1
00:00:12,513 --> 00:00:14,766
Alamogordo New Mexico.

2
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A small town, about
30,000 people

3
00:00:17,976 --> 00:00:20,462
but it seems to attract
more than its fair share

4
00:00:20,562 --> 00:00:22,860
of strange occurrences.

5
00:00:23,148 --> 00:00:24,925
It's right around the
corner from where they

6
00:00:25,025 --> 00:00:27,490
tested the first atomic bomb.

7
00:00:30,572 --> 00:00:34,309
It's also the grave site of
Ham, the first chimpanzee...

8
00:00:34,409 --> 00:00:38,659
and really, the first
American... to go into space.

9
00:00:38,872 --> 00:00:41,400
And it's the place where
this guy broke the land

10
00:00:41,500 --> 00:00:43,444
speed record in a rocket sled.

11
00:00:43,544 --> 00:00:46,859
Which is cool, but
also kind of strange.

12
00:00:50,801 --> 00:00:53,704
Despite all of this, the
thing that Alamogordo is

13
00:00:53,804 --> 00:00:56,523
best known for is its landfill.

14
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The dump.

15
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Because supposedly, that's
where Atari buried E.T.,

16
00:01:04,607 --> 00:01:07,655
the worst video game
of all time.

17
00:01:11,113 --> 00:01:14,808
<i>It's been described
as the worst video game ever.</i>

18
00:01:14,908 --> 00:01:16,477
E.T. for Atari.

19
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Today we're going to talk
about the worst of the worst.

20
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Here's our top 10
worst games ever.

21
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E.T., the Extra Terrestrial?

22
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Now here's the thing
about E.T.,

23
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it's widely regarded as the
worst video game of all time.

24
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<i>WORST GAME EVER!</i>

25
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We have this myth,
or this legend of something

26
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that happened 40 years ago.

27
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♫ Do do...
do do do do do do.

28
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Son of a bitch, get out
of the fucking hole!

29
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<i>If you grab a
piece of the phone,</i>

30
00:01:43,312 --> 00:01:44,796
<i>the FBI agent keeps
attacking you.</i>

31
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<i>And if you take a
step in any direction,</i>

32
00:01:46,565 --> 00:01:48,133
<i>you fall into a hole.</i>

33
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<i>And if you get out of the
hole, you fall right back down!</i>

34
00:01:50,027 --> 00:01:52,679
One of the
major design flaws of the games

35
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was that E.T. fell into pits.

36
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<i>Dammit!</i>

37
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<i>Shit!</i>

38
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<i>Oh, come on!</i>

39
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And guess what?

40
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It now lives out it's
days in a landfill.

41
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It's rumored that decades
ago, truckloads of that game

42
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were dumped in the
Alamogordo landfill.

43
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The idea that they had
so many of these things,

44
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and they were so unable to sell
them, give them away, whatever,

45
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they literally had
to drive them out

46
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into the middle of the desert,
and bury them like a dead gangster.

47
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It's almost too crazy
to be believed.

48
00:02:20,015 --> 00:02:21,542
I think it's kind of silly.

49
00:02:21,642 --> 00:02:23,043
Because it's urban legend.

50
00:02:23,143 --> 00:02:25,863
It's just a great
story, I think.

51
00:02:26,146 --> 00:02:28,186
I believe that this story

52
00:02:28,440 --> 00:02:32,365
endures because the
adults just don't get it.

53
00:02:32,653 --> 00:02:34,429
And that's satisfying
to the young people.

54
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Whatever you look at

55
00:02:36,198 --> 00:02:39,351
what the reasons are for it,
nothing makes sense.

56
00:02:39,451 --> 00:02:44,381
What drove someone to need to
hide this stuff so intensely?

57
00:02:54,675 --> 00:02:57,077
When I was five
years old, Pong came out.

58
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And my dad got it for me
and my brother and sister.

59
00:03:00,430 --> 00:03:02,374
When the Atari 2600 came out...

60
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Atari!

61
00:03:03,934 --> 00:03:05,002
...I got
every cartridge

62
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I could get my hands on.

63
00:03:06,269 --> 00:03:08,269
I played it constantly.

64
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Atari was like Xbox and
PlayStation rolled into one.

65
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It had an 80% market share, and
the 2600 was its killer app.

66
00:03:17,781 --> 00:03:22,503
Adventure was probably my
favorite game on the 2600.

67
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I spent three weeks
sitting in front

68
00:03:24,287 --> 00:03:26,815
of my TV trying to find
the first Easter egg

69
00:03:26,915 --> 00:03:29,295
ever hidden in a video game.

70
00:03:29,334 --> 00:03:30,861
It looks kind of stupid now.

71
00:03:30,961 --> 00:03:32,821
You were just a block, who
picked up an invisible dot,

72
00:03:32,921 --> 00:03:34,656
and carried it into
the special room

73
00:03:34,756 --> 00:03:36,450
to discover the
programmer's name.

74
00:03:36,550 --> 00:03:41,413
But to me, finding that hidden
screen was like a revelation.

75
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As an adult, I still play
a lot of video games.

76
00:03:44,099 --> 00:03:47,461
But I also write and direct
movies, that's my job.

77
00:03:47,561 --> 00:03:49,457
I've worked on a lot
of big comic book movies

78
00:03:49,467 --> 00:03:52,299
the kind they make
shitty video games out of.

79
00:03:52,399 --> 00:03:56,011
And I even wrote some of
the shitty video games.

80
00:03:56,111 --> 00:03:59,765
But I'm also fascinated by
myths and urban legends.

81
00:03:59,865 --> 00:04:01,933
In fact, 10 years ago, me
and this guy Werner Herzog

82
00:04:02,033 --> 00:04:04,519
went to Scotland to find
the Loch Ness Monster.

83
00:04:04,619 --> 00:04:07,272
We never did find
Nessie, but I still

84
00:04:07,372 --> 00:04:12,132
love an adventure, especially
to unravel an urban legend.

85
00:04:12,294 --> 00:04:13,737
Today, video games
are everywhere,

86
00:04:13,837 --> 00:04:16,573
so it might be hard to
understand my generation's

87
00:04:16,673 --> 00:04:18,450
obsession with Atari.

88
00:04:18,550 --> 00:04:21,828
But for us, it was the gateway
drug to a lifelong addiction

89
00:04:21,928 --> 00:04:23,121
to video games.

90
00:04:23,221 --> 00:04:26,395
And then one day
it was just gone.

91
00:04:26,683 --> 00:04:29,670
Sometime in the mid '80s,
it just disappeared.

92
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And there were no
more Atari games.

93
00:04:32,022 --> 00:04:34,091
And I always wondered
what happened.

94
00:04:34,191 --> 00:04:36,569
Where did it go?

95
00:04:36,860 --> 00:04:38,428
So, this is the famous landfill?

96
00:04:38,528 --> 00:04:39,346
Yeah.

97
00:04:39,446 --> 00:04:41,187
The burial... the final
resting ground of E.T.?

98
00:04:41,217 --> 00:04:43,266
Yeah, this is the place.

99
00:04:43,366 --> 00:04:46,061
This road here, this gate, this
is exactly the way the Ataris

100
00:04:46,161 --> 00:04:47,479
would have came through.

101
00:04:47,579 --> 00:04:48,814
Through that ditch,
and up through here.

102
00:04:48,914 --> 00:04:50,607
This was the only access in.

103
00:04:50,707 --> 00:04:52,567
Back in those days, it
was just pure desert.

104
00:04:52,667 --> 00:04:54,069
And is there any way
to get through this,

105
00:04:54,169 --> 00:04:55,362
or are we, I mean...

106
00:04:55,462 --> 00:04:56,613
Well, yeah, it's a
high security gate.

107
00:04:56,713 --> 00:04:57,572
Just duck under.

108
00:04:57,672 --> 00:04:58,490
Yeah, I guess that works.

109
00:04:58,590 --> 00:04:59,741
Heh, heh, heh.

110
00:04:59,841 --> 00:05:01,451
Joe Lewandowski's

111
00:05:01,551 --> 00:05:03,370
been the garbage guru, if you
will, for a number of years.

112
00:05:03,470 --> 00:05:06,623
He operated various
waste disposal companies

113
00:05:06,723 --> 00:05:08,542
within Alamogordo
and Otero county.

114
00:05:08,642 --> 00:05:10,585
And when it comes to
the Atari graveyard,

115
00:05:10,685 --> 00:05:12,796
I believe he probably
has more direct knowledge

116
00:05:12,896 --> 00:05:14,089
of anybody else.

117
00:05:14,189 --> 00:05:15,590
Joe's the guy that's
advising the city,

118
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and telling the city
where everything is.

119
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And I think that he's the only
guy that might be able to walk

120
00:05:20,570 --> 00:05:23,223
out to that dump, and point to
a spot on the ground, and say,

121
00:05:23,323 --> 00:05:24,725
this is where it's at.

122
00:05:24,825 --> 00:05:28,645
So, so this whole area,
this is where it's buried?

123
00:05:28,745 --> 00:05:30,605
Some people don't believe
it's there, but trust me,

124
00:05:30,705 --> 00:05:31,690
it's there.

125
00:05:31,790 --> 00:05:32,691
You can kind of feel it.
Right?

126
00:05:32,791 --> 00:05:33,650
It that just me?

127
00:05:33,750 --> 00:05:34,860
Ah, that's pretty much you.

128
00:05:34,960 --> 00:05:36,960
It's just me.

129
00:05:37,963 --> 00:05:39,948
So what are these
little boxes, here?

130
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Each one of those boxes
represents where garbage is.

131
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I see.

132
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Someone would write
down, oh, that's

133
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where we put the Atari trash.

134
00:05:46,930 --> 00:05:47,956
That's where we put, you know.

135
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That's the problem.

136
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Nobody did.

137
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We do today.

138
00:05:51,309 --> 00:05:53,879
So it's looking for... it's
like looking for a haystack

139
00:05:53,979 --> 00:05:55,338
in a pile of haystacks.

