,002 --> 00:11:53,972
And I look, and here is a
guy wearing a pair of shorts,
275
00:11:54,255 --> 00:11:56,303
and nothing else.
276
00:11:56,591 --> 00:11:57,638
And I said something.
277
00:11:57,926 --> 00:11:58,759
And they said, oh
yeah, that's so and so.
278
00:11:58,760 --> 00:11:59,611
He's a great engineer.
279
00:11:59,802 --> 00:12:00,928
He doesn't like to wear clothes.
280
00:12:01,221 --> 00:12:04,851
The coin-op engineers at
Atari, they were great.
281
00:12:05,141 --> 00:12:08,145
And on the consumer
side, Howard was
282
00:12:08,436 --> 00:12:09,688
one of the best programmers.
283
00:12:09,979 --> 00:12:12,482
He was one of the best
of those engineers.
284
00:12:12,774 --> 00:12:14,321
At the heart
of the creative process
285
00:12:14,609 --> 00:12:16,077
is the programmer.
286
00:12:16,361 --> 00:12:19,831
I try to create, basically, a
sensory experience that evokes
287
00:12:20,114 --> 00:12:21,286
a certain feeling in the user.
288
00:12:21,574 --> 00:12:23,622
I mean, I tend to
program from a concept.
289
00:12:23,910 --> 00:12:26,163
I mean, it was... I
was made for this.
290
00:12:26,454 --> 00:12:28,377
I mean, was is what
I was made to do.
291
00:12:31,542 --> 00:12:35,592
January 11, 1981, I showed
up for my first day of work
292
00:12:35,880 --> 00:12:37,882
as a game programmer at Atari.
293
00:12:38,174 --> 00:12:41,804
So, do you remember the
first day you showed up here?
294
00:12:42,095 --> 00:12:43,312
Absolutely.
295
00:12:43,596 --> 00:12:47,146
My first office mates were
Tod Frye and Rob Zdybel.
296
00:12:47,433 --> 00:12:48,605
And I had an
understanding that there
297
00:12:48,893 --> 00:12:50,691
was a lot of dope
that was smoked
298
00:12:50,979 --> 00:12:52,401
at Atari, when we were there.
299
00:12:52,689 --> 00:12:54,657
And so on my first day at work,
I brought a joint, because I
300
00:12:54,941 --> 00:12:56,193
didn't want to be, you know...
301
00:12:56,484 --> 00:12:57,827
Yeah.
302
00:12:58,111 --> 00:13:00,330
I wanted to be a courteous
guest, and so I showed up...
303
00:13:00,613 --> 00:13:01,660
Which by the way,
this is a good lesson
304
00:13:01,948 --> 00:13:03,291
for our younger viewers.
305
00:13:03,574 --> 00:13:06,544
If people are doing drugs,
bring your own, so you fit in.
306
00:13:06,828 --> 00:13:11,129
Tod walks
in, shuts the door, and says,
307
00:13:11,416 --> 00:13:12,633
I'm going to get high
in here, so if you
308
00:13:12,917 --> 00:13:14,260
don't want to be around
this, you'd better leave.
309
00:13:14,544 --> 00:13:15,466
No, actually, here, I said.
310
00:13:15,753 --> 00:13:16,879
I brought a joint.
311
00:13:17,171 --> 00:13:18,969
And he sort of looked
at me and he went pbtt.
312
00:13:19,257 --> 00:13:20,349
I'm going to smoke real stuff.
313
00:13:20,633 --> 00:13:21,504
OK?
314
00:13:21,592 --> 00:13:22,443
That was my introduction.
315
00:13:22,635 --> 00:13:25,514
That was my first day at work.
316
00:13:25,805 --> 00:13:28,354
We wanted
people who worked hard, and yet
317
00:13:28,641 --> 00:13:30,484
had fun at doing it.
318
00:13:30,768 --> 00:13:33,863
How do we mix up, so that
we don't know the difference
319
00:13:34,147 --> 00:13:35,273
between our work and our play?
320
00:13:35,565 --> 00:13:38,239
The company's motto was,
we take fun seriously.
321
00:13:38,526 --> 00:13:41,325
But we used to say, we
take fun intravenously.
322
00:13:41,612 --> 00:13:44,035
And they didn't
like that very much.
323
00:13:44,324 --> 00:13:45,416
No, I don't know why.
324
00:13:45,700 --> 00:13:49,796
The party atmosphere
was actually
325
00:13:50,079 --> 00:13:52,923
calculated plan to incentivize.
326
00:13:53,207 --> 00:13:54,379
I would set quotas.
327
00:13:54,667 --> 00:13:57,261
If the quotas were met,
I'd throw a kegger.
328
00:13:57,545 --> 00:13:59,172
They
would just roll out in the car,
329
00:13:59,464 --> 00:14:00,716
go to a liquor store,
and they gave someone
330
00:14:01,007 --> 00:14:02,384
a company credit
card, and they came
331
00:14:02,675 --> 00:14:04,393
back with a bunch of booze.
332
00:14:04,677 --> 00:14:05,929
And we consumed it.
333
00:14:06,220 --> 00:14:08,018
Over there is where
the hot tub was.
334
00:14:08,306 --> 00:14:10,434
Inside, on the first floor,
there's some great stuff
335
00:14:10,725 --> 00:14:11,817
that went on in that room.
336
00:14:12,101 --> 00:14:13,569
Over here, here's the
hill that you know,
337
00:14:13,853 --> 00:14:15,196
one day I was wearing
a dashiki shirt, which
338
00:14:15,480 --> 00:14:16,527
I was very into back then.
339
00:14:16,814 --> 00:14:18,532
And I would do
somersaults down the hill.
340
00:14:18,816 --> 00:14:21,444
I might have had some cocktails
that afternoon, at that point.
341
00:14:21,736 --> 00:14:24,205
Did you know that you were
entering this crazy party
342
00:14:24,489 --> 00:14:25,360
atmosphere, that you'd be?
343
00:14:25,448 --> 00:14:26,665
No.
344
00:14:26,949 --> 00:14:30,078
Even though I was told I
was, I had no expectation
345
00:14:30,370 --> 00:14:32,338
that it could really exist.
346
00:14:32,622 --> 00:14:33,794
The
best recruiting tool
347
00:14:34,082 --> 00:14:37,006
we could have for an
engineer, was to bring
348
00:14:37,293 --> 00:14:38,590
him over to one of our parties.
349
00:14:38,878 --> 00:14:40,221
Hey, What's happening, people?
350
00:14:40,505 --> 00:14:41,552
Hey, how's it going?
351
00:14:41,839 --> 00:14:43,056
What's happening?
352
00:14:43,341 --> 00:14:45,139
And they
thought, hey, I'm a nerd.
353
00:14:45,426 --> 00:14:47,099
There are girls here.
354
00:14:47,387 --> 00:14:48,855
They're talking to me.
355
00:14:49,138 --> 00:14:50,034
It's good.
356
00:14:50,223 --> 00:14:51,349
That was the culture.
357
00:14:51,641 --> 00:14:52,642
These guys are the
lifeblood of the business,
358
00:14:52,934 --> 00:14:53,935
and they do what
they want to do.
359
00:14:54,227 --> 00:14:55,570
And that's fine.
360
00:14:55,853 --> 00:14:56,820
In some ways,
361
00:14:57,105 --> 00:14:58,197
things happened to
me over the course
362
00:14:58,481 --> 00:15:00,324
of three and a half
years here, that made
363
00:15:00,608 --> 00:15:02,827
the next 25 years really tough.
364
00:15:03,111 --> 00:15:04,488
Because it
established a standard
365
00:15:04,779 --> 00:15:07,749
of what professional life,
and life in general, could be.
366
00:15:08,032 --> 00:15:09,284
And I never let
go of the thought
367
00:15:09,575 --> 00:15:11,327
that my life could
still be this or better.
368
00:15:11,619 --> 00:15:14,589
I just didn't know how to do it.
369
00:15:14,872 --> 00:15:16,874
It's really intense for
me to come back here.
370
00:15:17,166 --> 00:15:21,296
This is the first time I've
been back here in 30 years.
371
00:15:21,587 --> 00:15:24,761
And this was the place
where I was introduced
372
00:15:25,049 --> 00:15:28,019
to what life could be, for me.
373
00:15:28,302 --> 00:15:29,428
What a working life could be.
374
00:15:29,720 --> 00:15:32,473
What real creative
satisfaction could be.
375
00:15:32,765 --> 00:15:34,608
What doing something
really meaningful could be.
376
00:15:34,892 --> 00:15:38,317
Those are all things that come
back to me in this moment.
377
00:15:38,604 --> 00:15:41,778
And it's just...
it's very intense.
378
00:15:42,066 --> 00:15:45,195
So what really
happened back in 1983?
379
00:15:45,486 --> 00:15:47,284
People heard the
rumors, but Atari denied
380
00:15:47,572 --> 00:15:49,574
the dump ever took place.
381
00:15:49,866 --> 00:15:52,164
And eventually, people
forgot about it.
382
00:15:52,452 --> 00:15:53,829
But with the growth
of the internet,
383
00:15:54,120 --> 00:15:57,374
and all of its best and worst
lists, E.T. and its burial
384
00:15:57,665 --> 00:16:02,546
went from small town gossip
to full blown urban legend.
385
00:16:02,837 --> 00:16:05,966
By the mid '90s, videos begin
to appear online that seemed
386
00:16:06,257 --> 00:16:09,477
to suggest that anyone with a
shovel go out in the desert,
387
00:16:09,760 --> 00:16:11,762
and dig up the buried games.
388
00:16:12,054 --> 00:16:16,309
That's what I thought too, but
it wasn't close to that easy.
389
00:16:16,601 --> 00:16:19,070
Joe had spent years
researching the burial.
390
00:16:19,353 --> 00:16:21,196
If his information
was correct, the games
391
00:16:21,481 --> 00:16:22,858
were not only deep
underground, they
392
00:16:23,149 --> 00:16:25,117
were covered with concrete.
393
00:16:25,401 --> 00:16:27,904
Joe was still wading
through a sea of red tape.
394
00:16:28,196 --> 00:16:30,039
But if and when the
city approved his plan
395
00:16:30,323 --> 00:16:33,122
to excavate the landfill,
he was going to need
396
00:16:33,409 --> 00:16:35,002
more than just a shovel.
397
00:16:35,286 --> 00:16:38,210
He would need giant
yellow digging machines.
398
00:16:38,498 --> 00:16:41,672
And a bunch of guys in hats
and vests to operate them.
399
00:16:41,959 --> 00:16:45,805
This is one of the
photos of the actual burial,
400
00:16:46,088 --> 00:16:47,556
when they did it.
401
00:16:47,840 --> 00:16:50,434
So we're looking at, like, 15
feet down, to hit the concrete.
402
00:16:50,718 --> 00:16:52,345
Under the concrete
is mostly dirt.
403
00:16:52,637 --> 00:16:53,889
It's just the... it's
the bottom of the pit.
404
00:16:54,180 --> 00:16:55,648
What's that thing,
right over there?
405
00:16:55,932 --> 00:16:56,808
That's a motor grader.
406
00:16:57,099 --> 00:16:57,916
A motor grader?
407
00:16:58,100 --> 00:16:59,101
Yes.
408
00:16:59,393 --> 00:17:00,986
That's for, really,
just fine grading.
409
00:17:01,270 --> 00:17:03,272
You know, like the
highways and roads.
410
00:17:03,564 --> 00:17:05,362
And fine planing large areas.
411
00:17:05,650 --> 00:17:08,745
So, we conceivably might
need that, for this, right?
412
00:17:09,654 --> 00:17:10,278
No.
413
00:17:10,279 --> 00:17:11,096
No.
414
00:17:11,280 --> 00:17:12,497
I mean, but you
might... you could
415
00:17:12,782 --> 00:17:14,750
bring it out before, right?
416
00:17:15,034 --> 00:17:16,752
I mean, you might want to
park it there so it's ready.
417
00:17:17,119 --> 00:17:17,911
No, not really.
418
00:17:17,912 --> 00:17:18,578
No.
419
00:17:18,579 --> 00:17:19,371
We're fine.
420
00:17:19,372 --> 00:17:20,163
I don't know.
421
00:17:20,164 --> 00:17:20,965
Not my field.
422
00:17:24,210 --> 00:17:26,258
I am
concerned that Joe's
423
00:17:26,546 --> 00:17:27,923
moving kind of quick.
424
00:17:28,214 --> 00:17:30,216
And we do need to throw some
brakes on, and slow it down.
425
00:17:30,508 --> 00:17:33,102
The opposition comes
from environmentalists,
426
00:17:33,386 --> 00:17:34,478
maybe within the community.
427
00:17:34,762 --> 00:17:37,106
And the concern is
that Alamogordo also
428
00:17:37,390 --> 00:17:39,233
may have something else
buried in the landfill that
429
00:17:39,517 --> 00:17:40,769
may be hazardous.
430
00:17:41,060 --> 00:17:43,233
And we may not know exactly
where this location is.
431
00:17:43,521 --> 00:17:44,943
Nobody
really and truly
432
00:17:45,231 --> 00:17:47,654
has dead honest
records as to where
433
00:17:47,942 --> 00:17:49,114
everything is buried out there.
