Dig? Dug!: Field Notes from the Microsoft-sponsored Excavation of the Alamogordo, NM Atari Dump Site
Document Type
Article
Abstract
[First paragraph]
In April 2014, Xbox Entertainment Studios, in partnership with Fuel Entertainment and Lightbox and as part of its Signal to Noise documentary series, sponsored an excavation of a defunct landfill in Alamogordo, New Mexico for the premiere installment of the series, Atari: Game Over (2014). It was in this literal wasteland that a trove of game cartridges-the "infamous" E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial (1982) among them-and other returned, damaged, and seemingly brand new products were reputedly buried, having been summarily entombed therein by Atari. These products were ordered for disposal by former Atari employee James Hiller, and transported from the company's warehouse in El Paso, TX to Alamogordo in September 1983. The excavation, some thirty years later, was conducted by an interdisciplinary archaeological team and by a group of municipal heavy machinery operators from Alamogordo. [2] The excavation was open to the public, with observers able to view the dig from behind a swath of temporary plastic fencing erected for safety purposes as well as to prevent further looting of Atari's e-waste.
Repository Citation
Ruggill, Judd E., Ken S. McAllister, Carly A. Kocurek, and Raiford Guins. "Dig? Dug!: Field Notes from the Microsoft-sponsored Excavation of the Alamogordo, NM Atari Dump Site." Reconstruction: Studies in Contemporary Culture vol. 15, no. 3, 2015, pp. 1–25. https://digitalcommons.odu.edu/reconstruction/vol15/iss3/10