140
00:05:55,438 --> 00:05:56,632
Pretty much.

141
00:05:56,642 --> 00:05:57,966
And then looking for the
needle inside that haystack.

142
00:05:58,066 --> 00:05:58,884
And find the needle.

143
00:05:58,984 --> 00:06:00,594
So it's two levels.

144
00:06:00,694 --> 00:06:01,179
This picture here

145
00:06:01,279 --> 00:06:03,555
is actually out of an old
El Paso Times article.

146
00:06:03,655 --> 00:06:04,681
This is actually that
day, and that event,

147
00:06:04,781 --> 00:06:06,349
when it actually occurred.

148
00:06:06,449 --> 00:06:07,976
So what we did, is
just to figure out,

149
00:06:08,076 --> 00:06:11,146
OK, if this reporter
took this picture here,

150
00:06:11,246 --> 00:06:12,522
then the reporter
had to be standing

151
00:06:12,622 --> 00:06:14,232
somewhere in this area.

152
00:06:14,332 --> 00:06:17,110
So here's the two cells that
we've pinned it down to, now.

153
00:06:17,210 --> 00:06:19,029
So when you come
back here, and put

154
00:06:19,129 --> 00:06:22,741
the reporter taking the
picture, and you make that line.

155
00:06:22,841 --> 00:06:25,243
And what you're looking for,
is to make sure the line

156
00:06:25,343 --> 00:06:27,704
intersects with the buildings.

157
00:06:27,804 --> 00:06:29,581
Joe Lewandowski
wasn't just a guy

158
00:06:29,681 --> 00:06:31,458
who knew his way around a dump.

159
00:06:31,558 --> 00:06:34,503
He was also an
amateur archaeologist,

160
00:06:34,603 --> 00:06:38,653
kind of like Indiana
Jones, but without the gun.

161
00:06:38,940 --> 00:06:41,238
Or the whip.

162
00:06:41,526 --> 00:06:44,513
See, the newspaper photo
was like the medallion,

163
00:06:44,613 --> 00:06:47,349
and Joe had used it to
construct his own version

164
00:06:47,449 --> 00:06:48,767
of the Staff of Ra.

165
00:06:48,867 --> 00:06:50,936
And that pinpointed the
location of the Atari

166
00:06:51,036 --> 00:06:54,940
dump, which is exactly how
Indy would have done it.

167
00:06:55,040 --> 00:06:57,165
Joe was clearly obsessed.

168
00:06:57,375 --> 00:06:58,610
He believed in the legend.

169
00:06:58,710 --> 00:07:00,946
He'd spent over three
years constructing

170
00:07:01,046 --> 00:07:04,950
a plan to dig up the landfill,
and prove it to the world.

171
00:07:05,050 --> 00:07:06,451
But he wasn't a gamer.

172
00:07:06,551 --> 00:07:09,037
He wasn't trying
to find out why.

173
00:07:09,137 --> 00:07:11,498
And that's what
I wanted to know.

174
00:07:11,598 --> 00:07:16,953
Why would the company I loved so
much decide to bury its future?

175
00:07:19,272 --> 00:07:25,245
The whole E.T. story is a very
small part of the Atari story.

176
00:07:25,528 --> 00:07:28,139
Let me go back and let me
explain how Atari started out.

177
00:07:28,239 --> 00:07:31,768
The video game
came because of the convergence

178
00:07:31,868 --> 00:07:34,604
of me working in an
amusement park summers,

179
00:07:34,704 --> 00:07:36,356
while pursuing an
engineering degree

180
00:07:36,456 --> 00:07:38,233
at the University of Utah.

181
00:07:38,333 --> 00:07:41,987
I knew the economics of the
coin operated game business.

182
00:07:42,087 --> 00:07:44,260
They made a lot of money.

183
00:07:44,547 --> 00:07:47,777
Nolan designed
these incredibly elegant

184
00:07:48,009 --> 00:07:49,619
circuits.

185
00:07:49,719 --> 00:07:52,455
Put together in a way that's
so clever that modern engineers

186
00:07:52,555 --> 00:07:54,624
have a hard time, you
know, understanding

187
00:07:54,724 --> 00:07:55,917
and repairing these things.

188
00:07:56,017 --> 00:07:58,503
My partner and I,
Ted Dabney, started

189
00:07:58,603 --> 00:08:00,983
working on a ping-pong game.

190
00:08:02,941 --> 00:08:06,616
By the end of '72,
we did $3.5 million dollars.

191
00:08:06,903 --> 00:08:09,180
And then we did $19 million.

192
00:08:09,280 --> 00:08:11,057
Then we did $35 million.

193
00:08:11,157 --> 00:08:13,251
It was a hockey stick.

194
00:08:13,535 --> 00:08:16,855
This electronic medium,
which was just beginning,

195
00:08:16,955 --> 00:08:18,732
had some traction with people.

196
00:08:18,832 --> 00:08:22,736
And once you played some of the
more sophisticated arcade games

197
00:08:22,836 --> 00:08:24,738
of the day, and understood
that maybe there

198
00:08:24,838 --> 00:08:28,408
was a chance you could
duplicate that in a home game,

199
00:08:28,508 --> 00:08:29,910
your eyes got big.

200
00:08:30,010 --> 00:08:31,703
Home video games
have been a success

201
00:08:31,803 --> 00:08:34,289
from the moment a
company called Atari

202
00:08:34,389 --> 00:08:37,024
launched this basic game, Pong.

203
00:08:37,058 --> 00:08:40,170
Which has been imitated by at
least 40 other manufacturers.

204
00:08:40,270 --> 00:08:41,963
They're selling like crazy.

205
00:08:42,063 --> 00:08:44,157
300,000 last year.

206
00:08:44,441 --> 00:08:46,134
This year, three million.

207
00:08:46,234 --> 00:08:48,954
Next year, six,
maybe 10 million.

208
00:08:49,112 --> 00:08:51,973
We felt, well, maybe
this is a time to sell

209
00:08:52,073 --> 00:08:54,100
to a company with deep pockets.

210
00:08:54,200 --> 00:08:56,645
I was in my office
at Warner in 1976.

211
00:08:56,745 --> 00:08:59,272
The phone rang, and it was
a guy named Gordy Crawford,

212
00:08:59,372 --> 00:09:01,274
and he asked the question
I've never forgotten.

213
00:09:01,374 --> 00:09:04,861
Would you guys be interested in
acquiring a technology based,

214
00:09:04,961 --> 00:09:06,529
fast growing
entertainment company?

215
00:09:06,629 --> 00:09:08,031
And I said yes.

216
00:09:08,131 --> 00:09:10,909
I didn't know what I said
yes to, but I said yes.

217
00:09:11,009 --> 00:09:13,828
And that led to my
introduction to Atari.

218
00:09:13,928 --> 00:09:16,665
Atari, where
the future comes from.

219
00:09:16,765 --> 00:09:19,709
What excited
me about Atari wasn't Pong,

220
00:09:19,809 --> 00:09:23,254
it was the chipset that
led to the Atari 2600.

221
00:09:23,354 --> 00:09:27,550
Pong was sort of OK, you banged
up and back, and up and back.

222
00:09:27,650 --> 00:09:30,679
But this meant you could
constantly change the games.

223
00:09:30,779 --> 00:09:33,473
And that was a
very exciting idea.

224
00:09:33,573 --> 00:09:39,573
We introduced the 2600
in 1977

225
00:09:39,583 --> 00:09:41,296
with nine cartridges.

226
00:09:45,335 --> 00:09:49,322
The home video game was a
very close approximation

227
00:09:49,422 --> 00:09:51,632
of the coin-op experience.

228
00:09:53,802 --> 00:09:58,148
It changed
the mindset of the world.

229
00:09:58,431 --> 00:09:59,791
Turning the television

230
00:09:59,891 --> 00:10:03,169
from a passive medium into
an active medium, that

231
00:10:03,269 --> 00:10:04,921
was what we knew we were doing.

232
00:10:05,021 --> 00:10:08,049
And that was super exciting to
be the pioneers in that field.

233
00:10:08,149 --> 00:10:10,274
It just blew people away.

234
00:10:10,527 --> 00:10:11,553
Nobody knew any this stuff.

235
00:10:11,653 --> 00:10:12,512
They made it up as they went.

236
00:10:12,612 --> 00:10:13,471
And they were good at it.

237
00:10:13,571 --> 00:10:15,781
And it started everything.

238
00:10:16,032 --> 00:10:19,912
It was playing
those games that taught people

239
00:10:20,203 --> 00:10:22,397
the potential of a computer.

240
00:10:22,497 --> 00:10:25,626
Atari,
at some level,

241
00:10:25,917 --> 00:10:28,637
brought the computer revolution.

242
00:10:36,845 --> 00:10:38,371
They
started experimentally

243
00:10:38,471 --> 00:10:40,832
hiring smart kids, with this
idea that maybe they can

244
00:10:40,932 --> 00:10:44,027
come up with other stuff to do.

245
00:10:44,310 --> 00:10:47,047
And they inadvertently
were trying to create

246
00:10:47,147 --> 00:10:49,272
the job of game designer.

247
00:10:52,193 --> 00:10:54,554
Microprocessor real
time control programming

248
00:10:54,654 --> 00:10:55,972
is just where it's at.

249
00:10:56,072 --> 00:10:57,515
So, there's two kinds of
things you typically do

250
00:10:57,615 --> 00:10:59,476
with that in the early 1980s.

251
00:10:59,576 --> 00:11:01,603
You can do missile
guidance systems...

252
00:11:01,703 --> 00:11:05,106
or like we say, kill
people for 12 cents a head.

253
00:11:05,206 --> 00:11:06,941
Or you could make
video games, which

254
00:11:07,041 --> 00:11:08,485
I thought was a much
better application

255
00:11:08,585 --> 00:11:11,384
for the whole thing.