434
00:17:49,402 --> 00:17:51,450
And we're talking
potential mercury laced
435
00:17:51,737 --> 00:17:54,115
pigs, malathion, possibly DDT.
436
00:17:54,407 --> 00:17:55,579
There's potentially
lead in there,
437
00:17:55,866 --> 00:17:57,493
and maybe some other
dangerous metals
438
00:17:57,785 --> 00:17:59,503
that are in those cartridges.
439
00:17:59,787 --> 00:18:02,165
I don't want to be in an area
where we might crack open
440
00:18:02,456 --> 00:18:06,381
a sealed tomb, so to
speak, of these hogs, where
441
00:18:06,669 --> 00:18:08,512
mercury the gas comes out.
442
00:18:08,796 --> 00:18:10,798
So I don't want the
Stephen King novel of,
443
00:18:11,090 --> 00:18:12,933
we hit the wrong spot,
and all of the sudden
444
00:18:13,217 --> 00:18:14,935
we are evacuating Alamogordo.
445
00:18:15,219 --> 00:18:16,766
That is unacceptable.
446
00:18:17,054 --> 00:18:19,728
If there's
a problem that the New Mexico
447
00:18:20,016 --> 00:18:21,939
Environmental
Department perceives,
448
00:18:22,226 --> 00:18:24,479
we're not going to
be able to proceed.
449
00:18:24,770 --> 00:18:26,864
Until I'm satisfied it's
safe, it's not going to happen.
450
00:18:27,148 --> 00:18:29,071
At least within my power.
451
00:18:29,358 --> 00:18:31,360
You know, there's only so
much power that I have.
452
00:18:36,532 --> 00:18:38,785
So, for my first game,
453
00:18:39,076 --> 00:18:42,876
they wanted me to do
a coin-op conversion.
454
00:18:43,164 --> 00:18:44,837
Although I had only
been there for about
455
00:18:45,124 --> 00:18:47,343
a week, I went to my manager,
and I said, you know something?
456
00:18:47,627 --> 00:18:50,597
I said this game, Star
Castle, on the 2600
457
00:18:50,880 --> 00:18:51,881
is just going to suck.
458
00:18:52,173 --> 00:18:53,595
I know it's going to suck.
459
00:18:53,883 --> 00:18:56,136
And I said, but I think I can
take some of the key things
460
00:18:56,427 --> 00:19:00,773
that I think make it fun
game, and re-work it so
461
00:19:01,057 --> 00:19:04,106
that it would work on the 2600.
462
00:19:04,393 --> 00:19:06,395
And so they said, OK, go ahead.
463
00:19:06,687 --> 00:19:08,030
Do what you want to do.
464
00:19:08,314 --> 00:19:09,440
So, how did you
learn how to program a game?
465
00:19:09,732 --> 00:19:10,904
I just read the manual
466
00:19:11,192 --> 00:19:13,536
and started writing the game.
467
00:19:13,819 --> 00:19:15,742
No one had ever done, like, a
backstory for a game before.
468
00:19:16,030 --> 00:19:17,247
And I thought, this
is my first game,
469
00:19:17,531 --> 00:19:19,784
and I want to be involved
in every part of it.
470
00:19:20,076 --> 00:19:22,625
And I want to make it the best
thing it could possibly be.
471
00:19:22,912 --> 00:19:24,209
So I wrote this, like,
seven, eight page story.
472
00:19:24,497 --> 00:19:25,840
I stayed up all night
just writing this story.
473
00:19:26,123 --> 00:19:27,045
Knocked it out.
474
00:19:27,333 --> 00:19:28,755
And it was a science
fiction story
475
00:19:29,043 --> 00:19:30,636
about flies that get on the
first interstellar spaceships,
476
00:19:30,920 --> 00:19:33,719
and mutate, and evolve, and
take over the solar system.
477
00:19:34,006 --> 00:19:35,929
But now they're under attack by
this other monster, and stuff.
478
00:19:36,217 --> 00:19:38,720
And that's the short
version of the story.
479
00:19:39,011 --> 00:19:40,558
So I thought, well,
I need to name it.
480
00:19:40,846 --> 00:19:43,190
So what I did, was I named
it Yar, because that's
481
00:19:43,474 --> 00:19:44,475
Ray spelled backwards.
482
00:19:44,767 --> 00:19:46,269
And Ray Kassar was
the CEO of Atari.
483
00:19:46,560 --> 00:19:47,652
Right?
484
00:19:47,937 --> 00:19:49,780
So I've got his name
keyed into the title.
485
00:19:50,064 --> 00:19:52,692
And I thought, revenge,
great action word.
486
00:19:52,983 --> 00:19:54,656
You know, so that's compelling.
487
00:19:54,944 --> 00:19:56,867
And so that's how it
became Yar's Revenge.
488
00:20:02,868 --> 00:20:05,337
When Yar's Revenge
came out, it was a hit.
489
00:20:05,621 --> 00:20:06,668
It was huge.
490
00:20:06,956 --> 00:20:08,754
Games that could look
like Yar's Revenge
491
00:20:09,041 --> 00:20:10,634
looked... that could draw
that kind of stuff...
492
00:20:10,918 --> 00:20:12,295
were, like, magical.
493
00:20:12,586 --> 00:20:14,213
Even though Yar's Revenge might
look primitive... you know,
494
00:20:14,505 --> 00:20:16,633
it looks like a
superconducting super collider
495
00:20:16,924 --> 00:20:18,426
compared to a lot
of the games that
496
00:20:18,718 --> 00:20:19,935
were out there at the time.
497
00:20:20,219 --> 00:20:21,070
I remember the first time
I put the cartridge in,
498
00:20:21,262 --> 00:20:22,514
and I was like, what is this?
499
00:20:22,805 --> 00:20:25,274
It really is a very innovative
shooter of that era.
500
00:20:25,558 --> 00:20:26,775
Getting
a ship to fly around.
501
00:20:27,059 --> 00:20:28,231
So it's fun just to
fly the ship around.
502
00:20:28,519 --> 00:20:30,112
It was a trick, especially
on that hardware.
503
00:20:30,396 --> 00:20:31,864
The enemy was cool and scary.
504
00:20:32,148 --> 00:20:34,401
And it felt really
good to defeat it.
505
00:20:34,692 --> 00:20:38,117
You feel like it's your victory
when you beat those challenges.
506
00:20:38,404 --> 00:20:40,452
And you feel like it's your
defeat when they beat you.
507
00:20:40,740 --> 00:20:42,663
And you keep coming
back, because you
508
00:20:42,950 --> 00:20:44,293
didn't lose by being cheated.
509
00:20:44,577 --> 00:20:45,749
You didn't lose because the
game did something unfair.
510
00:20:46,036 --> 00:20:47,879
You lost because you
weren't quite good enough.
511
00:20:48,164 --> 00:20:50,713
And all of the great games
sit right on that edge.
512
00:20:51,000 --> 00:20:53,549
I remember playing
Yar's Revenge one day,
513
00:20:53,836 --> 00:20:56,680
and we happened on
trick that let you...
514
00:20:56,964 --> 00:20:58,841
if you were on this right spot
at the right time in the game,
515
00:20:59,133 --> 00:21:01,682
and it was in between levels...
these initials came up.
516
00:21:01,969 --> 00:21:03,346
And the initials were HSW.
517
00:21:03,637 --> 00:21:04,809
To us, it was some
weird mystery.
518
00:21:05,097 --> 00:21:06,349
And like, we had to
figure out what HSW meant.
519
00:21:06,640 --> 00:21:07,892
And finally, in one
of the game magazines,
520
00:21:08,184 --> 00:21:09,481
they published what HSW meant.
521
00:21:09,769 --> 00:21:11,737
Turns out, HSW means
Howard Scott Warshaw,
522
00:21:12,021 --> 00:21:12,943
the guy who made the game.
523
00:21:13,230 --> 00:21:14,982
Yar's Revenge
was the first game
524
00:21:15,274 --> 00:21:17,652
that Atari ever did, where
the programmer's name
525
00:21:17,943 --> 00:21:19,286
went outwith the cartridge.
526
00:21:19,570 --> 00:21:21,163
Yar's Revenge had
a lot of firsts,
527
00:21:21,447 --> 00:21:22,824
and that was just one of them.
528
00:21:23,115 --> 00:21:25,038
Yar's Revenge is
the bestselling original game
529
00:21:25,326 --> 00:21:26,578
for the Atari 2600.
530
00:21:26,869 --> 00:21:28,917
It sold something
like a million copies.
531
00:21:29,205 --> 00:21:30,502
Every reviewer at
the time thought
532
00:21:30,790 --> 00:21:32,838
Yar's Revenge was one of the
best games Atari put out.
533
00:21:33,125 --> 00:21:36,425
You know it made a lot
of money for Atari.
534
00:21:36,712 --> 00:21:38,760
In 1981,
this was a company
535
00:21:39,048 --> 00:21:44,020
that made operating profits of
something like $375 million.
536
00:21:44,303 --> 00:21:46,101
One of today's greatest
marketing triumphs
537
00:21:46,388 --> 00:21:48,732
in the entertainment
field is video games.
538
00:21:49,016 --> 00:21:50,233
It was
beyond comprehension.
539
00:21:50,518 --> 00:21:53,271
The fastest growing company
in American history.
540
00:21:53,562 --> 00:21:55,064
This was an explosion.
541
00:21:55,356 --> 00:21:56,733
Even those of us who
were in the middle of it
542
00:21:57,024 --> 00:22:00,153
were shaking our heads, going,
oh my god, this is amazing.
543
00:22:00,444 --> 00:22:02,242
We were the most
successful coin-op company,
544
00:22:02,530 --> 00:22:05,249
we were the dominant
consumer company.
545
00:22:05,533 --> 00:22:10,710
And we sat around literally
saying to ourselves,
546
00:22:10,996 --> 00:22:12,168
what are the
categories of games?
547
00:22:12,456 --> 00:22:13,924
What are the
capabilities of the 2600?
548
00:22:14,208 --> 00:22:16,552
Where is this industry going?
549
00:22:16,836 --> 00:22:17,962
Everything that Joe
550
00:22:18,254 --> 00:22:21,929
has put together on this
Atari graveyard, so far,
551
00:22:22,216 --> 00:22:23,342
seems to be coming true.
552
00:22:23,634 --> 00:22:25,636
I'm in favor of the
Atari games being dug up,
553
00:22:25,928 --> 00:22:29,307
because it is the largest
myth in the gaming world.
554
00:22:29,598 --> 00:22:30,850
I believe that Joe
just thinks it would
555
00:22:31,141 --> 00:22:33,360
be an outstanding
event for Alamogordo,
556
00:22:33,644 --> 00:22:34,941
and a way to get us on the map.
557
00:22:35,229 --> 00:22:37,448
On Tuesday,
Alamogordo's city commission
558
00:22:37,731 --> 00:22:39,608
approved a deal to dig
in the old landfill
559
00:22:39,900 --> 00:22:41,402
within the next six months.
560
00:22:41,694 --> 00:22:42,911
The city
has given its OK,
561
00:22:43,195 --> 00:22:45,072
and now the state has
given them approval.
562
00:22:45,364 --> 00:22:47,366
Film crews will
be in Alamogordo.
563
00:22:47,658 --> 00:22:49,035
The documentary
film crews will
564
00:22:49,326 --> 00:22:51,875
start probing the dump for
their strange buried treasure
565
00:22:52,162 --> 00:22:53,038
at 9:30 AM.
566
00:23:05,384 --> 00:23:07,227
So, this is an
impressive looking machine
567
00:23:07,511 --> 00:23:08,382
out here.
568
00:23:08,470 --> 00:23:09,892
What the hell is it doing?
569
00:23:10,180 --> 00:23:11,648
What's this drilling rig does,
it goes down, straight down,
570
00:23:11,932 --> 00:23:13,149
and takes out core
samples, and brings
571
00:23:13,434 --> 00:23:15,937
up whatever's in the ground.
572
00:23:16,228 --> 00:23:18,230
We've narrowed it down
from 300 acres down
573
00:23:18,522 --> 00:23:20,320
to about 5 to 10 acres.
574
00:23:20,608 --> 00:23:22,827
And so, What we're doing now is
trying to get it even closer.
575
00:23:23,110 --> 00:23:24,828
We're looking for things
like somebody's mail...
576
00:23:25,112 --> 00:23:27,865
you know, the postmarks...
newspapers, things like that.
577
00:23:28,157 --> 00:23:29,124
Looking for dates.
578
00:23:29,408 --> 00:23:30,375
We're looking for
September of '83.
579
00:23:38,751 --> 00:23:39,718
Don't you think
people are going
580
00:23:40,002 --> 00:23:41,049
to be disappointed
if we dig it up,
581
00:23:41,337 --> 00:23:42,930
and we don't actually
find the ET games?
582
00:23:43,213 --> 00:23:44,385
I mean, wouldn't that be?
583
00:23:44,673 --> 00:23:45,595
That would be very
disappointing for all of us.
584
00:23:45,883 --> 00:23:46,930
All the work.
585
00:23:47,217 --> 00:23:48,092
Three years of work
put into this thing.
