Atari Dump found by Archaeologists

[Vic20-Ian]

The story of the mass dump of ET cartridges is true after all.

http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2014/04/l ... -treasure/

[GreyGhost]

Archaeologists. Right. The future when archaeologists are unearthing 1 million year old computer and hardware dumps. Classic stuff. At least this puts away that myth about the dump sites.

[orion70]

It's great news. I've always dreamed of finding retro treasures in the junk . Also, this story about Alamogordo was well known worldwide, and the finding had some resonance also in Italy.

Slightly OT: I recently went to the local dump site and there's an area dedicated to computers and small electrical appliances. There I saw some Commodore stuff (at least one C64, two 1541s, and a Datassette) apparently in good condition, maybe dumped by the same (fool) individual. Maybe there was more under the small hill of junk. I asked if I could take a look, but the answer was that they are property of the municipality. I'm curious of it's the same in other Countries.

[Vic20-Ian]

Orion - go back to the tip and talk to the operator or guy in charge and say how you will save the creation of additional electrical waste by reusing it. A case of Moretti might help persuade him to even keep back the good stuff for you

In the Isle of Man they have an area in each waste site where goods that are too good to be thrown away may be placed for others to take. Part of the site is like a Jumble Sale / Flea Market.

Books, Furniture, prams, bikes, electrical goods are all there to be taken for reuse.

Until recently you could take old TVs and leave them for disposal if broken or in the reuse area if they worked. I reused a few 14" CRT colour TVs and then returned them when I found a 20" CRT for my Vic-20.

Due to a removal of funding support for the disposal of TVs and monitors you must now pay £12 to leave them, working or not. This is to prevent people leaving broken sets in the working reuse area and avoid the disposal fee. Now if you take a TV and it does not work you have to pay £12 to take it back to the tip. It will probably kill off the reuse part for TVs and Monitors and encourage fly tipping.

My best find was a few weeks ago - An X-Arcade joystick. I need to get hold of the serial port adaptor lead but it is a nice bit of kit for older games on newer consoles.

[joshuadenmark]

Slightly OT: I recently went to the local dump site and there's an area dedicated to computers and small electrical appliances. There I saw some Commodore stuff (at least one C64, two 1541s, and a Datassette) apparently in good condition, maybe dumped by the same (fool) individual. Maybe there was more under the small hill of junk. I asked if I could take a look, but the answer was that they are property of the municipality. I'm curious of it's the same in other Countries.

Don't ask just take it, my recent zero $ dump site findings:

1. Kenwood breadmaker (As new, power-cord cut off) 100% ok

2. Nikon digital camera 7.1 MP (needed batteries and sd card) 100 % ok

3. Samsung DVD/HD recoder with remote control (no sound through HDMI) loose connection between HDMI module and mainbord, fixed. 100 % ok

4. PS2 with controllers (dirty laser) cleaned, 100 % ok

and lots of tools, drill bits, garden tooling and so on

If there is any trouble give the man a beer or a bottle of wine

Go back and pick it up!!! may the force be with you!

[orion70]

I'd probably be arrested . The place is strictly guarded by at least a man every two areas (e.g. electrical appliances, paper, glass, plastic, furniture, etc.). During the night it's closed and there's an alarm. It's a free service, but you have to show an ID proving you live in the city, and you give the stuff to a man who places it in the dump, so I'm afraid in no way an object can do the opposite route.
Legends say there's a flourishing black market in the place, but it's probably due to the way they protect it .

[joshuadenmark]

Arrested for real?

I can see that things are way more relaxed here in little Denmark, no one gets arrested for things like that, thank god.

[orion70]

Being the discharged stuff property of the State, if you steal it (or anyone else's property, for that matter), you're subject to arrest, at least in theory. This is valid also in the peaceful little Denmark, I hope . It would be paradoxical of course to be arrested for stealing junk, and it never happened - nonetheless, they wouldn't allow you to put your hands in the container for that precise reason: from the moment you give to the muni officer your object, it's property of the city.

Edit: I see it's the same in the US, judging from the sign on the right in this picture (from the original link of the first post).

[joshuadenmark]

Here in my town, the guard on the recycle station often ask "is there any interesting today"?

No arrestment what so ever

[buzbard]

Here in the US we used to be able to go "shopping" at the landfills. We used to go once a week and pick up deposit bottles, aluminum cans, and anything that looked like it might be useable.

And then people started picking up papers with personal info and stealing other people's identity, so it's not allowed here anymore.

But the way I see it, if you're stupid enough to throw information like that in the trash then you should have your identity stolen.

We have a special box that we put old receipts and things in, then in the winter time when we need paper to light the fireplace, just take it out of the box.

After looking at some of the photos from the article I'm not totally convinced that they actually found those games there. The reason why is, if you've ever spent any time at a landfill, especially a desert landfill, you know that within 5 minutes you are covered from head to toe with dust and filth.
These guys in the pictures look like they just walked out of a department store with those super clean clothes, not even their gloves are dirty. Very suspicious.

[joshuadenmark]

We are not allowed on the landfills either, too dangerous and to dirty.

And you are right agent buzbard, no dirt at all, not even in the bagged game pack... looks very suspicious

[Jeff-20]

I found a cable box/HD DVR in the trash. I can't get beyond the cable screen, but do you think there's a way to use the DVR part of it? If not, maybe I'll just salvage the harddrive as a portable storage.


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[highinfidelity]

Well, sometimes there are things that just don't appear as they should in photographs. I remember some pictures taken last year at a historical reenactment: the day was terribly hot and we were terribly sweaty, dripping literally. But in the pictures we all look fresh and rested, as if there was air conditioning.

So I'll take these pictures as genuine, despite the modest quantity of dust.

However, if this is indeed the actual, mythical, legendary burial site, the whole story as it has been told so far is to be rewritten. I remember reading of millions, billions, ZILLIONS of ET carts buried there, and then covered with nothing less than a CAST OF CONCRETE! A Hoover-Dam-style cast of concrete!!!

In this area, judging by the pictures, they've found more like "a dozen" of carts, not only ET but also other titles (Centipede, which by the way was an absolute best seller!), mixed with rubber tires, plastic bags and other stuff. Hypothetically, if that dump area was indeed used - more or less - around 1984, they may also be casual findings. Stuff coming from families that just "upgraded" to Colecovision or Intellivision or Commodore; or shops trashing leftovers packs of atari carts to stock in Coleco, Mattel etc. Average trash of 1984, I mean. If that's the case, the dump is likely also full of those keyrings with fluo rubber coils, unused half bottles of Brillantina, Paninaro-style boots and Armani jeans. And they only digged few inches of sand with absolutely no trace of any cast of concrete that may seriously engage the bulldozers.

So, even if this finding is genuine, it looks like the whole story was greatly exaggerated in the past.

[orion70]

Highinfidelity, LOL at your post! I'm not sure if this is a genuine story, nor if they have found the original legendary dump created after the videogame crash in the early Eighties, but I seriously doubt they will ever find some Paninaro relics into it, being an American location .

[highinfidelity]

Yeah, I reckon that my post was mostly Europe-oriented...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ORZk-FXjSo