256
00:11:11,671 --> 00:11:14,866
What went on at
Atari from the very beginning

257
00:11:14,966 --> 00:11:16,785
was, basically, that
the engineers are

258
00:11:16,885 --> 00:11:18,078
going to drive this company.

259
00:11:18,178 --> 00:11:19,454
Because they weren't
just engineers.

260
00:11:19,554 --> 00:11:20,830
They were creative guys.

261
00:11:20,930 --> 00:11:24,810
They're like musicians,
or movie directors.

262
00:11:25,101 --> 00:11:26,920
They're artists.

263
00:11:27,020 --> 00:11:29,255
Through
luck, or providence, or both,

264
00:11:29,355 --> 00:11:31,674
they ended up with this
department of game designers

265
00:11:31,774 --> 00:11:34,135
that became this
dream team at Atari.

266
00:11:34,235 --> 00:11:37,555
These guys who made all of
these classics... Tempest,

267
00:11:37,655 --> 00:11:40,683
and Asteroids, and Centipede,
and Gauntlet, and, you know,

268
00:11:40,783 --> 00:11:42,018
think of a game.

269
00:11:42,118 --> 00:11:43,269
The
culture was these guys

270
00:11:43,369 --> 00:11:44,896
do what they want to do.

271
00:11:44,996 --> 00:11:46,648
One day, I was standing in
the men's room, at a urinal,

272
00:11:46,748 --> 00:11:50,902
and I looked down, and I saw a
pair of bare feet next to me.

273
00:11:51,002 --> 00:11:54,155
And I look, and here is a
guy wearing a pair of shorts,

274
00:11:54,255 --> 00:11:56,303
and nothing else.

275
00:11:56,591 --> 00:11:57,826
And I said something.

276
00:11:57,926 --> 00:11:58,660
And they said, oh
yeah, that's so and so.

277
00:11:58,760 --> 00:11:59,702
He's a great engineer.

278
00:11:59,802 --> 00:12:01,121
He doesn't like to wear clothes.

279
00:12:01,221 --> 00:12:05,041
The coin-op engineers at
Atari, they were great.

280
00:12:05,141 --> 00:12:08,145
And on the consumer
side, Howard was

281
00:12:08,436 --> 00:12:09,879
one of the best programmers.

282
00:12:09,979 --> 00:12:12,674
He was one of the best
of those engineers.

283
00:12:12,774 --> 00:12:14,509
At the heart
of the creative process

284
00:12:14,609 --> 00:12:16,261
is the programmer.

285
00:12:16,361 --> 00:12:20,014
I try to create, basically, a
sensory experience that evokes

286
00:12:20,114 --> 00:12:21,474
a certain feeling in the user.

287
00:12:21,574 --> 00:12:23,810
I mean, I tend to
program from a concept.

288
00:12:23,910 --> 00:12:26,354
I mean, it was... I
was made for this.

289
00:12:26,454 --> 00:12:29,514
I mean, was is what
I was made to do.

290
00:12:31,542 --> 00:12:35,780
January 11, 1981, I showed
up for my first day of work

291
00:12:35,880 --> 00:12:38,074
as a game programmer at Atari.

292
00:12:38,174 --> 00:12:41,995
So, do you remember the
first day you showed up here?

293
00:12:42,095 --> 00:12:43,496
Absolutely.

294
00:12:43,596 --> 00:12:47,333
My first office mates were
Tod Frye and Rob Zdybel.

295
00:12:47,433 --> 00:12:48,793
And I had an
understanding that there

296
00:12:48,893 --> 00:12:50,879
was a lot of dope
that was smoked

297
00:12:50,979 --> 00:12:52,589
at Atari, when we were there.

298
00:12:52,689 --> 00:12:54,841
And so on my first day at work,
I brought a joint, because I

299
00:12:54,941 --> 00:12:56,384
didn't want to be, you know...

300
00:12:56,484 --> 00:12:58,011
Yeah.

301
00:12:58,111 --> 00:13:00,513
I wanted to be a courteous
guest, and so I showed up...

302
00:13:00,613 --> 00:13:01,848
Which by the way,
this is a good lesson

303
00:13:01,948 --> 00:13:03,474
for our younger viewers.

304
00:13:03,574 --> 00:13:06,728
If people are doing drugs,
bring your own, so you fit in.

305
00:13:06,828 --> 00:13:11,129
Tod walks
in, shuts the door, and says,

306
00:13:11,416 --> 00:13:12,817
I'm going to get high
in here, so if you

307
00:13:12,917 --> 00:13:14,444
don't want to be around
this, you'd better leave.

308
00:13:14,544 --> 00:13:15,653
No, actually, here, I said.

309
00:13:15,753 --> 00:13:17,071
I brought a joint.

310
00:13:17,171 --> 00:13:19,157
And he sort of looked
at me and he went pbtt.

311
00:13:19,257 --> 00:13:20,533
I'm going to smoke real stuff.

312
00:13:20,633 --> 00:13:21,492
OK?

313
00:13:21,592 --> 00:13:22,535
That was my introduction.

314
00:13:22,635 --> 00:13:25,514
That was my first day at work.

315
00:13:25,805 --> 00:13:28,541
We wanted
people who worked hard, and yet

316
00:13:28,641 --> 00:13:30,641
had fun at doing it.

317
00:13:30,768 --> 00:13:34,047
How do we mix up, so that
we don't know the difference

318
00:13:34,147 --> 00:13:35,465
between our work and our play?

319
00:13:35,565 --> 00:13:38,426
The company's motto was,
we take fun seriously.

320
00:13:38,526 --> 00:13:41,512
But we used to say, we
take fun intravenously.

321
00:13:41,612 --> 00:13:44,224
And they didn't
like that very much.

322
00:13:44,324 --> 00:13:45,600
No, I don't know why.

323
00:13:45,700 --> 00:13:49,796
The party atmosphere
was actually

324
00:13:50,079 --> 00:13:52,923
calculated plan to incentivize.

325
00:13:53,207 --> 00:13:54,567
I would set quotas.

326
00:13:54,667 --> 00:13:57,445
If the quotas were met,
I'd throw a kegger.

327
00:13:57,545 --> 00:13:59,364
They
would just roll out in the car,

328
00:13:59,464 --> 00:14:00,907
go to a liquor store,
and they gave someone

329
00:14:01,007 --> 00:14:02,575
a company credit
card, and they came

330
00:14:02,675 --> 00:14:04,577
back with a bunch of booze.

331
00:14:04,677 --> 00:14:06,120
And we consumed it.

332
00:14:06,220 --> 00:14:08,206
Over there is where
the hot tub was.

333
00:14:08,306 --> 00:14:10,625
Inside, on the first floor,
there's some great stuff

334
00:14:10,725 --> 00:14:12,001
that went on in that room.

335
00:14:12,101 --> 00:14:13,753
Over here, here's the
hill that you know,

336
00:14:13,853 --> 00:14:15,380
one day I was wearing
a dashiki shirt, which

337
00:14:15,480 --> 00:14:16,714
I was very into back then.

338
00:14:16,814 --> 00:14:18,716
And I would do
somersaults down the hill.

339
00:14:18,816 --> 00:14:21,636
I might have had some cocktails
that afternoon, at that point.

340
00:14:21,736 --> 00:14:24,389
Did you know that you were
entering this crazy party

341
00:14:24,489 --> 00:14:25,348
atmosphere, that you'd be?

342
00:14:25,448 --> 00:14:26,849
No.

343
00:14:26,949 --> 00:14:30,270
Even though I was told I
was, I had no expectation

344
00:14:30,370 --> 00:14:32,522
that it could really exist.

345
00:14:32,622 --> 00:14:33,982
The
best recruiting tool

346
00:14:34,082 --> 00:14:37,193
we could have for an
engineer, was to bring

347
00:14:37,293 --> 00:14:38,778
him over to one of our parties.

348
00:14:38,878 --> 00:14:40,405
Hey, What's happening, people?

349
00:14:40,505 --> 00:14:41,739
Hey, how's it going?

350
00:14:41,839 --> 00:14:43,241
What's happening?

351
00:14:43,341 --> 00:14:45,326
And they
thought, hey, I'm a nerd.

352
00:14:45,426 --> 00:14:47,287
There are girls here.

353
00:14:47,387 --> 00:14:49,038
They're talking to me.

354
00:14:49,138 --> 00:14:50,123
It's good.

355
00:14:50,223 --> 00:14:51,541
That was the culture.

356
00:14:51,641 --> 00:14:52,834
These guys are the
lifeblood of the business,

357
00:14:52,934 --> 00:14:54,127
and they do what
they want to do.

358
00:14:54,227 --> 00:14:55,753
And that's fine.

359
00:14:55,853 --> 00:14:57,005
In some ways,

360
00:14:57,105 --> 00:14:58,381
things happened to
me over the course

361
00:14:58,481 --> 00:15:00,508
of three and a half
years here, that made

362
00:15:00,608 --> 00:15:03,011
the next 25 years really tough.

363
00:15:03,111 --> 00:15:04,679
Because it
established a standard

364
00:15:04,779 --> 00:15:07,932
of what professional life,
and life in general, could be.

365
00:15:08,032 --> 00:15:09,475
And I never let
go of the thought

366
00:15:09,575 --> 00:15:11,519
that my life could
still be this or better.

367
00:15:11,619 --> 00:15:14,589
I just didn't know how to do it.

368
00:15:14,872 --> 00:15:17,066
It's really intense for
me to come back here.

369
00:15:17,166 --> 00:15:21,487
This is the first time I've
been back here in 30 years.

370
00:15:21,587 --> 00:15:24,949
And this was the place
where I was introduced

371
00:15:25,049 --> 00:15:28,019
to what life could be, for me.

372
00:15:28,302 --> 00:15:29,620
What a working life could be.

373
00:15:29,720 --> 00:15:32,665
What real creative
satisfaction could be.