586
00:23:48,093 --> 00:23:49,561
So what do we do then?
587
00:23:49,845 --> 00:23:50,721
You're just going to dig up the
whole landfill, or something'?
588
00:23:51,013 --> 00:23:52,390
No, we can't.
589
00:23:52,681 --> 00:23:53,807
The environment department
will not allow that to happen.
590
00:23:54,099 --> 00:23:55,396
You're saying that
there's a possibility
591
00:23:55,684 --> 00:23:57,652
that this could turn out to
be a giant waste of time.
592
00:23:57,937 --> 00:23:59,405
I think I've said it
before, I'll bet the car,
593
00:23:59,688 --> 00:24:00,534
I won't bet the house.
594
00:24:08,238 --> 00:24:09,865
Most everybody, at least
in the Western world,
595
00:24:10,157 --> 00:24:11,124
has played a video
game of some kind.
596
00:24:11,408 --> 00:24:12,279
They've gone to an arcade.
597
00:24:12,368 --> 00:24:13,264
They know the Atari brand.
598
00:24:13,452 --> 00:24:14,578
They certainly know E.T..
599
00:24:14,870 --> 00:24:17,498
And so I think there's
a universal curiosity
600
00:24:17,790 --> 00:24:19,258
about this game.
601
00:24:19,541 --> 00:24:22,090
You know, something did happen
those couple of nights in 1983
602
00:24:22,378 --> 00:24:26,428
that I think it merits
serious investigation.
603
00:24:26,715 --> 00:24:28,388
So why did I
decide to go to Alamogordo?
604
00:24:28,676 --> 00:24:30,804
I'm very much
interested in the impact
605
00:24:31,095 --> 00:24:32,642
that a particular
game or an industry
606
00:24:32,930 --> 00:24:35,900
has made within a cultural
and social context.
607
00:24:36,183 --> 00:24:38,606
What's striking about
the Atari E.T. game
608
00:24:38,894 --> 00:24:40,942
in the Alamogordo
landfill is that they're
609
00:24:41,230 --> 00:24:42,607
there and not in museums.
610
00:24:42,898 --> 00:24:44,616
I think this is what
excites many people
611
00:24:44,900 --> 00:24:48,120
who keep this narrative alive
is they want to get these items.
612
00:24:48,404 --> 00:24:49,451
They want visible proof.
613
00:24:49,738 --> 00:24:51,206
They want some kind
of tangible evidence
614
00:24:51,490 --> 00:24:54,494
that that dump did take place.
615
00:24:54,785 --> 00:24:55,661
I've
been professionally
616
00:24:55,953 --> 00:24:57,876
making games since about '94.
617
00:24:58,163 --> 00:24:59,915
But more than that,
I'm somebody who
618
00:25:00,207 --> 00:25:02,335
has been chiefly doing
a lot of historical work
619
00:25:02,626 --> 00:25:03,627
with video games.
620
00:25:03,919 --> 00:25:05,296
Trying to preserve
video games, and get
621
00:25:05,587 --> 00:25:07,055
people to understand that
video games are more like art.
622
00:25:07,339 --> 00:25:08,465
And so I've been doing
a lot of video game
623
00:25:08,757 --> 00:25:10,475
preservation and education.
624
00:25:10,759 --> 00:25:12,636
I always thought, one day,
I'm going to get over there,
625
00:25:12,928 --> 00:25:14,555
I'm going to see,
finally, once and for all,
626
00:25:14,847 --> 00:25:16,144
like, where it's buried.
627
00:25:16,432 --> 00:25:17,684
I almost don't even really
need to know what's in it.
628
00:25:17,975 --> 00:25:19,648
I almost want to keep
that mystery alive.
629
00:25:19,935 --> 00:25:22,609
To me, under that landfill
is actually the burial
630
00:25:22,896 --> 00:25:24,398
site of an entire industry.
631
00:25:24,690 --> 00:25:27,910
Because what affected Atari at
the time, affected everyone.
632
00:25:28,193 --> 00:25:30,321
And everything that I thought
was going to go on forever
633
00:25:30,612 --> 00:25:31,704
stopped.
634
00:25:31,989 --> 00:25:33,081
And it stopped almost
at that same moment
635
00:25:33,365 --> 00:25:35,333
that these... whatever's
there... was buried.
636
00:25:38,245 --> 00:25:40,589
So, for me, I want to
find out what is there.
637
00:25:40,873 --> 00:25:42,716
It's like opening the
Ark of the Covenant.
638
00:25:43,000 --> 00:25:44,047
It's like, you kind
of want to look,
639
00:25:44,334 --> 00:25:45,335
but is my face
going to melt off?
640
00:25:45,627 --> 00:25:46,970
I don't know.
641
00:25:47,254 --> 00:25:50,349
I have told my wife that I
will be going to New Mexico.
642
00:25:50,632 --> 00:25:51,884
And she asked me why.
643
00:25:52,176 --> 00:25:53,428
And I started to
explain, and she said,
644
00:25:53,719 --> 00:25:56,097
I don't... I don't need to know.
645
00:25:56,388 --> 00:25:58,891
Just go do it.
646
00:25:59,183 --> 00:26:00,355
You want
it Ernest on screen?
647
00:26:00,642 --> 00:26:01,493
Oh, whatever.
648
00:26:01,685 --> 00:26:02,607
Ernest is my fancy writer name.
649
00:26:02,895 --> 00:26:04,192
Ernie is what
everybody calls me.
650
00:26:04,480 --> 00:26:05,331
All right, so
we'll use your writer's name.
651
00:26:05,522 --> 00:26:07,616
How would you describe yourself?
652
00:26:07,900 --> 00:26:11,279
Screenwriter, novelist,
gentleman adventurer.
653
00:26:11,570 --> 00:26:14,369
The thing about having an Atari,
for me, was it was a simulator.
654
00:26:14,656 --> 00:26:16,283
Like, I could simulate
being Indiana Jones,
655
00:26:16,575 --> 00:26:19,044
or simulate being ET.
656
00:26:19,328 --> 00:26:20,454
Having access to that.
657
00:26:20,746 --> 00:26:22,293
And coming from a family
of, like, modest means,
658
00:26:22,581 --> 00:26:24,049
and not having to, you
know, beg for quarters.
659
00:26:24,333 --> 00:26:25,710
And just being able to
play as much as you wanted.
660
00:26:26,001 --> 00:26:27,594
That was such a huge
part of my childhood,
661
00:26:27,878 --> 00:26:29,300
and fed my imagination.
662
00:26:29,588 --> 00:26:32,842
And that was the inspiration
for Ready Player One, my novel.
663
00:26:33,133 --> 00:26:35,306
The idea of, like,
what if Willy Wonka
664
00:26:35,594 --> 00:26:37,016
had been a video game designer?
665
00:26:37,304 --> 00:26:39,523
And he held his golden ticket
contest inside his greatest
666
00:26:39,807 --> 00:26:40,808
video game creation?
667
00:26:41,100 --> 00:26:42,568
That all came from
finding those Easter
668
00:26:42,851 --> 00:26:44,319
eggs in all those Atari games.
669
00:26:44,603 --> 00:26:45,946
I feel like a little
kid, this past week.
670
00:26:46,230 --> 00:26:47,152
Like, getting ready
to go to camp.
671
00:26:47,439 --> 00:26:49,157
Alamogordo, and the
Atari graveyard.
672
00:26:49,441 --> 00:26:50,488
For me, it's like holy ground.
673
00:26:50,776 --> 00:26:51,672
And that was when I
realized my DeLorean
674
00:26:51,860 --> 00:26:53,328
is already in New Mexico.
675
00:26:53,612 --> 00:26:55,489
I just have to fly to Santa Fe,
pick up my DeLorean from George
676
00:26:55,781 --> 00:26:57,203
R. R. Martin... who was
using it for the Back
677
00:26:57,491 --> 00:26:59,744
to the Future screening... and
drive it down to Alamogordo.
678
00:27:00,035 --> 00:27:01,332
I could stop at the
very large array,
679
00:27:01,620 --> 00:27:03,748
and also hit Roswell, and
then go to Alamogordo,
680
00:27:04,039 --> 00:27:05,916
and be there for the excavation
of the Atari graveyard.
681
00:27:06,208 --> 00:27:08,552
As soon as those, you know,
tumblers clicked into place,
682
00:27:08,836 --> 00:27:10,509
I'm like, the most epic
road trip of all time.
683
00:27:10,796 --> 00:27:12,173
I have to go.
684
00:27:12,464 --> 00:27:15,013
It's like I'm Indy going to
Westeros to meet Doc Brown,
685
00:27:15,300 --> 00:27:16,142
and then save ET.
686
00:27:33,610 --> 00:27:34,987
Boom.
687
00:27:35,279 --> 00:27:36,371
Have a great drive, and a
great time in Alamogordo.
688
00:27:36,655 --> 00:27:37,530
George, thank you so much.
689
00:27:37,531 --> 00:27:38,364
I appreciate it man.
690
00:27:38,365 --> 00:27:40,709
My pleasure.
691
00:28:04,474 --> 00:28:06,147
This is
a good piece of evidence,
692
00:28:06,435 --> 00:28:08,403
because right here.
693
00:28:08,687 --> 00:28:09,734
Is that the
date, right there?
694
00:28:10,022 --> 00:28:11,239
Yeah, a date.
695
00:28:11,523 --> 00:28:13,196
You've got Sunday, October
2, 1983, right there.
696
00:28:13,483 --> 00:28:14,354
That's good, right?
697
00:28:14,443 --> 00:28:15,660
Yeah.
698
00:28:15,944 --> 00:28:17,537
Atari was from the 23rd
to the 29th of September.
699
00:28:17,821 --> 00:28:18,913
So this is like a week later.
700
00:28:19,198 --> 00:28:20,074
Well, it's not even a week.
701
00:28:20,365 --> 00:28:21,241
It's like two or
three days later.
702
00:28:21,533 --> 00:28:22,955
Well, I'm not
very good at math.
703
00:28:23,243 --> 00:28:24,244
The Ataris
would have been on the bottom,
704
00:28:24,536 --> 00:28:25,412
then garbage from
the following weeks
705
00:28:25,704 --> 00:28:26,580
would've been piled on top.
706
00:28:26,872 --> 00:28:27,747
So where are the games?
707
00:28:27,748 --> 00:28:28,670
This is following week.
708
00:28:28,957 --> 00:28:29,832
No games yet.
709
00:28:29,833 --> 00:28:30,650
No Atari stuff at all?
710
00:28:30,834 --> 00:28:31,626
No, not yet.
711
00:28:31,627 --> 00:28:32,453
Not yet.
712
00:28:32,544 --> 00:28:33,419
OK.
713
00:28:33,420 --> 00:28:34,246
I love the challenges.
714
00:28:34,338 --> 00:28:35,590
I love the mystery.
715
00:28:35,881 --> 00:28:38,725
I love the... especially when
people say they'll never
716
00:28:39,009 --> 00:28:41,262
be found, or they're not there.
717
00:28:41,553 --> 00:28:43,100
That just makes the
challenge even better.
718
00:28:43,388 --> 00:28:48,110
I put three to four years
of this research, planning,
719
00:28:48,393 --> 00:28:50,646
the politics, the
environment department.
720
00:28:50,938 --> 00:28:53,908
I mean, many, many, many
things to get to this point.
721
00:28:54,191 --> 00:28:55,192
Yeah, no.
722
00:28:55,484 --> 00:28:56,406
It's very important
that we find them.
723
00:29:02,074 --> 00:29:03,496
So,
back in the early '80s,
724
00:29:03,784 --> 00:29:06,207
movie licenses for
video games were just
725
00:29:06,495 --> 00:29:07,872
starting to come into vogue.
726
00:29:08,163 --> 00:29:09,415
And I think Raiders
was the first one.
727
00:29:12,417 --> 00:29:14,215
So they needed someone to
do Raiders of the Lost Ark.
728
00:29:14,503 --> 00:29:17,006
I think what happened was,
Yar's was very successful,
729
00:29:17,297 --> 00:29:20,972
and so they wanted
me to do a big game.
730
00:29:21,260 --> 00:29:22,637
And then it was up to Spielberg.
731
00:29:22,928 --> 00:29:24,145
So when I went down
and met with Spielberg,
732
00:29:24,429 --> 00:29:25,601
and if Spielberg would
have said, you know,
733
00:29:25,889 --> 00:29:26,765
I don't think he's really
right for the game,
734
00:29:27,057 --> 00:29:28,479
they would have
sent someone else.
735
00:29:28,767 --> 00:29:32,738
Can Indiana Jones
escape from the forces of evil?
736
00:29:33,021 --> 00:29:35,991
In Atari's Raiders of the
Lost Ark adventure game.
737
00:29:36,275 --> 00:29:37,572
What was the
reception to the Raiders
738
00:29:37,859 --> 00:29:39,076
of the Lost Ark game?
739
00:29:39,361 --> 00:29:40,283
It was another million seller.
740
00:29:40,570 --> 00:29:41,787
Raiders was huge.
741
00:29:42,072 --> 00:29:43,745
I mean, I can honestly say
I'm the only programmer
742
00:29:44,032 --> 00:29:45,625
in the history of Atari
where every one of my games
743
00:29:45,909 --> 00:29:47,911
that was released
was a million seller.
