Watch, Hear, and Re-live the Big Atari Dig as it Happened

We found him!

Three decades after it was rumored that thousands of unsold Atari 2600 games and accessories, highlighted by E.T. The Extra Terrestrial, were secretly dumped in a New Mexico landfill, the urban legend has been confirmed. Hundreds of fans and media attendees gathered in Alamogordo as a loader dug deep into the earth in search of evidence. After just a couple of hours and 30 feet of debris passed by, E.T. once again saw daylight.

For those of you who couldn’t make it out to New Mexico, Xbox Wire has full coverage of all the goings-on. Cameras were rolling for the filming a documentary on the event that will be airing soon, but I brought my own crew to bring you this inside look at a once-in-a-lifetime event. Enjoy:

As it turned out, folks around the world were following along with the dig via Twitter. Here are a few of our favorite moments as the first cartridges were brought to the surface in real time:

 

 

Photo collection from the dig (click pics to see them in full resolution):