374
00:15:32,765 --> 00:15:34,792
What doing something
really meaningful could be.

375
00:15:34,892 --> 00:15:38,504
Those are all things that come
back to me in this moment.

376
00:15:38,604 --> 00:15:41,778
And it's just...
it's very intense.

377
00:15:42,066 --> 00:15:45,195
So what really
happened back in 1983?

378
00:15:45,486 --> 00:15:47,472
People heard the
rumors, but Atari denied

379
00:15:47,572 --> 00:15:49,697
the dump ever took place.

380
00:15:49,866 --> 00:15:52,352
And eventually, people
forgot about it.

381
00:15:52,452 --> 00:15:54,020
But with the growth
of the internet,

382
00:15:54,120 --> 00:15:57,565
and all of its best and worst
lists, E.T. and its burial

383
00:15:57,665 --> 00:16:02,546
went from small town gossip
to full blown urban legend.

384
00:16:02,837 --> 00:16:06,157
By the mid '90s, videos begin
to appear online that seemed

385
00:16:06,257 --> 00:16:09,660
to suggest that anyone with a
shovel go out in the desert,

386
00:16:09,760 --> 00:16:11,954
and dig up the buried games.

387
00:16:12,054 --> 00:16:16,501
That's what I thought too, but
it wasn't close to that easy.

388
00:16:16,601 --> 00:16:19,253
Joe had spent years
researching the burial.

389
00:16:19,353 --> 00:16:21,381
If his information
was correct, the games

390
00:16:21,481 --> 00:16:23,049
were not only deep
underground, they

391
00:16:23,149 --> 00:16:25,301
were covered with concrete.

392
00:16:25,401 --> 00:16:28,096
Joe was still wading
through a sea of red tape.

393
00:16:28,196 --> 00:16:30,223
But if and when the
city approved his plan

394
00:16:30,323 --> 00:16:33,309
to excavate the landfill,
he was going to need

395
00:16:33,409 --> 00:16:35,186
more than just a shovel.

396
00:16:35,286 --> 00:16:38,398
He would need giant
yellow digging machines.

397
00:16:38,498 --> 00:16:41,859
And a bunch of guys in hats
and vests to operate them.

398
00:16:41,959 --> 00:16:45,869
This is one of the
photos of the actual burial,

399
00:16:46,088 --> 00:16:47,740
when they did it.

400
00:16:47,840 --> 00:16:50,618
So we're looking at, like, 15
feet down, to hit the concrete.

401
00:16:50,718 --> 00:16:52,537
Under the concrete
is mostly dirt.

402
00:16:52,637 --> 00:16:54,080
It's just the... it's
the bottom of the pit.

403
00:16:54,180 --> 00:16:55,832
What's that thing,
right over there?

404
00:16:55,932 --> 00:16:56,999
That's a motor grader.

405
00:16:57,099 --> 00:16:58,000
A motor grader?

406
00:16:58,100 --> 00:16:59,293
Yes.

407
00:16:59,393 --> 00:17:01,170
That's for, really,
just fine grading.

408
00:17:01,270 --> 00:17:03,464
You know, like the
highways and roads.

409
00:17:03,564 --> 00:17:05,550
And fine planing large areas.

410
00:17:05,650 --> 00:17:09,554
So, we conceivably might
need that, for this, right?

411
00:17:09,654 --> 00:17:10,179
No.

412
00:17:10,279 --> 00:17:11,180
No.

413
00:17:11,280 --> 00:17:12,682
I mean, but you
might... you could

414
00:17:12,782 --> 00:17:14,934
bring it out before, right?

415
00:17:15,034 --> 00:17:17,019
I mean, you might want to
park it there so it's ready.

416
00:17:17,119 --> 00:17:17,812
No, not really.

417
00:17:17,912 --> 00:17:18,479
No.

418
00:17:18,579 --> 00:17:19,272
We're fine.

419
00:17:19,372 --> 00:17:20,064
I don't know.

420
00:17:20,164 --> 00:17:22,164
Not my field.

421
00:17:24,210 --> 00:17:26,258
I am
concerned that Joe's

422
00:17:26,546 --> 00:17:28,114
moving kind of quick.

423
00:17:28,214 --> 00:17:30,408
And we do need to throw some
brakes on, and slow it down.

424
00:17:30,508 --> 00:17:33,286
The opposition comes
from environmentalists,

425
00:17:33,386 --> 00:17:34,662
maybe within the community.

426
00:17:34,762 --> 00:17:37,290
And the concern is
that Alamogordo also

427
00:17:37,390 --> 00:17:39,417
may have something else
buried in the landfill that

428
00:17:39,517 --> 00:17:40,960
may be hazardous.

429
00:17:41,060 --> 00:17:43,421
And we may not know exactly
where this location is.

430
00:17:43,521 --> 00:17:45,131
Nobody
really and truly

431
00:17:45,231 --> 00:17:47,842
has dead honest
records as to where

432
00:17:47,942 --> 00:17:49,302
everything is buried out there.

433
00:17:49,402 --> 00:17:51,637
And we're talking
potential mercury laced

434
00:17:51,737 --> 00:17:54,287
pigs, malathion, possibly DDT.

435
00:17:54,407 --> 00:17:55,766
There's potentially
lead in there,

436
00:17:55,866 --> 00:17:57,685
and maybe some other
dangerous metals

437
00:17:57,785 --> 00:17:59,687
that are in those cartridges.

438
00:17:59,787 --> 00:18:02,356
I don't want to be in an area
where we might crack open

439
00:18:02,456 --> 00:18:06,451
a sealed tomb, so to
speak, of these hogs, where

440
00:18:06,669 --> 00:18:08,696
mercury the gas comes out.

441
00:18:08,796 --> 00:18:10,990
So I don't want the
Stephen King novel of,

442
00:18:11,090 --> 00:18:13,117
we hit the wrong spot,
and all of the sudden

443
00:18:13,217 --> 00:18:15,119
we are evacuating Alamogordo.

444
00:18:15,219 --> 00:18:16,954
That is unacceptable.

445
00:18:17,054 --> 00:18:19,916
If there's
a problem that the New Mexico

446
00:18:20,016 --> 00:18:22,126
Environmental
Department perceives,

447
00:18:22,226 --> 00:18:24,670
we're not going to
be able to proceed.

448
00:18:24,770 --> 00:18:27,048
Until I'm satisfied it's
safe, it's not going to happen.

449
00:18:27,148 --> 00:18:29,273
At least within my power.

450
00:18:29,358 --> 00:18:33,438
You know, there's only so
much power that I have.

451
00:18:36,532 --> 00:18:38,785
So, for my first game,

452
00:18:39,076 --> 00:18:42,876
they wanted me to do
a coin-op conversion.

453
00:18:43,164 --> 00:18:45,024
Although I had only
been there for about

454
00:18:45,124 --> 00:18:47,527
a week, I went to my manager,
and I said, you know something?

455
00:18:47,627 --> 00:18:50,780
I said this game, Star
Castle, on the 2600

456
00:18:50,880 --> 00:18:52,073
is just going to suck.

457
00:18:52,173 --> 00:18:53,783
I know it's going to suck.

458
00:18:53,883 --> 00:18:56,327
And I said, but I think I can
take some of the key things

459
00:18:56,427 --> 00:19:00,773
that I think make it fun
game, and re-work it so

460
00:19:01,057 --> 00:19:04,106
that it would work on the 2600.

461
00:19:04,393 --> 00:19:06,587
And so they said, OK, go ahead.

462
00:19:06,687 --> 00:19:08,214
Do what you want to do.

463
00:19:08,314 --> 00:19:09,632
So, how did you
learn how to program a game?

464
00:19:09,732 --> 00:19:11,092
I just read the manual

465
00:19:11,192 --> 00:19:13,657
and started writing the game.

466
00:19:13,819 --> 00:19:15,930
No one had ever done, like, a
backstory for a game before.

467
00:19:16,030 --> 00:19:17,431
And I thought, this
is my first game,

468
00:19:17,531 --> 00:19:19,976
and I want to be involved
in every part of it.

469
00:19:20,076 --> 00:19:22,812
And I want to make it the best
thing it could possibly be.

470
00:19:22,912 --> 00:19:24,397
So I wrote this, like,
seven, eight page story.

471
00:19:24,497 --> 00:19:26,023
I stayed up all night
just writing this story.

472
00:19:26,123 --> 00:19:27,233
Knocked it out.

473
00:19:27,333 --> 00:19:28,943
And it was a science
fiction story

474
00:19:29,043 --> 00:19:30,820
about flies that get on the
first interstellar spaceships,

475
00:19:30,920 --> 00:19:33,906
and mutate, and evolve, and
take over the solar system.

476
00:19:34,006 --> 00:19:36,117
But now they're under attack by
this other monster, and stuff.

477
00:19:36,217 --> 00:19:38,911
And that's the short
version of the story.

478
00:19:39,011 --> 00:19:40,746
So I thought, well,
I need to name it.

479
00:19:40,846 --> 00:19:43,374
So what I did, was I named
it Yar, because that's

480
00:19:43,474 --> 00:19:44,667
Ray spelled backwards.

481
00:19:44,767 --> 00:19:46,460
And Ray Kassar was
the CEO of Atari.

482
00:19:46,560 --> 00:19:47,837
Right?

483
00:19:47,937 --> 00:19:49,964
So I've got his name
keyed into the title.

484
00:19:50,064 --> 00:19:52,883
And I thought, revenge,
great action word.

485
00:19:52,983 --> 00:19:54,844
You know, so that's compelling.

486
00:19:54,944 --> 00:19:58,429
And so that's how it
became Yar's Revenge.

487
00:20:02,868 --> 00:20:05,521
When Yar's Revenge
came out, it was a hit.

488
00:20:05,621 --> 00:20:06,856
It was huge.

489
00:20:06,956 --> 00:20:08,941
Games that could look
like Yar's Revenge

490
00:20:09,041 --> 00:20:10,818
looked... that could draw
that kind of stuff...