744
00:29:48,203 --> 00:29:49,830
The word meteoric comes to mind.
745
00:29:53,041 --> 00:29:55,715
And now,
Steven Spielberg brings
746
00:29:56,003 --> 00:29:58,756
us E.T. the Extra Terrestrial.
747
00:30:01,800 --> 00:30:05,475
Spielberg says, well, you know,
my pictures, they open slow.
748
00:30:05,762 --> 00:30:09,062
And they build, and they
hold, and da da da da da.
749
00:30:09,349 --> 00:30:11,602
And I just looked at him,
and I didn't know anything.
750
00:30:11,893 --> 00:30:13,065
I said, not this one.
751
00:30:13,353 --> 00:30:14,821
It was E.T..
752
00:30:15,105 --> 00:30:15,947
I said, it's going to open huge
, and it's going to stay huge.
753
00:30:21,862 --> 00:30:23,034
OK, the movie comes out.
754
00:30:23,322 --> 00:30:24,744
It's a huge hit.
755
00:30:25,032 --> 00:30:26,454
And we want to do
the cartridge of it.
756
00:30:26,742 --> 00:30:28,164
OK?
757
00:30:28,452 --> 00:30:30,705
You know, every time you try
to take some kind of a property
758
00:30:30,996 --> 00:30:33,670
and move it into another medium
for a pure profit motive,
759
00:30:33,957 --> 00:30:35,379
you get trouble.
760
00:30:35,667 --> 00:30:37,840
Specifically, with respect to
games, you know, it's like,
761
00:30:38,128 --> 00:30:39,300
oh you know, like,
let's go see if we can
762
00:30:39,588 --> 00:30:40,635
exploit this movie as a game.
763
00:30:40,922 --> 00:30:41,889
You know, maybe we
could make extra money
764
00:30:42,174 --> 00:30:43,551
out of a profitable franchise.
765
00:30:43,842 --> 00:30:47,392
Now, there was a negotiation
going on between the Atari
766
00:30:47,679 --> 00:30:49,397
people, and the
people at Universal,
767
00:30:49,681 --> 00:30:50,933
about what we're going to pay.
768
00:30:51,224 --> 00:30:54,353
And Steve Ross, who was the
CEO from Warner, got in,
769
00:30:54,644 --> 00:30:57,318
and for whatever the reasons, he
agrees to a deal that is so off
770
00:30:57,606 --> 00:30:58,949
the chart nobody believes it.
771
00:30:59,232 --> 00:31:00,529
But he does it.
772
00:31:00,817 --> 00:31:02,945
N was $20 to $30 million,
it was some crazy number.
773
00:31:03,236 --> 00:31:06,456
Steve Ross basically was trying
to woo Steven Spielberg to come
774
00:31:06,740 --> 00:31:08,287
to work for Warner,
because he recognized
775
00:31:08,575 --> 00:31:11,499
that Spielberg was a genius.
776
00:31:11,787 --> 00:31:15,041
And that all plays
into this story.
777
00:31:15,332 --> 00:31:17,801
Well, we acquired
the rights to E.T.,
778
00:31:18,085 --> 00:31:21,259
and it was... we had to have
the game out for Christmas.
779
00:31:21,546 --> 00:31:23,014
And that's a problem.
780
00:31:23,298 --> 00:31:28,976
One afternoon, I'm sitting in
my office, and a call comes in.
781
00:31:29,262 --> 00:31:30,855
And It's Ray Kassar.
782
00:31:31,139 --> 00:31:32,482
And he's calling from Monterey.
783
00:31:32,766 --> 00:31:34,643
So I take the call, and Ray
Kassar comes on the phone,
784
00:31:34,935 --> 00:31:36,152
and he says,
785
00:31:36,436 --> 00:31:39,815
Howard, can
you do E.T. in five weeks?
786
00:31:40,107 --> 00:31:42,701
And I said, yes I can.
787
00:31:42,984 --> 00:31:43,818
And he goes...
788
00:31:43,819 --> 00:31:45,287
OK.
789
00:31:45,570 --> 00:31:47,413
In two days, I want you to be
at San Jose Executive Airport.
790
00:31:47,697 --> 00:31:49,324
There'll be a Learjet
waiting for you.
791
00:31:49,616 --> 00:31:50,708
Be on that jet.
792
00:31:50,992 --> 00:31:52,790
Be ready to propose
the game to Spielberg.
793
00:31:55,622 --> 00:31:57,920
During that meeting, when I
flew down on a Learjet to go
794
00:31:58,208 --> 00:32:01,428
meet Spielberg and
present the game to him.
795
00:32:01,711 --> 00:32:02,803
Even though I only
had five weeks,
796
00:32:03,088 --> 00:32:04,180
I still wanted to innovate.
797
00:32:04,464 --> 00:32:07,263
So I proposed a 3D
world that the game
798
00:32:07,551 --> 00:32:08,677
was going to take place on.
799
00:32:08,969 --> 00:32:13,349
And the huge scope what
I was trying to achieve,
800
00:32:13,640 --> 00:32:16,985
it walks that line between
really trying to make something
801
00:32:17,269 --> 00:32:19,146
happen and venturing
into the impossible,
802
00:32:19,438 --> 00:32:20,906
and walking off a cliff.
803
00:32:21,189 --> 00:32:22,441
The emotionality of
the game was supposed
804
00:32:22,732 --> 00:32:23,574
to come out through
the interaction
805
00:32:23,859 --> 00:32:25,236
with the characters.
806
00:32:25,527 --> 00:32:28,781
You have the FBI agent who's
interested in what you have.
807
00:32:29,072 --> 00:32:30,870
That's why the FBI
agent just steals
808
00:32:31,158 --> 00:32:32,501
stuff that you were holding.
809
00:32:32,784 --> 00:32:35,253
You have the scientist who's
interested in who you are.
810
00:32:35,537 --> 00:32:39,087
The scientist actually
carries you back to the city,
811
00:32:39,374 --> 00:32:40,466
because they want to study you.
812
00:32:40,750 --> 00:32:42,127
And Elliott comes
in to save you.
813
00:32:42,419 --> 00:32:43,671
There's times when
you can call Elliott,
814
00:32:43,962 --> 00:32:44,963
and he will help you out.
815
00:32:45,255 --> 00:32:46,427
And so, those are
the kind of things
816
00:32:46,715 --> 00:32:48,558
that I had that I thought
created, possibly,
817
00:32:48,842 --> 00:32:50,264
some sentiment.
818
00:32:50,552 --> 00:32:54,352
And at one point, Spielberg
says to me, he goes, you know,
819
00:32:54,639 --> 00:32:58,064
couldn't you do something
more like Pas-Man'?
820
00:32:58,351 --> 00:33:00,024
No, Steven, we need to
do a game that's fresh.
821
00:33:00,312 --> 00:33:03,031
We need to do something that's
really worthy of this movie.
822
00:33:03,315 --> 00:33:04,817
It's not how simple you can
make a complicated game.
823
00:33:05,108 --> 00:33:06,610
It's how complicated
a game can you
824
00:33:06,902 --> 00:33:10,532
make subject to the constraint
of easy learnability.
825
00:33:10,822 --> 00:33:12,199
My job is to produce
a cartridge that
826
00:33:12,491 --> 00:33:15,370
is going to sell for Atari.
827
00:33:15,660 --> 00:33:19,085
A typical VCS game at the
time took five or six months.
828
00:33:19,372 --> 00:33:20,965
And this is going
to be in five weeks.
829
00:33:21,249 --> 00:33:24,298
You might think, no, nobody
can do a game in five weeks.
830
00:33:24,586 --> 00:33:26,964
Like most people in the
department would think.
831
00:33:27,255 --> 00:33:28,106
But I don't think that way.
832
00:33:28,298 --> 00:33:30,642
I think, yeah, I can do that.
833
00:33:30,926 --> 00:33:32,473
The word hubris comes to mind.
834
00:33:32,761 --> 00:33:34,559
I mean, whatever it is I
might have been full of,
835
00:33:34,846 --> 00:33:37,144
I was overflowing
with it at that point.
836
00:33:37,432 --> 00:33:39,230
Because if the game can't
make the Christmas market,
837
00:33:39,518 --> 00:33:40,770
the game is a total waste.
838
00:33:41,061 --> 00:33:42,688
They're going miss their window.
839
00:33:42,979 --> 00:33:44,071
So that was the big thing.
840
00:33:44,356 --> 00:33:47,735
It was the $22 million
bet that you could turn
841
00:33:48,026 --> 00:33:49,243
the game around in that time.
842
00:33:49,528 --> 00:33:52,122
I had a development
station moved into my home,
843
00:33:52,405 --> 00:33:56,785
so I could be basically working
on this game almost 24 hours.
844
00:33:57,077 --> 00:34:00,297
We found that there was a
good probability of success.
845
00:34:00,580 --> 00:34:05,882
We took a coin operated game and
just ported it over to a game
846
00:34:06,169 --> 00:34:07,261
that we could play on the VCS.
847
00:34:10,465 --> 00:34:13,093
E.T. didn't have that.
848
00:34:13,385 --> 00:34:14,260
Hello?
849
00:34:14,261 --> 00:34:15,308
Is somebody out there?
850
00:34:21,518 --> 00:34:24,772
E.T. video game?
851
00:34:25,063 --> 00:34:26,315
Wow.
852
00:34:26,606 --> 00:34:27,698
It's
the video game that
853
00:34:27,983 --> 00:34:28,800
lets you pretend you're E.T.
854
00:34:28,984 --> 00:34:29,775
OK.
855
00:34:29,776 --> 00:34:30,743
So the game's done.
856
00:34:31,027 --> 00:34:31,949
And one of the
conditions I asked for
857
00:34:32,237 --> 00:34:33,489
was that Steven
Spielberg is the one
858
00:34:33,780 --> 00:34:34,872
who approves the final game.
859
00:34:35,156 --> 00:34:36,749
So Steven Spielberg
played the final game
860
00:34:37,033 --> 00:34:39,161
and approved it for release.
861
00:34:39,452 --> 00:34:44,458
Howard, who is a
certifiable genius,
862
00:34:44,749 --> 00:34:47,673
went off and, about,
a number of weeks
863
00:34:47,961 --> 00:34:51,761
later came back with a
concept and a game plan.
864
00:34:52,048 --> 00:34:55,052
I was amazed at how difficult
it was, yet at the same time
865
00:34:55,343 --> 00:34:57,641
how much fun it was to play.
866
00:34:57,929 --> 00:34:59,602
I've seen the final game.
867
00:34:59,889 --> 00:35:01,311
Oh yeah, yeah, it's my favorite.
868
00:35:01,600 --> 00:35:03,352
Of course I'm biased,
I made the movie.
869
00:35:03,643 --> 00:35:05,236
Steven
Spielberg thought it was OK,
870
00:35:05,520 --> 00:35:08,148
so I thought, all right,
I'm good with that.
871
00:35:08,440 --> 00:35:11,819
And... not that I'm
blaming him, for anything.
872
00:35:12,110 --> 00:35:13,032
No, of course not.
873
00:35:13,320 --> 00:35:14,191
But...
874
00:35:14,279 --> 00:35:15,150
But it's his fault.
875
00:35:17,240 --> 00:35:21,461
The video game that
lets you help E.T. get home
876
00:35:21,745 --> 00:35:24,544
just in time for Christmas.
877
00:35:24,831 --> 00:35:26,083
After E.T. was released,
878
00:35:26,374 --> 00:35:27,341
there was a great
sense of relief
879
00:35:27,626 --> 00:35:28,752
that we'd actually
made the schedule.
880
00:35:29,044 --> 00:35:30,512
And everything was good.
881
00:35:30,795 --> 00:35:32,422
And then the game
went out into market,
882
00:35:32,714 --> 00:35:34,216
and it was very high
on the billboard list.
883
00:35:34,507 --> 00:35:35,975
And again, things were good.
884
00:35:36,259 --> 00:35:38,227
I got E.T., I think
it was Christmas of 1982,
885
00:35:38,511 --> 00:35:39,407
if I remember correctly.
886
00:35:39,596 --> 00:35:41,314
And I thought it
was like... I was
887
00:35:41,598 --> 00:35:44,067
to be the guy on the street who
had E.T. before everybody else.
888
00:35:44,351 --> 00:35:45,819
Turns out everybody I knew
got E.T. that Christmas.
889
00:35:46,102 --> 00:35:47,228
After a while,
890
00:35:47,520 --> 00:35:48,897
people start going by
me in the halls... people
891
00:35:49,189 --> 00:35:51,783
from other buildings, people
from marketing, and management.
892
00:35:52,067 --> 00:35:54,741
And they're saying things like,
you know, you know something,
893
00:35:55,028 --> 00:35:56,621
Howard, you did a great job.
894
00:35:56,905 --> 00:35:58,327
We don't blame you.
895
00:35:58,615 --> 00:35:59,787
That was really
something, what you did.
896
00:36:00,075 --> 00:36:01,577
You really came
through for us there,
897
00:36:01,868 --> 00:36:04,621
and we don't want you to
think we think anything else.
