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1980-1989 The 1980s

Atari buries crushed unsold stock in a New Mexico landfill

Trucks carried crushed cartridges, consoles and other unsold material from an El Paso plant to a municipal landfill in New Mexico. Long dismissed as a rumor, the burial was verified by a documented excavation in 2014.

Key facts and significance Hide details
Platform
Home consoles
Region
North America
Period
The 1980s

Why it matters

Few episodes show as clearly how quickly the history of a young medium can turn into myth. The excavation also demonstrated the value of treating games as material culture, since physical remains, municipal records and contemporary reporting together corrected a story that had circulated for thirty years.

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