491
00:20:10,918 --> 00:20:12,486
were, like, magical.

492
00:20:12,586 --> 00:20:14,405
Even though Yar's Revenge might
look primitive... you know,

493
00:20:14,505 --> 00:20:16,824
it looks like a
superconducting super collider

494
00:20:16,924 --> 00:20:18,618
compared to a lot
of the games that

495
00:20:18,718 --> 00:20:20,119
were out there at the time.

496
00:20:20,219 --> 00:20:21,162
I remember the first time
I put the cartridge in,

497
00:20:21,262 --> 00:20:22,705
and I was like, what is this?

498
00:20:22,805 --> 00:20:25,458
It really is a very innovative
shooter of that era.

499
00:20:25,558 --> 00:20:26,959
Getting
a ship to fly around.

500
00:20:27,059 --> 00:20:28,419
So it's fun just to
fly the ship around.

501
00:20:28,519 --> 00:20:30,296
It was a trick, especially
on that hardware.

502
00:20:30,396 --> 00:20:32,048
The enemy was cool and scary.

503
00:20:32,148 --> 00:20:34,592
And it felt really
good to defeat it.

504
00:20:34,692 --> 00:20:38,304
You feel like it's your victory
when you beat those challenges.

505
00:20:38,404 --> 00:20:40,640
And you feel like it's your
defeat when they beat you.

506
00:20:40,740 --> 00:20:42,850
And you keep coming
back, because you

507
00:20:42,950 --> 00:20:44,477
didn't lose by being cheated.

508
00:20:44,577 --> 00:20:45,936
You didn't lose because the
game did something unfair.

509
00:20:46,036 --> 00:20:48,064
You lost because you
weren't quite good enough.

510
00:20:48,164 --> 00:20:50,900
And all of the great games
sit right on that edge.

511
00:20:51,000 --> 00:20:53,736
I remember playing
Yar's Revenge one day,

512
00:20:53,836 --> 00:20:56,864
and we happened on
trick that let you...

513
00:20:56,964 --> 00:20:59,033
if you were on this right spot
at the right time in the game,

514
00:20:59,133 --> 00:21:01,869
and it was in between levels...
these initials came up.

515
00:21:01,969 --> 00:21:03,537
And the initials were HSW.

516
00:21:03,637 --> 00:21:04,997
To us, it was some
weird mystery.

517
00:21:05,097 --> 00:21:06,540
And like, we had to
figure out what HSW meant.

518
00:21:06,640 --> 00:21:08,084
And finally, in one
of the game magazines,

519
00:21:08,184 --> 00:21:09,669
they published what HSW meant.

520
00:21:09,769 --> 00:21:11,921
Turns out, HSW means
Howard Scott Warshaw,

521
00:21:12,021 --> 00:21:13,130
the guy who made the game.

522
00:21:13,230 --> 00:21:15,174
Yar's Revenge
was the first game

523
00:21:15,274 --> 00:21:17,843
that Atari ever did, where
the programmer's name

524
00:21:17,943 --> 00:21:19,470
went outwith the cartridge.

525
00:21:19,570 --> 00:21:21,347
Yar's Revenge had
a lot of firsts,

526
00:21:21,447 --> 00:21:23,015
and that was just one of them.

527
00:21:23,115 --> 00:21:25,226
Yar's Revenge is
the bestselling original game

528
00:21:25,326 --> 00:21:26,769
for the Atari 2600.

529
00:21:26,869 --> 00:21:29,105
It sold something
like a million copies.

530
00:21:29,205 --> 00:21:30,690
Every reviewer at
the time thought

531
00:21:30,790 --> 00:21:33,025
Yar's Revenge was one of the
best games Atari put out.

532
00:21:33,125 --> 00:21:36,610
You know it made a lot
of money for Atari.

533
00:21:36,712 --> 00:21:38,922
In 1981,
this was a company

534
00:21:39,048 --> 00:21:44,020
that made operating profits of
something like $375 million.

535
00:21:44,303 --> 00:21:46,288
One of today's greatest
marketing triumphs

536
00:21:46,388 --> 00:21:48,916
in the entertainment
field is video games.

537
00:21:49,016 --> 00:21:50,418
It was
beyond comprehension.

538
00:21:50,518 --> 00:21:53,462
The fastest growing company
in American history.

539
00:21:53,562 --> 00:21:55,256
This was an explosion.

540
00:21:55,356 --> 00:21:56,924
Even those of us who
were in the middle of it

541
00:21:57,024 --> 00:22:00,344
were shaking our heads, going,
oh my god, this is amazing.

542
00:22:00,444 --> 00:22:02,430
We were the most
successful coin-op company,

543
00:22:02,530 --> 00:22:05,433
we were the dominant
consumer company.

544
00:22:05,533 --> 00:22:10,710
And we sat around literally
saying to ourselves,

545
00:22:10,996 --> 00:22:12,356
what are the
categories of games?

546
00:22:12,456 --> 00:22:14,108
What are the
capabilities of the 2600?

547
00:22:14,208 --> 00:22:16,673
Where is this industry going?

548
00:22:16,836 --> 00:22:18,154
Everything that Joe

549
00:22:18,254 --> 00:22:22,116
has put together on this
Atari graveyard, so far,

550
00:22:22,216 --> 00:22:23,534
seems to be coming true.

551
00:22:23,634 --> 00:22:25,828
I'm in favor of the
Atari games being dug up,

552
00:22:25,928 --> 00:22:29,498
because it is the largest
myth in the gaming world.

553
00:22:29,598 --> 00:22:31,041
I believe that Joe
just thinks it would

554
00:22:31,141 --> 00:22:33,544
be an outstanding
event for Alamogordo,

555
00:22:33,644 --> 00:22:35,129
and a way to get us on the map.

556
00:22:35,229 --> 00:22:37,631
On Tuesday,
Alamogordo's city commission

557
00:22:37,731 --> 00:22:39,800
approved a deal to dig
in the old landfill

558
00:22:39,900 --> 00:22:41,594
within the next six months.

559
00:22:41,694 --> 00:22:43,095
The city
has given its OK,

560
00:22:43,195 --> 00:22:45,264
and now the state has
given them approval.

561
00:22:45,364 --> 00:22:47,558
Film crews will
be in Alamogordo.

562
00:22:47,658 --> 00:22:49,226
The documentary
film crews will

563
00:22:49,326 --> 00:22:52,062
start probing the dump for
their strange buried treasure

564
00:22:52,162 --> 00:22:54,162
at 9:30 AM.

565
00:23:05,384 --> 00:23:07,411
So, this is an
impressive looking machine

566
00:23:07,511 --> 00:23:08,370
out here.

567
00:23:08,470 --> 00:23:10,080
What the hell is it doing?

568
00:23:10,180 --> 00:23:11,832
What's this drilling rig does,
it goes down, straight down,

569
00:23:11,932 --> 00:23:13,334
and takes out core
samples, and brings

570
00:23:13,434 --> 00:23:15,937
up whatever's in the ground.

571
00:23:16,228 --> 00:23:18,422
We've narrowed it down
from 300 acres down

572
00:23:18,522 --> 00:23:20,522
to about 5 to 10 acres.

573
00:23:20,608 --> 00:23:23,010
And so, What we're doing now is
trying to get it even closer.

574
00:23:23,110 --> 00:23:25,012
We're looking for things
like somebody's mail...

575
00:23:25,112 --> 00:23:28,057
you know, the postmarks...
newspapers, things like that.

576
00:23:28,157 --> 00:23:29,308
Looking for dates.

577
00:23:29,408 --> 00:23:32,298
We're looking for
September of '83.

578
00:23:38,751 --> 00:23:39,902
Don't you think
people are going

579
00:23:40,002 --> 00:23:41,237
to be disappointed
if we dig it up,

580
00:23:41,337 --> 00:23:43,113
and we don't actually
find the E.T. games?

581
00:23:43,213 --> 00:23:44,573
I mean, wouldn't that be?

582
00:23:44,673 --> 00:23:45,783
That would be very
disappointing for all of us.

583
00:23:45,883 --> 00:23:47,117
All the work.

584
00:23:47,217 --> 00:23:47,993
Three years of work
put into this thing.

585
00:23:48,093 --> 00:23:49,745
So what do we do then?

586
00:23:49,845 --> 00:23:50,913
You're just going to dig up the
whole landfill, or something'?

587
00:23:51,013 --> 00:23:52,581
No, we can't.

588
00:23:52,681 --> 00:23:53,999
The environment department
will not allow that to happen.

589
00:23:54,099 --> 00:23:55,584
You're saying that
there's a possibility

590
00:23:55,684 --> 00:23:57,837
that this could turn out to
be a giant waste of time.

591
00:23:57,937 --> 00:23:59,588
I think I've said it
before, I'll bet the car,

592
00:23:59,688 --> 00:24:01,688
I won't bet the house.

593
00:24:08,238 --> 00:24:10,057
Most everybody, at least
in the Western world,

594
00:24:10,157 --> 00:24:11,308
has played a video
game of some kind.

595
00:24:11,408 --> 00:24:12,268
They've gone to an arcade.

596
00:24:12,368 --> 00:24:13,352
They know the Atari brand.

597
00:24:13,452 --> 00:24:14,770
They certainly know E.T.

598
00:24:14,870 --> 00:24:17,690
And so I think there's
a universal curiosity

599
00:24:17,790 --> 00:24:19,441
about this game.

600
00:24:19,541 --> 00:24:22,278
You know, something did happen
those couple of nights in 1983

601
00:24:22,378 --> 00:24:26,428
that I think it merits
serious investigation.

602
00:24:26,715 --> 00:24:28,576
So why did I
decide to go to Alamogordo?

603
00:24:28,676 --> 00:24:30,995
I'm very much
interested in the impact

604
00:24:31,095 --> 00:24:32,830
that a particular
game or an industry

605
00:24:32,930 --> 00:24:36,083
has made within a cultural
and social context.