898
00:36:04,913 --> 00:36:06,039
This really isn't about you.
899
00:36:06,331 --> 00:36:07,298
Don't feel bad.
900
00:36:07,582 --> 00:36:09,004
It's OK, it's cool.
901
00:36:09,292 --> 00:36:10,339
And I'm thinking, like, what
the hell are they talking about?
902
00:36:10,627 --> 00:36:12,971
E.T. was a really hard game.
903
00:36:13,254 --> 00:36:17,259
It was the kind of game
that was brutal, unfair,
904
00:36:17,550 --> 00:36:18,517
it didn't make a lot of sense.
905
00:36:18,802 --> 00:36:19,928
I
grew up in London,
906
00:36:20,220 --> 00:36:22,439
and there was a video
game store in my town
907
00:36:22,722 --> 00:36:25,475
that let you rent... I don't know
what the rental was, like 50
908
00:36:25,767 --> 00:36:27,440
pence for a weekend...
and I still remember
909
00:36:27,727 --> 00:36:28,649
feeling like I wasted my money.
910
00:36:28,937 --> 00:36:30,029
Because it just... it was bad.
911
00:36:30,313 --> 00:36:31,439
People aren't liking it.
912
00:36:31,731 --> 00:36:34,075
And people aren't
liking it a lot.
913
00:36:34,359 --> 00:36:37,533
And what made it particularly
bad was my memory of the movie
914
00:36:37,821 --> 00:36:38,654
was SO great.
915
00:36:38,655 --> 00:36:39,702
I loved the movie.
916
00:36:39,989 --> 00:36:40,864
Everyone loved the
movie when it came out.
917
00:36:40,865 --> 00:36:41,787
It's a great movie.
918
00:36:42,075 --> 00:36:43,372
Still is it is a
classic movie today.
919
00:36:43,660 --> 00:36:46,004
And so this massive
chasm that existed
920
00:36:46,287 --> 00:36:49,040
between the quality of the movie
and the quality of the game
921
00:36:49,332 --> 00:36:51,755
that was based on, I think just
made it seem that much more
922
00:36:52,043 --> 00:36:53,090
like a slap in the face.
923
00:36:53,378 --> 00:36:54,925
OK, well, maybe it
won't sell six million.
924
00:36:55,213 --> 00:36:56,556
Maybe it will only
sell four million.
925
00:36:56,840 --> 00:36:58,433
Or three million,
that would be OK.
926
00:36:58,717 --> 00:37:00,185
And then there's, like, returns.
927
00:37:00,468 --> 00:37:01,811
People are returning the game.
928
00:37:02,095 --> 00:37:03,096
They made too many.
929
00:37:03,388 --> 00:37:04,514
How many they made,
I don't even know.
930
00:37:04,806 --> 00:37:06,854
They made, like, four
million cartridges.
931
00:37:07,142 --> 00:37:09,736
That means there could be
millions of carts coming back.
932
00:37:10,019 --> 00:37:14,946
So what do you do with
useless, worthless product'?
933
00:37:15,233 --> 00:37:16,155
How do you get rid of it?
934
00:37:16,443 --> 00:37:17,314
Bury it.
935
00:37:17,402 --> 00:37:18,219
That's a pretty good answer.
936
00:37:20,947 --> 00:37:22,073
Well, career change
937
00:37:22,365 --> 00:37:23,617
is not anything new for me.
938
00:37:23,908 --> 00:37:26,411
I've been through a number
of different careers.
939
00:37:26,703 --> 00:37:30,298
I actually went and got
a California real estate
940
00:37:30,582 --> 00:37:32,129
license, and then
a broker's license,
941
00:37:32,417 --> 00:37:33,464
and did that for a while.
942
00:37:33,752 --> 00:37:35,174
And I did that just
long enough to know
943
00:37:35,462 --> 00:37:37,931
this was, like, the last thing
in the world I wanted to do.
944
00:37:38,214 --> 00:37:41,434
And now I am a licensed,
practicing psychotherapist
945
00:37:41,718 --> 00:37:43,095
in California.
946
00:37:43,386 --> 00:37:45,229
And I'm a very unique therapist,
in that I have a Master's
947
00:37:45,513 --> 00:37:47,891
of Engineering and I also
have a Master of Arts
948
00:37:48,183 --> 00:37:49,605
in counseling psychology.
949
00:37:49,893 --> 00:37:51,486
I mean, I'm the Silicon
Valley therapist.
950
00:37:51,770 --> 00:37:56,025
I'm very good at translating
between English and nerd.
951
00:37:56,316 --> 00:38:00,571
And this is the first time since
I left Atari that I feel I'm
952
00:38:00,862 --> 00:38:03,081
doing what I really love doing.
953
00:38:03,364 --> 00:38:07,995
So it took me 30 years
to get back to a place
954
00:38:08,286 --> 00:38:12,166
that I don't feel I'm a step
down from where I used to work.
955
00:38:12,457 --> 00:38:15,836
And that's many,
many different jobs.
956
00:38:16,127 --> 00:38:18,425
I know this dig is coming up,
and I'm going to be there.
957
00:38:18,713 --> 00:38:20,841
I'm going to be
standing right there.
958
00:38:21,132 --> 00:38:24,477
And I am going to literally
watch my past being dug up.
959
00:38:24,761 --> 00:38:28,231
And that's a weird kind
of thing to anticipate.
960
00:38:28,515 --> 00:38:30,517
My hopes are in one way, and
my expectations are another.
961
00:38:30,809 --> 00:38:31,935
And I don't know what
it's going to be.
962
00:38:32,227 --> 00:38:33,570
I really don't know
what it's going to be.
963
00:38:33,853 --> 00:38:37,483
I don't know what it's
going to mean to me when,
964
00:38:37,774 --> 00:38:39,196
if something comes
up, if it's there.
965
00:39:20,525 --> 00:39:23,278
Part of punk archeology
is that sense of community.
966
00:39:23,570 --> 00:39:25,538
And the fact that we're
helping each other out
967
00:39:25,822 --> 00:39:27,449
to address the issues
that we're interested in.
968
00:39:27,740 --> 00:39:30,664
And most of the time we're
doing it on a volunteer basis.
969
00:39:30,952 --> 00:39:33,796
It's going to be interesting to
see how they decide to excavate
970
00:39:34,080 --> 00:39:35,957
in order to clear a
better area, you know,
971
00:39:36,249 --> 00:39:38,968
so that we can get at more
of the content that we need.
972
00:39:39,252 --> 00:39:40,925
One of the people down
there did confirm finding
973
00:39:41,212 --> 00:39:42,134
a Donny and Marie poster.
974
00:39:42,422 --> 00:39:43,844
Yeah, yeah, which is awesome.
975
00:39:44,132 --> 00:39:45,133
Well, basically,
because we're going
976
00:39:45,425 --> 00:39:46,597
to treat this as a
salvage excavation,
977
00:39:46,885 --> 00:39:48,182
we will dig a trench.
978
00:39:48,469 --> 00:39:50,813
We'll go through and excavate
the material in the pits
979
00:39:51,097 --> 00:39:52,314
that we dig.
980
00:39:52,599 --> 00:39:53,521
At which point, we'll send
them up to the tables.
981
00:39:53,808 --> 00:39:54,775
We'll sort through the material.
982
00:39:55,059 --> 00:39:55,893
We'll weigh it.
983
00:39:55,894 --> 00:39:56,768
We'll count it.
984
00:39:56,769 --> 00:39:57,586
Identify it.
985
00:39:57,770 --> 00:40:00,819
And, yeah, that's the plan.
986
00:40:01,107 --> 00:40:02,484
What's
happened so far today?
987
00:40:02,775 --> 00:40:04,573
Basically, we started
digging in the hole,
988
00:40:04,861 --> 00:40:05,737
and the trucks have
already started
989
00:40:06,029 --> 00:40:07,451
going through the train.
990
00:40:07,739 --> 00:40:09,582
So, just so people understand...
and probably, right now I'm
991
00:40:09,866 --> 00:40:13,461
cutting to an awesome
diagram of this.
992
00:40:13,745 --> 00:40:15,588
There's, like, 20
feet of garbage
993
00:40:15,872 --> 00:40:17,795
that's on the top of wherever
the games are buried.
994
00:40:18,082 --> 00:40:18,924
Garbage and dirt.
995
00:40:19,208 --> 00:40:20,835
Sorry,
garbage and dirt.
996
00:40:21,127 --> 00:40:23,095
In the diagram it's
going to be pretty clear.
997
00:40:23,379 --> 00:40:25,473
And so, that all has
to be taken away.
998
00:40:25,757 --> 00:40:27,259
Yeah,
we'll get the vast majority
999
00:40:27,550 --> 00:40:28,676
of the hole excavated out.
1000
00:40:28,968 --> 00:40:29,844
And so far,
have we found anything?
1001
00:40:30,136 --> 00:40:31,103
Found any Atari games?
1002
00:40:31,387 --> 00:40:32,179
No, nothing.
1003
00:40:32,180 --> 00:40:33,055
Nothing.
1004
00:40:33,056 --> 00:40:34,103
Nothing yet.
1005
00:40:34,390 --> 00:40:37,018
And Son, I mean, you
seem pretty nervous.
1006
00:40:37,310 --> 00:40:38,181
Right.
1007
00:40:38,269 --> 00:40:39,102
Are you?
1008
00:40:39,103 --> 00:40:39,895
Oh yeah, terrified.
1009
00:40:39,896 --> 00:40:40,687
Terrified.
1010
00:40:40,688 --> 00:40:41,905
OK.
1011
00:40:42,190 --> 00:40:43,658
I gotta be honest,
I'm nervous as shit.
1012
00:40:43,942 --> 00:40:46,786
I don't know if that'll help
motivate you guys, but...
1013
00:40:47,070 --> 00:40:48,743
Yeah, that did it for us.
1014
00:40:49,030 --> 00:40:49,901
We need to get back to work.
1015
00:40:49,989 --> 00:40:50,614
Yeah.
1016
00:40:50,615 --> 00:40:51,239
Great.
1017
00:40:51,240 --> 00:40:51,865
Let's go.
1018
00:40:51,866 --> 00:40:52,574
Go team.
1019
00:40:52,575 --> 00:40:53,367
Way to go.
1020
00:40:53,368 --> 00:40:54,264
Son, calm down, buddy.
1021
00:41:01,209 --> 00:41:02,381
People say nerd or geek.
1022
00:41:02,669 --> 00:41:03,886
I say enthusiast.
1023
00:41:04,170 --> 00:41:05,922
I love things, and I love
people who love things.
1024
00:41:06,214 --> 00:41:09,343
But if you spend all your time
focusing on all the amazing,
1025
00:41:09,634 --> 00:41:11,261
like, art and entertainment
that's being made,
1026
00:41:11,552 --> 00:41:12,644
there's so much of
it happening now,
1027
00:41:12,929 --> 00:41:16,934
you can't even take it all in.
1028
00:41:17,225 --> 00:41:18,647
And it's like the dig.
1029
00:41:18,935 --> 00:41:20,357
When I tell people, like, the
right kind people about it,
1030
00:41:20,645 --> 00:41:22,898
they're like, I can't believe
that it's finally happening.
1031
00:41:23,189 --> 00:41:24,941
And that you're going
to get to be there.
1032
00:41:25,233 --> 00:41:26,450
You know, I get,
look, goosebumps.
1033
00:41:26,734 --> 00:41:27,951
Goosebumps talking about it.
1034
00:41:55,930 --> 00:41:58,149
My local video game shop
in Austin, Texas, Game
1035
00:41:58,433 --> 00:42:00,356
Over Video Games, they gave
me every copy they have
1036
00:42:00,643 --> 00:42:02,566
of every one of Howard's games.
1037
00:42:02,854 --> 00:42:05,528
Little known fact... E.T. has the
very first official video game
1038
00:42:05,815 --> 00:42:07,362
Easter egg ever in a video game.
1039
00:42:07,650 --> 00:42:09,948
Warren Robinett had the
very first one in Adventure,
1040
00:42:10,236 --> 00:42:11,488
but he did that without
anybody knowing.
1041
00:42:11,779 --> 00:42:13,747
Howard asked if he could
put Easter eggs in the game,
1042
00:42:14,032 --> 00:42:14,999
and Atari said yes.
1043
00:42:15,283 --> 00:42:17,456
If you go find the
geranium, and you
1044
00:42:17,744 --> 00:42:19,712
make the germanium
regenerate, it turns
1045
00:42:19,996 --> 00:42:22,624
into Yar, from Yar's Revenge.
1046
00:42:22,915 --> 00:42:24,383
And he flies away.
1047
00:42:24,667 --> 00:42:26,510
The first time it happened to
me, when I was 11 years old,
1048
00:42:26,794 --> 00:42:28,011
I shit myself.
1049
00:42:28,296 --> 00:42:30,264
And then if you do it
again, it turns into Indy
1050
00:42:30,548 --> 00:42:31,515
from Raiders of the Lost Ark.
1051
00:42:31,799 --> 00:42:33,927
So Howard hid characters
from this game
1052
00:42:34,218 --> 00:42:35,310
and this game in this game.
1053
00:42:39,223 --> 00:42:40,074
Hello.
1054
00:42:40,266 --> 00:42:41,142
Hi, good afternoon.
1055
00:42:41,434 --> 00:42:42,251
Welcome to the Lodge.
1056
00:42:42,435 --> 00:42:43,561
Well, it's nice to be here.
1057
00:42:43,853 --> 00:42:44,854
Are you checking in?
- Absolutely.
1058
00:42:45,146 --> 00:42:46,021
Great.
1059
00:42:46,022 --> 00:42:46,864
Can I get the last name.
1060
00:42:47,148 --> 00:42:47,981
Warshaw.
1061
00:42:47,982 --> 00:42:50,610
W-A-R-S-H-A-W.
1062
00:42:50,902 --> 00:42:51,693
Howard.
1063
00:42:51,694 --> 00:42:52,511
That's me.
1064
00:43:10,546 --> 00:43:13,015
So it's the day
of the actual dig.
1065
00:43:13,299 --> 00:43:16,428
And my Wife and I are in a van,
on our way to the landfill.
1066
00:43:16,719 --> 00:43:17,811
It was a strange feeling.
1067
00:43:18,096 --> 00:43:19,894
I mean, I was, like, nervous.
1068
00:43:20,181 --> 00:43:22,934
And I didn't really
understand why.
1069
00:43:23,226 --> 00:43:26,526
But I just had this sense...
just like a tingly thing...
1070
00:43:26,813 --> 00:43:29,612
that something is
going on here today.
1071
00:43:29,899 --> 00:43:32,197
And as we pull
into the landfill,
1072
00:43:32,485 --> 00:43:33,782
there were already people there.
1073
00:43:34,070 --> 00:43:35,663
And there's more people.
1074
00:43:35,947 --> 00:43:38,325
And we go on, and
there's more people.
1075
00:43:38,616 --> 00:43:40,368
And it just keeps
going and going.
1076
00:43:45,873 --> 00:43:48,217
I guess it sort of felt like
a religious pilgrimage to me.
1077
00:43:48,501 --> 00:43:49,969
I called up some
friends, and said, hey,
1078
00:43:50,253 --> 00:43:51,505
can we get down there?
1079
00:43:51,796 --> 00:43:53,013
And I asked my brother-in-law
if he wanted to go.
1080
00:43:53,297 --> 00:43:54,344
Heck, let's do it.
Let's check it out.
1081
00:43:54,632 --> 00:43:55,508
And my wife said, whatever.
1082
00:44:05,143 --> 00:44:07,237
It's one of those
weird monumental video
1083
00:44:07,520 --> 00:44:09,989
game based events that only
comes around once a century.
1084
00:44:10,273 --> 00:44:12,367
This is our generation's
urban legend.
1085
00:44:12,650 --> 00:44:14,197
Billions of cartridges
out in the desert.
1086
00:44:14,485 --> 00:44:16,078
Growing up, you always read
the little rumors about it.
1087
00:44:16,362 --> 00:44:17,238
I grew up playing
an Atari, which
1088
00:44:17,530 --> 00:44:18,577
my babysitters had given me.
1089
00:44:18,865 --> 00:44:20,333
And I actually
had the E.T. game.
1090
00:44:20,616 --> 00:44:21,833
My friend and I, she
and I would actually
1091
00:44:22,118 --> 00:44:23,335
just for fun on
the weekends, drive
1092
00:44:23,619 --> 00:44:24,791
around trying to
figure out where would
1093
00:44:25,079 --> 00:44:26,205
these Atari games be buried.
1094
00:44:26,497 --> 00:44:27,623
It's the fun of the legend.
1095
00:44:27,915 --> 00:44:29,041
It's like looking for
the Loch Ness monster.
1096
00:44:29,333 --> 00:44:30,505
What did you
think when you played
1097
00:44:30,793 --> 00:44:32,545
the E.T. game last night?
1098
00:44:32,837 --> 00:44:33,963
It was awesome.
1099
00:44:34,255 --> 00:44:36,553
Because in my opinion,
I like terrible games.
1100
00:44:45,641 --> 00:44:47,689
To come back and to
relive the feeling
1101
00:44:47,977 --> 00:44:51,277
I got off those games is
something I couldn't pass up.
1102
00:44:51,564 --> 00:44:52,907
I just Want to know
about the urban myth.
1103
00:44:53,191 --> 00:44:55,159
See if it's really
buried out here.
1104
00:44:55,443 --> 00:44:57,366
I just came out here to be
part of video game history.
1105
00:44:57,653 --> 00:44:58,870
Had to see whether
it's true or not.
1106
00:44:59,155 --> 00:45:01,249
You have to be a
special kind of nerd
1107
00:45:01,532 --> 00:45:05,958
to be able to want to drive
28 hours for a video game.
1108
00:45:09,498 --> 00:45:10,920
The myth
that E.T., the video game,
1109
00:45:11,209 --> 00:45:13,712
for the Atari 2600 was the
worst video game all time,
1110
00:45:14,003 --> 00:45:14,925
it would be so great
to debunk that,
1111
00:45:15,213 --> 00:45:16,760
because it's just not true.
1112
00:45:17,048 --> 00:45:18,425
But also to redeem
Howard Scott Warshaw,
1113
00:45:18,716 --> 00:45:20,684
because he's an amazing
video game designer,
1114
00:45:20,968 --> 00:45:21,864
and his game was great.
1115
00:45:24,847 --> 00:45:26,099
Ha ha, cool car.
1116
00:45:26,390 --> 00:45:27,286
Yeah, I like that.
1117
00:45:27,475 --> 00:45:28,772
E.T.'s in there.
1118
00:45:29,060 --> 00:45:30,312
This
morning, coming to a dump
1119
00:45:30,603 --> 00:45:33,197
in a small town in New Mexico.
1120
00:45:33,481 --> 00:45:36,075
There were people lined
up, waiting to get in.
1121
00:45:36,359 --> 00:45:38,032
When's the last time
you saw line of people
1122
00:45:38,319 --> 00:45:39,616
waiting to get into a dump?
1123
00:45:39,904 --> 00:45:42,373
It totally took me by surprise,
but in a delightful way.
1124
00:45:45,451 --> 00:45:48,375
You never go to a dump unless
you're throwing something away,
1125
00:45:48,663 --> 00:45:51,883
and here We are, trying to find
treasure... buried treasure.
1126
00:45:52,166 --> 00:45:53,258
I think they'll
find something.
1127
00:45:53,542 --> 00:45:55,340
I mean, the cartridges
had to go somewhere.
1128
00:45:55,628 --> 00:45:57,096
Why not here?
1129
00:45:57,380 --> 00:45:59,508
It is a lot of
open space, great place
1130
00:45:59,799 --> 00:46:01,472
to dump a million cartridges.
1131
00:46:01,759 --> 00:46:05,980
There is a definite
possibility that there is games.
1132
00:46:06,264 --> 00:46:09,313
This is archeology
for the time I grew up.
1133
00:46:09,600 --> 00:46:11,602
So nostalgia for anything
that came out of that era
1134
00:46:11,894 --> 00:46:12,695
is pretty high.
1135
00:46:20,903 --> 00:46:23,076
All right, now the wind is
really picking up, on cue.
1136
00:46:23,364 --> 00:46:24,616
On cue.
1137
00:46:24,907 --> 00:46:26,033
The weather
here, in Alamogordo
1138
00:46:26,325 --> 00:46:30,375
is awesome if you
like sandstorms
1139
00:46:30,663 --> 00:46:34,543
and an impending doom
filled cloud of white.
1140
00:46:34,834 --> 00:46:35,680
Woah.
1141
00:46:40,047 --> 00:46:41,094
Aw, this is getting brutal.
1142
00:46:41,382 --> 00:46:42,257
Yeah.
1143
00:46:42,258 --> 00:46:44,181
Sorry, this is brutal.
1144
00:46:44,468 --> 00:46:45,640
Getting very windy.
1145
00:46:45,928 --> 00:46:47,521
Basically, what's
happening is the white sands
1146
00:46:47,805 --> 00:46:51,150
are blowing in from White
Sands, and covering everything.
1147
00:46:51,434 --> 00:46:52,686
And it's really shitty.
1148
00:46:52,977 --> 00:46:54,229
They're saying this is
like a historic wind today.
1149
00:46:54,520 --> 00:46:55,371
Really?
1150
00:46:55,563 --> 00:46:56,735
That's what somebody told us.
1151
00:46:57,023 --> 00:46:58,070
To think that we're
1152
00:46:58,357 --> 00:46:59,174
in the middle of a Sandstorm.
1153
00:46:59,358 --> 00:47:00,233
Really?
1154
00:47:00,234 --> 00:47:01,360
This is what's going on?
1155
00:47:01,652 --> 00:47:02,778
And for me it was almost
like the big sand storm
1156
00:47:03,070 --> 00:47:04,492
right at the opening
of Close Encounters,
1157
00:47:04,780 --> 00:47:06,828
you know, the people wearing
the goggles and the bandannas.
1158
00:47:07,116 --> 00:47:09,210
Everybody's like, gather around,
because they found something.
1159
00:47:09,493 --> 00:47:11,245
And they can't believe
what they've found.
1160
00:47:11,537 --> 00:47:13,539
Are we the first?
1161
00:47:13,831 --> 00:47:15,504
This is Tony
Johnson, from Denver,
1162
00:47:15,791 --> 00:47:17,714
Colorado, who ran up
to me in my DeLorean.
1163
00:47:18,002 --> 00:47:18,819
He's like, I found something.
1164
00:47:19,003 --> 00:47:20,050
I found something.
1165
00:47:20,338 --> 00:47:22,090
And Tony is going to
go down in history,
1166
00:47:22,381 --> 00:47:24,349
because he found the first
evidence of Atari hardware.
1167
00:47:24,633 --> 00:47:25,504
Whoa.
1168
00:47:25,593 --> 00:47:26,469
Whoa, that's pretty huge.
1169
00:47:26,761 --> 00:47:27,978
Right there it is, my man.
1170
00:47:28,262 --> 00:47:31,482
Uh, ladies and gentlemen,
we have an announcement.
1171
00:47:31,766 --> 00:47:34,861
So, Tony, tell us
what you just found.
1172
00:47:35,144 --> 00:47:38,068
An Atari 2600 joystick toggle.
1173
00:47:41,233 --> 00:47:42,826
So, Tony, where
did you find it?
1174
00:47:43,110 --> 00:47:46,159
Walking to the bathroom.
1175
00:47:46,447 --> 00:47:48,120
So it was a surface find?
1176
00:47:48,407 --> 00:47:49,624
Surface find.
1177
00:47:49,909 --> 00:47:51,161
Yeah, like we know what
a surface find is, right?
1178
00:47:51,452 --> 00:47:53,079
Well, a surface find
is something... you know,
1179
00:47:53,371 --> 00:47:54,623
you're walking around, you're
looking down on the ground,
1180
00:47:54,914 --> 00:47:56,006
you see something interesting
and you pick it up.
1181
00:47:56,290 --> 00:47:58,463
It's totally out of
archaeological context.
1182
00:47:58,751 --> 00:48:00,674
What are the odds that that,
like, blew out of the hole?
1183
00:48:00,961 --> 00:48:02,338
Actually, I think
they're pretty good.
1184
00:48:02,630 --> 00:48:04,507
I mean, the wind is blowing
fiercely in that direction.
1185
00:48:04,799 --> 00:48:06,176
You know, the stuff's
coming out of the bucket.
1186
00:48:06,467 --> 00:48:07,935
You know, we've been finding
a lot of interesting things
1187
00:48:08,219 --> 00:48:09,186
that date from around that time.
1188
00:48:09,470 --> 00:48:10,341
Anything from Atari?
1189
00:48:10,429 --> 00:48:11,806
Uh, nothing from Atari yet.
1190
00:48:12,098 --> 00:48:13,520
How can you authenticate this?
1191
00:48:13,808 --> 00:48:15,856
Can you carbon date it?
1192
00:48:16,143 --> 00:48:17,941
No, it's much too
recent for that.
1193
00:48:23,067 --> 00:48:25,570
There are really two things
that we could be dealing with,
1194
00:48:25,861 --> 00:48:27,488
when taking a look
at these cartridges,
1195
00:48:27,780 --> 00:48:28,702
if they're actually there.
1196
00:48:28,989 --> 00:48:30,616
First thing is that
they just loaded
1197
00:48:30,908 --> 00:48:32,751
the trucks are these cartridges,
and then they dumped them.
1198
00:48:33,035 --> 00:48:34,332
And that's the best
possible scenario,
1199
00:48:34,620 --> 00:48:36,042
because you could pull
them out, and I bet you
1200
00:48:36,330 --> 00:48:37,297
most of them would be playable.
1201
00:48:37,581 --> 00:48:38,707
You know, they've
just been in there
1202
00:48:38,999 --> 00:48:44,052
for... you know, since 1983.
1203
00:48:45,339 --> 00:48:46,636
We're right about
where we need to be,
1204
00:48:46,924 --> 00:48:50,303
but there's still no
Atari detritus at all.
1205
00:48:50,594 --> 00:48:52,312
We've been here for
a while, all ready.
1206
00:48:52,596 --> 00:48:53,388
It's tedious.