606
00:24:36,183 --> 00:24:38,794
What's striking about
the Atari E.T. game

607
00:24:38,894 --> 00:24:41,130
in the Alamogordo
landfill is that they're

608
00:24:41,230 --> 00:24:42,798
there and not in museums.

609
00:24:42,898 --> 00:24:44,800
I think this is what
excites many people

610
00:24:44,900 --> 00:24:48,304
who keep this narrative alive
is they want to get these items.

611
00:24:48,404 --> 00:24:49,638
They want visible proof.

612
00:24:49,738 --> 00:24:51,390
They want some kind
of tangible evidence

613
00:24:51,490 --> 00:24:54,494
that that dump did take place.

614
00:24:54,785 --> 00:24:55,853
I've
been professionally

615
00:24:55,953 --> 00:24:58,063
making games since about '94.

616
00:24:58,163 --> 00:25:00,107
But more than that,
I'm somebody who

617
00:25:00,207 --> 00:25:02,526
has been chiefly doing
a lot of historical work

618
00:25:02,626 --> 00:25:03,819
with video games.

619
00:25:03,919 --> 00:25:05,487
Trying to preserve
video games, and get

620
00:25:05,587 --> 00:25:07,239
people to understand that
video games are more like art.

621
00:25:07,339 --> 00:25:08,657
And so I've been doing
a lot of video game

622
00:25:08,757 --> 00:25:10,659
preservation and education.

623
00:25:10,759 --> 00:25:12,828
I always thought, one day,
I'm going to get over there,

624
00:25:12,928 --> 00:25:14,747
I'm going to see,
finally, once and for all,

625
00:25:14,847 --> 00:25:16,332
like, where it's buried.

626
00:25:16,432 --> 00:25:17,875
I almost don't even really
need to know what's in it.

627
00:25:17,975 --> 00:25:19,835
I almost want to keep
that mystery alive.

628
00:25:19,935 --> 00:25:22,796
To me, under that landfill
is actually the burial

629
00:25:22,896 --> 00:25:24,590
site of an entire industry.

630
00:25:24,690 --> 00:25:28,093
Because what affected Atari at
the time, affected everyone.

631
00:25:28,193 --> 00:25:30,512
And everything that I thought
was going to go on forever

632
00:25:30,612 --> 00:25:31,889
stopped.

633
00:25:31,989 --> 00:25:33,265
And it stopped almost
at that same moment

634
00:25:33,365 --> 00:25:37,105
that these... whatever's
there... was buried.

635
00:25:38,245 --> 00:25:40,773
So, for me, I want to
find out what is there.

636
00:25:40,873 --> 00:25:42,900
It's like opening the
Ark of the Covenant.

637
00:25:43,000 --> 00:25:44,234
It's like, you kind
of want to look,

638
00:25:44,334 --> 00:25:45,527
but is my face
going to melt off?

639
00:25:45,627 --> 00:25:47,154
I don't know.

640
00:25:47,254 --> 00:25:50,532
I have told my wife that I
will be going to New Mexico.

641
00:25:50,632 --> 00:25:52,076
And she asked me why.

642
00:25:52,176 --> 00:25:53,619
And I started to
explain, and she said,

643
00:25:53,719 --> 00:25:56,288
I don't... I don't need to know.

644
00:25:56,388 --> 00:25:58,891
Just go do it.

645
00:25:59,183 --> 00:26:00,542
You want
it Ernest on screen?

646
00:26:00,642 --> 00:26:01,585
Oh, whatever.

647
00:26:01,685 --> 00:26:02,795
Ernest is my fancy writer name.

648
00:26:02,895 --> 00:26:04,380
Ernie is what
everybody calls me.

649
00:26:04,480 --> 00:26:05,422
All right, so
we'll use your writer's name.

650
00:26:05,522 --> 00:26:07,800
How would you describe yourself?

651
00:26:07,900 --> 00:26:11,470
Screenwriter, novelist,
gentleman adventurer.

652
00:26:11,570 --> 00:26:14,556
The thing about having an Atari,
for me, was it was a simulator.

653
00:26:14,656 --> 00:26:16,475
Like, I could simulate
being Indiana Jones,

654
00:26:16,575 --> 00:26:19,044
or simulate being E.T.

655
00:26:19,328 --> 00:26:20,646
Having access to that.

656
00:26:20,746 --> 00:26:22,481
And coming from a family
of, like, modest means,

657
00:26:22,581 --> 00:26:24,233
and not having to, you
know, beg for quarters.

658
00:26:24,333 --> 00:26:25,901
And just being able to
play as much as you wanted.

659
00:26:26,001 --> 00:26:27,778
That was such a huge
part of my childhood,

660
00:26:27,878 --> 00:26:29,488
and fed my imagination.

661
00:26:29,588 --> 00:26:33,033
And that was the inspiration
for Ready Player One, my novel.

662
00:26:33,133 --> 00:26:35,494
The idea of, like,
what if Willy Wonka

663
00:26:35,594 --> 00:26:37,204
had been a video game designer?

664
00:26:37,304 --> 00:26:39,707
And he held his golden ticket
contest inside his greatest

665
00:26:39,807 --> 00:26:41,000
video game creation?

666
00:26:41,100 --> 00:26:42,751
That all came from
finding those Easter

667
00:26:42,851 --> 00:26:44,503
eggs in all those Atari games.

668
00:26:44,603 --> 00:26:46,130
I feel like a little
kid, this past week.

669
00:26:46,230 --> 00:26:47,339
Like, getting ready
to go to camp.

670
00:26:47,439 --> 00:26:49,341
Alamogordo, and the
Atari graveyard.

671
00:26:49,441 --> 00:26:50,676
For me, it's like holy ground.

672
00:26:50,776 --> 00:26:51,760
And that was when I
realized my DeLorean

673
00:26:51,860 --> 00:26:53,512
is already in New Mexico.

674
00:26:53,612 --> 00:26:55,681
I just have to fly to Santa Fe,
pick up my DeLorean from George

675
00:26:55,781 --> 00:26:57,391
R. R. Martin... who was
using it for the Back

676
00:26:57,491 --> 00:26:59,935
to the Future screening... and
drive it down to Alamogordo.

677
00:27:00,035 --> 00:27:01,520
I could stop at the
very large array,

678
00:27:01,620 --> 00:27:03,939
and also hit Roswell, and
then go to Alamogordo,

679
00:27:04,039 --> 00:27:06,108
and be there for the excavation
of the Atari graveyard.

680
00:27:06,208 --> 00:27:08,736
As soon as those, you know,
tumblers clicked into place,

681
00:27:08,836 --> 00:27:10,696
I'm like, the most epic
road trip of all time.

682
00:27:10,796 --> 00:27:12,364
I have to go.

683
00:27:12,464 --> 00:27:15,200
It's like I'm Indy going to
Westeros to meet Doc Brown,

684
00:27:15,300 --> 00:27:17,300
and then save E.T.

685
00:27:33,610 --> 00:27:35,179
Boom.

686
00:27:35,279 --> 00:27:36,555
Have a great drive, and a
great time in Alamogordo.

687
00:27:36,655 --> 00:27:37,431
George, thank you so much.

688
00:27:37,531 --> 00:27:38,265
I appreciate it man.

689
00:27:38,365 --> 00:27:40,709
My pleasure.

690
00:28:04,474 --> 00:28:06,335
This is
a good piece of evidence,

691
00:28:06,435 --> 00:28:08,435
because right here.

692
00:28:08,687 --> 00:28:09,922
Is that the
date, right there?

693
00:28:10,022 --> 00:28:11,423
Yeah, a date.

694
00:28:11,523 --> 00:28:13,383
You've got Sunday, October
2, 1983, right there.

695
00:28:13,483 --> 00:28:14,343
That's good, right?

696
00:28:14,443 --> 00:28:15,844
Yeah.

697
00:28:15,944 --> 00:28:17,721
Atari was from the 23rd
to the 29th of September.

698
00:28:17,821 --> 00:28:19,098
So this is like a week later.

699
00:28:19,198 --> 00:28:20,265
Well, it's not even a week.

700
00:28:20,365 --> 00:28:21,433
It's like two or
three days later.

701
00:28:21,533 --> 00:28:23,143
Well, I'm not
very good at math.

702
00:28:23,243 --> 00:28:24,436
The Ataris
would have been on the bottom,

703
00:28:24,536 --> 00:28:25,604
then garbage from
the following weeks

704
00:28:25,704 --> 00:28:26,772
would've been piled on top.

705
00:28:26,872 --> 00:28:27,648
So where are the games?

706
00:28:27,748 --> 00:28:28,857
This is following week.

707
00:28:28,957 --> 00:28:29,733
No games yet.

708
00:28:29,833 --> 00:28:30,734
No Atari stuff at all?

709
00:28:30,834 --> 00:28:31,527
No, not yet.

710
00:28:31,627 --> 00:28:32,444
Not yet.

711
00:28:32,544 --> 00:28:33,320
OK.

712
00:28:33,420 --> 00:28:34,238
I love the challenges.

713
00:28:34,338 --> 00:28:35,781
I love the mystery.

714
00:28:35,881 --> 00:28:38,909
I love the... especially when
people say they'll never

715
00:28:39,009 --> 00:28:41,453
be found, or they're not there.

716
00:28:41,553 --> 00:28:43,288
That just makes the
challenge even better.

717
00:28:43,388 --> 00:28:48,110
I put three to four years
of this research, planning,

718
00:28:48,393 --> 00:28:50,838
the politics, the
environment department.

719
00:28:50,938 --> 00:28:54,091
I mean, many, many, many
things to get to this point.

720
00:28:54,191 --> 00:28:55,384
Yeah, no.

721
00:28:55,484 --> 00:28:58,629
It's very important
that we find them.