1207
00:48:53,389 --> 00:48:54,766
The Wind's horrible.
1208
00:48:55,057 --> 00:48:56,559
We're wondering if they're
going to find anything or not.
1209
00:49:01,605 --> 00:49:02,982
I don't think there's
anything in that hole
1210
00:49:03,274 --> 00:49:04,571
except rattlesnakes scorpions.
1211
00:49:04,859 --> 00:49:06,611
If it's buried, it's
probably for a reason.
1212
00:49:06,902 --> 00:49:07,703
It should stay buried.
1213
00:49:13,200 --> 00:49:15,248
I wasn't thinking that
something was really
1214
00:49:15,536 --> 00:49:18,836
messed up until late '83.
1215
00:49:19,123 --> 00:49:20,716
To me, Atari was
never going to go away.
1216
00:49:21,000 --> 00:49:22,422
It was this thing that
was just part of my life.
1217
00:49:22,710 --> 00:49:24,178
And the thought that
there could ever
1218
00:49:24,462 --> 00:49:28,387
be a day where there was no
Atari... or no Atari 2600... I
1219
00:49:28,674 --> 00:49:29,766
never crossed my mind.
1220
00:49:30,050 --> 00:49:32,894
E.T. comes out, and
E.T. is not so great.
1221
00:49:33,179 --> 00:49:36,729
And somewhere toward
the end of the year
1222
00:49:37,016 --> 00:49:39,895
I'm starting to wonder,
are we making our numbers?
1223
00:49:40,186 --> 00:49:42,814
Which leads to one of the
worst nights of my life.
1224
00:49:43,105 --> 00:49:47,986
On December 7, 1982 I get a
call from Dennis Groth, who
1225
00:49:48,277 --> 00:49:50,530
was the CFO of Atari, he says,
1226
00:49:50,821 --> 00:49:53,290
Manny,
here's the new budget.
1227
00:49:53,574 --> 00:49:56,498
And it's a huge shortfall
from what we have been told.
1228
00:49:56,785 --> 00:49:58,128
Warner Communications
said today
1229
00:49:58,412 --> 00:50:01,666
that its once booming Atari
business lost another $180
1230
00:50:01,957 --> 00:50:04,585
million in the third
quarter, for total losses
1231
00:50:04,877 --> 00:50:07,096
this year of more than
half a billion dollars.
1232
00:50:07,379 --> 00:50:10,007
I was starting to see
enough signs in the company
1233
00:50:10,299 --> 00:50:12,176
that things were
starting to unravel.
1234
00:50:12,468 --> 00:50:14,470
It was unraveling
is hard and fast.
1235
00:50:14,762 --> 00:50:16,764
And we didn't have
any ready solutions.
1236
00:50:17,056 --> 00:50:19,935
Several Atari executives,
including Atari's chairman,
1237
00:50:20,226 --> 00:50:22,854
Raymond Kassar, sold
Warner stock shortly
1238
00:50:23,145 --> 00:50:24,772
before the negative
earnings announcement,
1239
00:50:25,064 --> 00:50:27,192
and the decline in the
price of the stock.
1240
00:50:27,483 --> 00:50:30,157
Kassar denies any
wrongdoing or impropriety,
1241
00:50:30,444 --> 00:50:33,072
but a number of stockholders
have sued Warner.
1242
00:50:33,364 --> 00:50:34,832
So
they got rid of Ray Kassar,
1243
00:50:35,115 --> 00:50:37,368
and they brought in a
guy from Phillip Morris.
1244
00:50:37,660 --> 00:50:43,087
And when he came in, Atari
had 10,000 employees.
1245
00:50:43,374 --> 00:50:46,218
And within about four
months, or five months,
1246
00:50:46,502 --> 00:50:48,550
Atari had 2000 employees.
1247
00:50:48,837 --> 00:50:54,765
I really got that we had
lost 80% of our staff.
1248
00:50:55,052 --> 00:50:57,180
In the short run, the market
is frequently irrational.
1249
00:50:57,471 --> 00:50:59,690
In the longer run,
hopefully it's rational.
1250
00:50:59,974 --> 00:51:02,227
The wild upside ride was over.
1251
00:51:02,518 --> 00:51:07,365
Did not understand the extent
of the downside ride was coming.
1252
00:51:07,648 --> 00:51:09,571
This is slipping away.
1253
00:51:09,858 --> 00:51:11,986
The train is derailing.
1254
00:51:12,278 --> 00:51:16,829
It's not going to keep riding,
and what am I going to do next?
1255
00:51:17,116 --> 00:51:19,414
It was a big emotional blow.
1256
00:51:19,702 --> 00:51:24,458
It was my baby, and I
hated to see it abused.
1257
00:51:24,748 --> 00:51:26,045
New Media magazine
1258
00:51:26,333 --> 00:51:31,760
credited E.T. with destroying
the video game industry.
1259
00:51:32,047 --> 00:51:33,299
That's interesting.
1260
00:51:33,591 --> 00:51:34,683
I think that's really
interesting that I could be
1261
00:51:34,967 --> 00:51:36,810
single handedly
responsible for toppling
1262
00:51:37,094 --> 00:51:38,721
a billion dollar industry.
1263
00:51:39,013 --> 00:51:39,804
E.T. comes out.
1264
00:51:39,805 --> 00:51:40,727
The industry dies.
1265
00:51:41,015 --> 00:51:42,062
Howard's associated
with that, and I
1266
00:51:42,349 --> 00:51:44,022
think that's
affected his career,
1267
00:51:44,310 --> 00:51:45,562
and what people will
remember him for.
1268
00:51:45,853 --> 00:51:47,776
And that's... that's pretty bad.
1269
00:51:48,063 --> 00:51:50,816
The fact that a
guy's career got
1270
00:51:51,108 --> 00:51:53,452
destroyed because
he did E.T., given
1271
00:51:53,736 --> 00:51:56,330
the circumstances
surrounding doing E.T.,
1272
00:51:56,614 --> 00:51:58,241
it's completely unfair.
1273
00:51:58,532 --> 00:51:59,374
I mean, it's sad.
1274
00:51:59,658 --> 00:52:00,784
It's really sad.
1275
00:52:01,076 --> 00:52:02,453
There's this
video game walk of fame.
1276
00:52:02,745 --> 00:52:04,167
There's also this show called
DICE, where they give out
1277
00:52:04,455 --> 00:52:05,351
lifetime achievement awards.
1278
00:52:05,539 --> 00:52:06,381
Howard's not in that.
1279
00:52:06,665 --> 00:52:08,008
He's not put in that same group.
1280
00:52:08,292 --> 00:52:09,635
They kind of keep him
out of all these things,
1281
00:52:09,918 --> 00:52:10,760
and it's kind of a shame.
1282
00:52:13,464 --> 00:52:15,137
The day I left Atari.
1283
00:52:15,424 --> 00:52:17,597
When things had really fallen
apart, and it was over.
1284
00:52:17,885 --> 00:52:20,980
And I'm literally carrying
my garbage out to my car
1285
00:52:21,263 --> 00:52:24,187
to leave for the last time.
1286
00:52:24,475 --> 00:52:28,196
That was a very
depressing moment for me.
1287
00:52:28,479 --> 00:52:30,447
Because I felt I
was losing the most
1288
00:52:30,731 --> 00:52:33,075
important thing in my life.
1289
00:52:33,359 --> 00:52:37,956
And I also knew it
was so unreal that I'd
1290
00:52:38,238 --> 00:52:39,831
never be able to recreate it.
1291
00:52:40,115 --> 00:52:44,416
The burial in Alamogordo is
basically Atari's funeral.
1292
00:52:44,703 --> 00:52:48,378
The burial of those cartridges
represents the burial
1293
00:52:48,666 --> 00:52:52,261
of that beautiful era.
1294
00:52:52,544 --> 00:52:54,262
And that may be what's
interesting about it.
1295
00:52:54,546 --> 00:52:56,139
I don't know, I mean,
that's a whole psychology
1296
00:52:56,423 --> 00:52:57,766
I'm not going to go near.
1297
00:52:58,050 --> 00:53:00,178
But it may be because it is
about the death of Atari.
1298
00:53:00,469 --> 00:53:01,361
That's what it is.
1299
00:53:05,015 --> 00:53:07,643
We can't control
how the past returns to us.
1300
00:53:07,935 --> 00:53:10,029
We may get something
that no longer
1301
00:53:10,312 --> 00:53:11,609
resembles an E.T. cartridge.
1302
00:53:11,897 --> 00:53:13,865
We may get something
monstrous, something twisted,
1303
00:53:14,149 --> 00:53:15,150
something decayed.
1304
00:53:15,442 --> 00:53:16,284
We may not even know
what we're looking
1305
00:53:16,568 --> 00:53:19,822
at if we unearth Atari's E.T..
1306
00:53:20,114 --> 00:53:22,367
Part of me feels
that when you finally crack open
1307
00:53:22,658 --> 00:53:24,001
this place, and
you start to look,
1308
00:53:24,284 --> 00:53:25,752
it's going to be a lot like
the Ark of the Covenant.
1309
00:53:26,036 --> 00:53:27,504
It's just going to
be a bunch of sand.
1310
00:53:27,788 --> 00:53:31,588
But another part of
me hopes that what's
1311
00:53:31,875 --> 00:53:33,001
found there is going
to lead to a lot more
1312
00:53:33,293 --> 00:53:35,637
understanding, and
a lot more discovery
1313
00:53:35,921 --> 00:53:37,889
about what really happened.
1314
00:53:46,181 --> 00:53:47,683
What's his name?
1315
00:53:47,975 --> 00:53:48,766
Joe.
1316
00:53:48,767 --> 00:53:50,861
Joe!
1317
00:53:51,145 --> 00:53:52,362
They want me to come in?
1318
00:53:52,646 --> 00:53:53,517
Let's go.
1319
00:53:57,443 --> 00:53:59,070
So what's up?
1320
00:53:59,361 --> 00:54:00,203
You guys find something?
1321
00:54:04,241 --> 00:54:05,493
I should have
brought my binoculars.
1322
00:54:09,079 --> 00:54:10,126
Could you show me?
1323
00:54:20,924 --> 00:54:22,096
They're
bringing some stuff
1324
00:54:22,384 --> 00:54:24,307
over to the archaeologists'
table right now.
1325
00:54:24,595 --> 00:54:25,487
Let's see what's going on.
1326
00:54:29,683 --> 00:54:30,500
Can everybody hear me?
1327
00:54:34,438 --> 00:54:36,691
We found something.
1328
00:54:36,982 --> 00:54:39,952
The archaeologists have
confirmed it's from 1983.
1329
00:54:40,235 --> 00:54:42,329
28 feet down.
1330
00:54:42,613 --> 00:54:43,785
It's E.T., the video game.
1331
00:54:44,072 --> 00:54:45,745
Intact in its box.
1332
00:54:51,580 --> 00:54:52,455
Wow.
1333
00:54:52,456 --> 00:54:53,673
There you go, Son.
1334
00:54:57,795 --> 00:54:59,593
It's an emotional,
emotional event.
1335
00:54:59,880 --> 00:55:01,974
They've backed up
this legend with fact,
1336
00:55:02,257 --> 00:55:04,259
and it's incredible
to be a part of it.
1337
00:55:04,551 --> 00:55:07,555
Good job, Joe.
1338
00:55:07,846 --> 00:55:09,644
I wasn't nervous until we
got down to that, where he was
1339
00:55:09,932 --> 00:55:11,229
almost reaching his max length.
1340
00:55:11,517 --> 00:55:13,770
But yeah, it was a big
weight off my shoulders
1341
00:55:14,061 --> 00:55:18,612
when that bucket came
up and E.T. was there.
1342
00:55:18,899 --> 00:55:19,770
Congratulations.
1343
00:55:19,858 --> 00:55:21,075
Thank you.
1344
00:55:21,360 --> 00:55:22,577
I didn't think they were
going to find them intact,
1345
00:55:22,861 --> 00:55:24,204
I thought for sure they'd
be crushed and ruined.
1346
00:55:24,488 --> 00:55:25,614
Now I've got
goosebumps, and it's
1347
00:55:25,906 --> 00:55:27,032
not because of the dust storm.
1348
00:55:27,324 --> 00:55:29,372
What's this moment
like for you?
1349
00:55:29,660 --> 00:55:30,582
Look at all the
excitement that's
1350
00:55:30,869 --> 00:55:33,543
been generated
today over something
1351
00:55:33,831 --> 00:55:36,129
that I did 32 years ago.
1352
00:55:36,416 --> 00:55:42,267
I just... it's immensely
personal thing.
1353
00:55:44,550 --> 00:55:49,603
What it took to make
these games, was a lot.
1354
00:55:50,889 --> 00:55:53,187
And this one was
done in five weeks.
1355
00:55:53,475 --> 00:55:58,151
That was one of the hardest
five weeks of my life.
1356
00:55:58,438 --> 00:56:02,443
So I need a little moment.
1357
00:56:02,734 --> 00:56:04,281
I'm just so excited to be here.
1358
00:56:13,453 --> 00:56:15,205
A lot of these people that
are complaining about E.T. had
1359
00:56:15,497 --> 00:56:16,589
never actually even played it.