722
00:29:02,074 --> 00:29:03,684
So,
back in the early '80s,

723
00:29:03,784 --> 00:29:06,395
movie licenses for
video games were just

724
00:29:06,495 --> 00:29:08,063
starting to come into vogue.

725
00:29:08,163 --> 00:29:11,308
And I think Raiders
was the first one.

726
00:29:12,417 --> 00:29:14,403
So they needed someone to
do Raiders of the Lost Ark.

727
00:29:14,503 --> 00:29:17,197
I think what happened was,
Yar's was very successful,

728
00:29:17,297 --> 00:29:20,972
and so they wanted
me to do a big game.

729
00:29:21,260 --> 00:29:22,828
And then it was up to Spielberg.

730
00:29:22,928 --> 00:29:24,329
So when I went down
and met with Spielberg,

731
00:29:24,429 --> 00:29:25,789
and if Spielberg would
have said, you know,

732
00:29:25,889 --> 00:29:26,957
I don't think he's really
right for the game,

733
00:29:27,057 --> 00:29:28,667
they would have
sent someone else.

734
00:29:28,767 --> 00:29:32,847
Can Indiana Jones
escape from the forces of evil?

735
00:29:33,021 --> 00:29:36,175
In Atari's Raiders of the
Lost Ark adventure game.

736
00:29:36,275 --> 00:29:37,759
What was the
reception to the Raiders

737
00:29:37,859 --> 00:29:39,261
of the Lost Ark game?

738
00:29:39,361 --> 00:29:40,470
It was another million seller.

739
00:29:40,570 --> 00:29:41,972
Raiders was huge.

740
00:29:42,072 --> 00:29:43,932
I mean, I can honestly say
I'm the only programmer

741
00:29:44,032 --> 00:29:45,809
in the history of Atari
where every one of my games

742
00:29:45,909 --> 00:29:48,103
that was released
was a million seller.

743
00:29:48,203 --> 00:29:50,923
The word meteoric comes to mind.

744
00:29:53,041 --> 00:29:56,715
And now,
Steven Spielberg brings us

745
00:29:57,003 --> 00:29:59,756
E.T. the Extra Terrestrial.

746
00:30:01,800 --> 00:30:05,662
Spielberg says, well, you know,
my pictures, they open slow.

747
00:30:05,762 --> 00:30:09,249
And they build, and they
hold, and da da da da da.

748
00:30:09,349 --> 00:30:11,793
And I just looked at him,
and I didn't know anything.

749
00:30:11,893 --> 00:30:13,253
I said, not this one.

750
00:30:13,353 --> 00:30:15,005
It was E.T.

751
00:30:15,105 --> 00:30:20,290
I said, it's going to open huge
and it's going to stay huge.

752
00:30:21,862 --> 00:30:23,222
OK, the movie comes out.

753
00:30:23,322 --> 00:30:24,932
It's a huge hit.

754
00:30:25,032 --> 00:30:26,642
And we want to do
the cartridge of it.

755
00:30:26,742 --> 00:30:28,352
OK?

756
00:30:28,452 --> 00:30:30,896
You know, every time you try
to take some kind of a property

757
00:30:30,996 --> 00:30:33,857
and move it into another medium
for a pure profit motive,

758
00:30:33,957 --> 00:30:35,567
you get trouble.

759
00:30:35,667 --> 00:30:38,028
Specifically, with respect to
games, you know, it's like,

760
00:30:38,128 --> 00:30:39,488
oh you know, like,
let's go see if we can

761
00:30:39,588 --> 00:30:40,822
exploit this movie as a game.

762
00:30:40,922 --> 00:30:42,074
You know, maybe we
could make extra money

763
00:30:42,174 --> 00:30:43,742
out of a profitable franchise.

764
00:30:43,842 --> 00:30:47,579
Now, there was a negotiation
going on between the Atari

765
00:30:47,679 --> 00:30:49,581
people, and the
people at Universal,

766
00:30:49,681 --> 00:30:51,124
about what we're going to pay.

767
00:30:51,224 --> 00:30:54,544
And Steve Ross, who was the
CEO from Warner, got in,

768
00:30:54,644 --> 00:30:57,506
and for whatever the reasons, he
agrees to a deal that is so off

769
00:30:57,606 --> 00:30:59,132
the chart nobody believes it.

770
00:30:59,232 --> 00:31:00,717
But he does it.

771
00:31:00,817 --> 00:31:03,136
<i>N was $20 to $30 million,
it was some crazy number.</i>

772
00:31:03,236 --> 00:31:06,640
Steve Ross basically was trying
to woo Steven Spielberg to come

773
00:31:06,740 --> 00:31:08,475
to work for Warner,
because he recognized

774
00:31:08,575 --> 00:31:11,499
that Spielberg was a genius.

775
00:31:11,787 --> 00:31:15,041
And that all plays
into this story.

776
00:31:15,332 --> 00:31:17,985
Well, we acquired
the rights to E.T.,

777
00:31:18,085 --> 00:31:21,446
and it was... we had to have
the game out for Christmas.

778
00:31:21,546 --> 00:31:23,198
And that's a problem.

779
00:31:23,298 --> 00:31:28,976
One afternoon, I'm sitting in
my office, and a call comes in.

780
00:31:29,262 --> 00:31:31,039
And It's Ray Kassar.

781
00:31:31,139 --> 00:31:32,666
And he's calling from Monterey.

782
00:31:32,766 --> 00:31:34,835
So I take the call, and Ray
Kassar comes on the phone,

783
00:31:34,935 --> 00:31:36,336
and he says,

784
00:31:36,436 --> 00:31:39,815
Howard, can
you do E.T. in five weeks?

785
00:31:40,107 --> 00:31:42,701
And I said, yes I can.

786
00:31:42,984 --> 00:31:43,719
And he goes...

787
00:31:43,819 --> 00:31:45,470
OK.

788
00:31:45,570 --> 00:31:47,597
In two days, I want you to be
at San Jose Executive Airport.

789
00:31:47,697 --> 00:31:49,516
There'll be a Learjet
waiting for you.

790
00:31:49,616 --> 00:31:50,892
Be on that jet.

791
00:31:50,992 --> 00:31:54,477
Be ready to propose
the game to Spielberg.

792
00:31:55,622 --> 00:31:58,108
During that meeting, when I
flew down on a Learjet to go

793
00:31:58,208 --> 00:32:01,611
meet Spielberg and
present the game to him.

794
00:32:01,711 --> 00:32:02,988
Even though I only
had five weeks,

795
00:32:03,088 --> 00:32:04,364
I still wanted to innovate.

796
00:32:04,464 --> 00:32:07,451
So I proposed a 3D
world that the game

797
00:32:07,551 --> 00:32:08,869
was going to take place on.

798
00:32:08,969 --> 00:32:13,349
And the huge scope what
I was trying to achieve,

799
00:32:13,640 --> 00:32:17,169
it walks that line between
really trying to make something

800
00:32:17,269 --> 00:32:19,338
happen and venturing
into the impossible,

801
00:32:19,438 --> 00:32:21,089
and walking off a cliff.

802
00:32:21,189 --> 00:32:22,632
The emotionality of
the game was supposed

803
00:32:22,732 --> 00:32:23,759
to come out through
the interaction

804
00:32:23,859 --> 00:32:25,427
with the characters.

805
00:32:25,527 --> 00:32:28,972
You have the FBI agent who's
interested in what you have.

806
00:32:29,072 --> 00:32:31,058
That's why the FBI
agent just steals

807
00:32:31,158 --> 00:32:32,684
stuff that you were holding.

808
00:32:32,784 --> 00:32:35,437
You have the scientist who's
interested in who you are.

809
00:32:35,537 --> 00:32:39,274
The scientist actually
carries you back to the city,

810
00:32:39,374 --> 00:32:40,650
because they want to study you.

811
00:32:40,750 --> 00:32:42,319
And Elliott comes
in to save you.

812
00:32:42,419 --> 00:32:43,862
There's times when
you can call Elliott,

813
00:32:43,962 --> 00:32:45,155
and he will help you out.

814
00:32:45,255 --> 00:32:46,615
And so, those are
the kind of things

815
00:32:46,715 --> 00:32:48,742
that I had that I thought
created, possibly,

816
00:32:48,842 --> 00:32:50,452
some sentiment.

817
00:32:50,552 --> 00:32:54,539
And at one point, Spielberg
says to me, he goes, you know,

818
00:32:54,639 --> 00:32:58,251
couldn't you do something
more like Pac-Man?

819
00:32:58,351 --> 00:33:00,212
No, Steven, we need to
do a game that's fresh.

820
00:33:00,312 --> 00:33:03,215
We need to do something that's
really worthy of this movie.

821
00:33:03,315 --> 00:33:05,008
It's not how simple you can
make a complicated game.

822
00:33:05,108 --> 00:33:06,802
It's how complicated
a game can you

823
00:33:06,902 --> 00:33:10,722
make subject to the constraint
of easy learnability.

824
00:33:10,822 --> 00:33:12,391
My job is to produce
a cartridge that

825
00:33:12,491 --> 00:33:15,370
is going to sell for Atari.

826
00:33:15,660 --> 00:33:19,272
A typical VCS game at the
time took five or six months.

827
00:33:19,372 --> 00:33:21,149
And this is going
to be in five weeks.

828
00:33:21,249 --> 00:33:24,486
You might think, no, nobody
can do a game in five weeks.

829
00:33:24,586 --> 00:33:27,155
Like most people in the
department would think.

830
00:33:27,255 --> 00:33:28,198
But I don't think that way.

831
00:33:28,298 --> 00:33:30,763
I think, yeah, I can do that.

832
00:33:30,926 --> 00:33:32,661
The word hubris comes to mind.

833
00:33:32,761 --> 00:33:34,746
I mean, whatever it is I
might have been full of,

834
00:33:34,846 --> 00:33:37,332
I was overflowing
with it at that point.

835
00:33:37,432 --> 00:33:39,418
Because if the game can't
make the Christmas market,

836
00:33:39,518 --> 00:33:40,961
the game is a total waste.