1360
00:56:16,874 --> 00:56:18,171
And I ever since then,
I would talk to people,
1361
00:56:18,458 --> 00:56:19,425
and we would talk about
E.T., and I'm like,
1362
00:56:19,710 --> 00:56:20,757
well, have you ever
played the game?
1363
00:56:21,044 --> 00:56:22,341
And it would come
out that they didn't.
1364
00:56:22,629 --> 00:56:24,723
They would just kind of
continue this myth of the game
1365
00:56:25,007 --> 00:56:25,798
being really horrible.
1366
00:56:25,799 --> 00:56:26,891
Is a good game.
1367
00:56:27,175 --> 00:56:28,893
It wasn't the worst
that Atari had to offer.
1368
00:56:29,177 --> 00:56:31,145
There was, like... I remember
getting a game called Fire Fly.
1369
00:56:33,974 --> 00:56:35,146
That is the worst
game for Atari.
1370
00:56:35,434 --> 00:56:36,310
That's what every
should be focusing
1371
00:56:36,602 --> 00:56:37,854
their efforts on, not E.T..
1372
00:56:38,145 --> 00:56:39,738
Now let me be clear,
the worst game ever made
1373
00:56:40,022 --> 00:56:40,839
was obviously Trespasser.
1374
00:56:43,525 --> 00:56:45,027
So I just want to
be clear with that.
1375
00:56:45,319 --> 00:56:47,196
With the shitload
of just horrible poorly made
1376
00:56:47,487 --> 00:56:50,206
cranked out Atari
games, to call E.T.
1377
00:56:50,490 --> 00:56:52,163
the worst one is just shameful.
1378
00:56:52,451 --> 00:56:55,375
In contemporary game culture
we like trashing games.
1379
00:56:55,662 --> 00:56:57,414
I don't mean putting
them in landfills,
1380
00:56:57,706 --> 00:57:00,425
but verbally
trashing game design.
1381
00:57:00,709 --> 00:57:04,179
It's become fashionable to sort
of regard E.T. as the worst
1382
00:57:04,463 --> 00:57:05,760
video game of all time.
1383
00:57:06,048 --> 00:57:08,346
In fact, it makes everybody's
list as the number one.
1384
00:57:08,634 --> 00:57:09,977
And I'm going to go
out on a complete limb
1385
00:57:10,260 --> 00:57:11,887
here, and say... maybe people
will attack me for this...
1386
00:57:12,179 --> 00:57:15,183
but I'd rather play Atari's
E.T. than any Call of Duty.
1387
00:57:15,474 --> 00:57:19,854
In context, given the time and
the situation that Howard had
1388
00:57:20,145 --> 00:57:21,863
to live in, to
program that game,
1389
00:57:22,147 --> 00:57:23,820
it really is an
astonishing master work.
1390
00:57:24,107 --> 00:57:25,825
He made an amazing
fucking game that's
1391
00:57:26,109 --> 00:57:28,453
a whole self-contained
world in five weeks,
1392
00:57:28,737 --> 00:57:29,989
that's even more impressive.
1393
00:57:30,280 --> 00:57:32,703
I don't know any human
being who could have turned
1394
00:57:32,991 --> 00:57:34,993
E.T., in the time
frames involved,
1395
00:57:35,285 --> 00:57:36,753
into a really successful game.
1396
00:57:37,037 --> 00:57:38,835
He should be
applauded for being
1397
00:57:39,122 --> 00:57:43,923
able to have done anything in
the time that was allotted.
1398
00:57:44,211 --> 00:57:47,090
The scorn should be
heaped upon those
1399
00:57:47,381 --> 00:57:52,228
who thought it was even rational
to try to build a cartridge
1400
00:57:52,511 --> 00:57:53,933
in a month and a half.
1401
00:57:54,221 --> 00:57:56,849
The analogy that people always
use for these first timers...
1402
00:57:57,140 --> 00:57:58,983
for people who try
something first...
1403
00:57:59,267 --> 00:58:00,814
is the first penguin analogy.
1404
00:58:01,103 --> 00:58:03,276
Where the first penguin
who jumps down the hole
1405
00:58:03,563 --> 00:58:05,565
through the ice is
the one who invariably
1406
00:58:05,857 --> 00:58:06,983
gets eaten by the seal.
1407
00:58:07,275 --> 00:58:08,948
But if there wasn't
a first penguin,
1408
00:58:09,236 --> 00:58:10,909
then the penguins wouldn't be
going down through the ice.
1409
00:58:11,196 --> 00:58:13,870
So, it sucks to be
the first penguin,
1410
00:58:14,157 --> 00:58:14,983
but somebody's got to do it.
1411
00:58:20,539 --> 00:58:22,291
So it turned
out that Joe Lewandowski
1412
00:58:22,582 --> 00:58:24,175
had been right all along.
1413
00:58:24,459 --> 00:58:27,838
The games were buried, almost
exactly where he had predicted.
1414
00:58:28,130 --> 00:58:32,226
And no mercury filled pigs
popped up out of the ground.
1415
00:58:32,509 --> 00:58:35,513
So the legend of
the burial was true.
1416
00:58:35,804 --> 00:58:37,431
Or was it?
1417
00:58:37,723 --> 00:58:40,021
When the archaeologists
cataloged all the games,
1418
00:58:40,308 --> 00:58:42,561
there were a bunch
of E.T. cartridges,
1419
00:58:42,853 --> 00:58:44,651
but nowhere near the
millions that were
1420
00:58:44,938 --> 00:58:46,565
such a big part of the legend.
1421
00:58:46,857 --> 00:58:51,738
In fact, E.T. made up about
10% of the total games found.
1422
00:58:52,029 --> 00:58:54,828
The rest included some of
the best games ever made,
1423
00:58:55,115 --> 00:58:58,494
Defender, and Centipede,
and Yar's Revenge.
1424
00:58:58,785 --> 00:59:01,379
There was even one copy of
Adventure, which I snagged.
1425
00:59:06,293 --> 00:59:09,422
The burial wasn't a cover
up, or done out of shame.
1426
00:59:09,713 --> 00:59:11,590
It was a warehouse
dump done by a company
1427
00:59:11,882 --> 00:59:13,634
in financial distress.
1428
00:59:13,925 --> 00:59:15,802
At the time, the Alamogordo
landfill was just
1429
00:59:16,094 --> 00:59:19,064
the most practical solution.
1430
00:59:19,347 --> 00:59:23,193
E.T. wasn't buried because
it was the worst game ever.
1431
00:59:23,477 --> 00:59:25,104
People called it
the worst game ever
1432
00:59:25,395 --> 00:59:28,069
because it had been buried.
1433
00:59:28,356 --> 00:59:30,324
And as a result, it got
blamed for destroying
1434
00:59:30,609 --> 00:59:32,156
an entire industry.
1435
00:59:32,444 --> 00:59:34,572
The game and its creator
had taken the rap
1436
00:59:34,863 --> 00:59:37,286
for a crime they didn't commit.
1437
00:59:37,574 --> 00:59:41,499
The notion that E.T.
caused the demise of Atari
1438
00:59:41,787 --> 00:59:43,209
is simply stupid.
1439
00:59:43,497 --> 00:59:44,919
It's just stupid.
1440
00:59:45,207 --> 00:59:46,880
Atari committed suicide.
1441
00:59:47,167 --> 00:59:49,044
It was not homicide.
1442
00:59:49,336 --> 00:59:52,055
And it wasn't the
E.T. cartridge.
1443
00:59:52,339 --> 00:59:57,689
It was a concomitant effect of
a lot of missteps in technology,
1444
00:59:59,971 --> 01:00:01,564
and deployment, and marketing.
1445
01:00:01,848 --> 01:00:03,566
Some people say E.T. destroyed
the video game industry.
1446
01:00:03,850 --> 01:00:04,817
And I'm sure I've
heard that before,
1447
01:00:05,102 --> 01:00:05,944
but it's just really funny.
1448
01:00:06,228 --> 01:00:07,445
No.
1449
01:00:07,729 --> 01:00:09,823
The behavior pattern that
created the conditions
1450
01:00:10,107 --> 01:00:12,075
for the E.T. failure
is what destroyed
1451
01:00:12,359 --> 01:00:13,576
the video game industry.
1452
01:00:13,860 --> 01:00:18,741
The cause of the fall was
Atari trying to sell yet
1453
01:00:19,032 --> 01:00:23,583
another 10 million Atari
2600s into a market that
1454
01:00:23,870 --> 01:00:24,741
was saturated.
1455
01:00:24,830 --> 01:00:26,457
E.T. didn't destroy Atari.
1456
01:00:26,748 --> 01:00:29,547
It wasn't good, but it
didn't destroy Atari.
1457
01:00:29,835 --> 01:00:32,964
That's one of those
things people say.
1458
01:00:33,255 --> 01:00:36,054
And the reality of life
is, if enough people say,
1459
01:00:36,341 --> 01:00:38,014
it becomes the truth for people.
1460
01:00:38,301 --> 01:00:41,601
A simple answer that
is clear and precise
1461
01:00:41,888 --> 01:00:44,858
will always have more power in
the world than a complex one
1462
01:00:45,142 --> 01:00:45,988
that is true.
1463
01:00:54,109 --> 01:00:55,110
Here's another E.T. six pack.
1464
01:00:59,322 --> 01:01:01,245
What I
would like to see happen,
1465
01:01:01,533 --> 01:01:04,707
is I would like to see
whatever remains are recovered
1466
01:01:04,995 --> 01:01:06,622
will then find their
way into a museum,
1467
01:01:06,913 --> 01:01:09,257
in the service of game history.
1468
01:01:09,541 --> 01:01:11,168
Well, you
know, the city of Alamogordo
1469
01:01:11,459 --> 01:01:12,756
owns the games and
what have you that
1470
01:01:13,044 --> 01:01:14,341
came through there,
by virtue of the fact
1471
01:01:14,629 --> 01:01:16,802
that they were in our landfill.
1472
01:01:17,090 --> 01:01:20,185
We might be able to
sell them on eBay.
1473
01:01:20,468 --> 01:01:22,721
So, if another
terrible video game needed
1474
01:01:23,013 --> 01:01:24,981
to be buried, would
you be prepared to let
1475
01:01:25,265 --> 01:01:26,858
it be buried in Alamogordo?
1476
01:01:27,142 --> 01:01:28,064
Absolutely.
1477
01:01:28,351 --> 01:01:29,944
Come on down, we'll
bury your game.
1478
01:01:34,816 --> 01:01:38,696
Atari was the
first great consumer company
1479
01:01:38,987 --> 01:01:40,113
to come out of Silicon Valley.
1480
01:01:40,405 --> 01:01:41,197
It was exciting.
1481
01:01:41,198 --> 01:01:42,370
It was different.
1482
01:01:42,657 --> 01:01:43,624
It was the first engagement
that a generation
1483
01:01:43,909 --> 01:01:45,377
had with computers.
1484
01:01:45,660 --> 01:01:49,710
So a generation grew up being
introduced to the computer age
1485
01:01:49,998 --> 01:01:51,215
by Atari games.
1486
01:01:51,499 --> 01:01:54,628
We brought a whole massive
new entertainment medium
1487
01:01:54,920 --> 01:01:56,467
into public consciousness.
1488
01:01:56,755 --> 01:01:59,599
So for a whole generation,
we are the definition
1489
01:01:59,883 --> 01:02:01,851
of the video game, here.
1490
01:02:02,135 --> 01:02:03,352
And it's cosmic.
1491
01:02:03,637 --> 01:02:06,891
These guys really never
got their due for really
1492
01:02:07,182 --> 01:02:08,650
starting the whole industry.
1493
01:02:08,934 --> 01:02:11,562
Three lives was
invented by a person.
1494
01:02:11,853 --> 01:02:14,197
Flying a ship around was
invented by a person, who had
1495
01:02:14,481 --> 01:02:15,698
to figure out what that was.
1496
01:02:15,982 --> 01:02:20,362
And it was so good that
it was copied everywhere.
1497
01:02:20,654 --> 01:02:22,201
And because it was
copied everywhere,
1498
01:02:22,489 --> 01:02:24,617
and because it's
so ubiquitous, it's
1499
01:02:24,908 --> 01:02:27,252
impossible to remember
why it was so special.
1500
01:02:27,535 --> 01:02:30,414
I think Atari's
legacy is that we
1501
01:02:30,705 --> 01:02:35,256
started the Silicon Valley ethic
of engineers as rock stars.
1502
01:02:35,543 --> 01:02:37,170
It didn't exist before.
1503
01:02:37,462 --> 01:02:41,183
I think the casual
culture, the meritocracy,
1504
01:02:41,466 --> 01:02:42,888
didn't exist before.
1505
01:02:43,176 --> 01:02:46,350
I believe these were
underpinnings of things that
1506
01:02:46,638 --> 01:02:49,391
made, and continue to
make, Silicon Valley
1507
01:02:49,683 --> 01:02:52,653
a special place in the world.
1508
01:02:52,936 --> 01:02:57,737
And I think that Atari
will continue to endure
1509
01:02:58,024 --> 01:03:02,996
as an icon of innovation.
1510
01:03:03,305 --> 01:04:03,409
116133
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