837
00:33:41,061 --> 00:33:42,879
They're going miss their window.

838
00:33:42,979 --> 00:33:44,256
So that was the big thing.

839
00:33:44,356 --> 00:33:47,926
It was the $22 million
bet that you could turn

840
00:33:48,026 --> 00:33:49,428
the game around in that time.

841
00:33:49,528 --> 00:33:52,305
I had a development
station moved into my home,

842
00:33:52,405 --> 00:33:56,977
so I could be basically working
on this game almost 24 hours.

843
00:33:57,077 --> 00:34:00,480
We found that there was a
good probability of success.

844
00:34:00,580 --> 00:34:05,882
We took a coin operated game and
just ported it over to a game

845
00:34:06,169 --> 00:34:08,719
that we could play on the VCS.

846
00:34:10,465 --> 00:34:13,093
E.T. didn't have that.

847
00:34:13,385 --> 00:34:14,161
Hello?

848
00:34:14,261 --> 00:34:16,261
Is somebody out there?

849
00:34:21,518 --> 00:34:24,772
E.T. video game?

850
00:34:25,063 --> 00:34:26,506
Wow.

851
00:34:26,606 --> 00:34:27,883
It's
the video game that

852
00:34:27,983 --> 00:34:28,884
lets you pretend you're E.T.

853
00:34:28,984 --> 00:34:29,676
OK.

854
00:34:29,776 --> 00:34:30,927
So the game's done.

855
00:34:31,027 --> 00:34:32,137
And one of the
conditions I asked for

856
00:34:32,237 --> 00:34:33,680
was that Steven
Spielberg is the one

857
00:34:33,780 --> 00:34:35,056
who approves the final game.

858
00:34:35,156 --> 00:34:36,933
So Steven Spielberg
played the final game

859
00:34:37,033 --> 00:34:39,413
and approved it for release.

860
00:34:39,452 --> 00:34:44,458
Howard, who is a
certifiable genius,

861
00:34:44,749 --> 00:34:47,894
went off and, about,
a number of weeks

862
00:34:47,961 --> 00:34:51,871
later came back with a
concept and a game plan.

863
00:34:52,048 --> 00:34:55,243
I was amazed at how difficult
it was, yet at the same time

864
00:34:55,343 --> 00:34:57,723
how much fun it was to play.

865
00:34:57,929 --> 00:34:59,789
I've seen the final game.

866
00:34:59,889 --> 00:35:01,500
Oh yeah, yeah, it's my favorite.

867
00:35:01,600 --> 00:35:03,543
Of course I'm biased,
I made the movie.

868
00:35:03,643 --> 00:35:05,420
Steven
Spielberg thought it was OK,

869
00:35:05,520 --> 00:35:08,340
so I thought, all right,
I'm good with that.

870
00:35:08,440 --> 00:35:12,010
And... not that I'm
blaming him for anything.

871
00:35:12,110 --> 00:35:13,220
<i>No, of course not.</i>

872
00:35:13,320 --> 00:35:14,179
But...

873
00:35:14,279 --> 00:35:16,279
<i>But it's his fault.</i>

874
00:35:17,240 --> 00:35:21,461
The video game that
lets you help E.T. get home

875
00:35:21,745 --> 00:35:24,544
just in time for Christmas.

876
00:35:24,831 --> 00:35:26,274
After E.T. was released,

877
00:35:26,374 --> 00:35:27,526
there was a great
sense of relief

878
00:35:27,626 --> 00:35:28,944
that we'd actually
made the schedule.

879
00:35:29,044 --> 00:35:30,695
And everything was good.

880
00:35:30,795 --> 00:35:32,614
And then the game
went out into market,

881
00:35:32,714 --> 00:35:34,407
and it was very high
on the billboard list.

882
00:35:34,507 --> 00:35:36,159
And again, things were good.

883
00:35:36,259 --> 00:35:38,411
I got E.T., I think
it was Christmas of 1982,

884
00:35:38,511 --> 00:35:39,496
if I remember correctly.

885
00:35:39,596 --> 00:35:41,498
And I thought it
was like... I was

886
00:35:41,598 --> 00:35:44,251
to be the guy on the street who
had E.T. before everybody else.

887
00:35:44,351 --> 00:35:46,002
Turns out everybody I knew
got E.T. that Christmas.

888
00:35:46,102 --> 00:35:47,420
After a while,

889
00:35:47,520 --> 00:35:49,089
people start going by
me in the halls... people

890
00:35:49,189 --> 00:35:51,967
from other buildings, people
from marketing, and management.

891
00:35:52,067 --> 00:35:54,928
And they're saying things like,
you know, you know something,

892
00:35:55,028 --> 00:35:56,805
Howard, you did a great job.

893
00:35:56,905 --> 00:35:58,515
We don't blame you.

894
00:35:58,615 --> 00:35:59,975
That was really
something, what you did.

895
00:36:00,075 --> 00:36:01,768
You really came
through for us there,

896
00:36:01,868 --> 00:36:04,813
and we don't want you to
think we think anything else.

897
00:36:04,913 --> 00:36:06,231
This really isn't about you.

898
00:36:06,331 --> 00:36:07,482
Don't feel bad.

899
00:36:07,582 --> 00:36:09,192
It's OK, it's cool.

900
00:36:09,292 --> 00:36:10,527
And I'm thinking, like, what
the hell are they talking about?

901
00:36:10,627 --> 00:36:13,007
E.T. was a really hard game.

902
00:36:13,254 --> 00:36:17,259
It was the kind of game
that was brutal, unfair,

903
00:36:17,550 --> 00:36:18,702
it didn't make a lot of sense.

904
00:36:18,802 --> 00:36:20,120
I
grew up in London,

905
00:36:20,220 --> 00:36:22,622
and there was a video
game store in my town

906
00:36:22,722 --> 00:36:25,667
that let you rent... I don't know
what the rental was, like 50

907
00:36:25,767 --> 00:36:27,627
pence for a weekend...
and I still remember

908
00:36:27,727 --> 00:36:28,837
feeling like I wasted my money.

909
00:36:28,937 --> 00:36:30,213
Because it just... it was bad.

910
00:36:30,313 --> 00:36:31,631
People aren't liking it.

911
00:36:31,731 --> 00:36:34,259
And people aren't
liking it a lot.

912
00:36:34,359 --> 00:36:37,721
And what made it particularly
bad was my memory of the movie

913
00:36:37,821 --> 00:36:38,555
was SO great.

914
00:36:38,655 --> 00:36:39,889
I loved the movie.

915
00:36:39,989 --> 00:36:40,765
Everyone loved the
movie when it came out.

916
00:36:40,865 --> 00:36:41,975
It's a great movie.

917
00:36:42,075 --> 00:36:43,560
Still is it is a
classic movie today.

918
00:36:43,660 --> 00:36:46,187
And so this massive
chasm that existed

919
00:36:46,287 --> 00:36:49,232
between the quality of the movie
and the quality of the game

920
00:36:49,332 --> 00:36:51,943
that was based on, I think just
made it seem that much more

921
00:36:52,043 --> 00:36:53,278
like a slap in the face.

922
00:36:53,378 --> 00:36:55,113
OK, well, maybe it
won't sell six million.

923
00:36:55,213 --> 00:36:56,740
Maybe it will only
sell four million.

924
00:36:56,840 --> 00:36:58,617
Or three million,
that would be OK.

925
00:36:58,717 --> 00:37:00,368
And then there's, like, returns.

926
00:37:00,468 --> 00:37:01,995
People are returning the game.

927
00:37:02,095 --> 00:37:03,288
They made too many.

928
00:37:03,388 --> 00:37:04,706
How many they made,
I don't even know.

929
00:37:04,806 --> 00:37:07,042
They made, like, four
million cartridges.

930
00:37:07,142 --> 00:37:09,919
That means there could be
millions of carts coming back.

931
00:37:10,019 --> 00:37:14,946
So what do you do with
useless, worthless product'?

932
00:37:15,233 --> 00:37:16,343
How do you get rid of it?

933
00:37:16,443 --> 00:37:17,302
Bury it.

934
00:37:17,402 --> 00:37:19,782
That's a pretty good answer.

935
00:37:20,947 --> 00:37:22,265
Well, career change

936
00:37:22,365 --> 00:37:23,808
is not anything new for me.

937
00:37:23,908 --> 00:37:26,603
I've been through a number
of different careers.

938
00:37:26,703 --> 00:37:30,482
I actually went and got
a California real estate

939
00:37:30,582 --> 00:37:32,317
license, and then
a broker's license,

940
00:37:32,417 --> 00:37:33,652
and did that for a while.

941
00:37:33,752 --> 00:37:35,362
And I did that just
long enough to know

942
00:37:35,462 --> 00:37:38,114
this was, like, the last thing
in the world I wanted to do.

943
00:37:38,214 --> 00:37:41,618
And now I am a licensed,
practicing psychotherapist

944
00:37:41,718 --> 00:37:43,286
in California.

945
00:37:43,386 --> 00:37:45,413
And I'm a very unique therapist,
in that I have a Master's

946
00:37:45,513 --> 00:37:48,083
of Engineering and I also
have a Master of Arts

947
00:37:48,183 --> 00:37:49,793
in counseling psychology.

948
00:37:49,893 --> 00:37:51,670
I mean, I'm the Silicon
Valley therapist.

949
00:37:51,770 --> 00:37:56,275
I'm very good at translating
between English and nerd.

950
00:37:56,316 --> 00:38:00,762
And this is the first time since
I left Atari that I feel I'm

951
00:38:00,862 --> 00:38:03,264
doing what I really love doing.

952
00:38:03,364 --> 00:38:07,995
So it took me 30 years
to get back to a place

953
00:38:08,286 --> 00:38:12,357
that I don't feel I'm a step
down from where I used to work.

954
00:38:12,457 --> 00:38:15,836
And that's many,
many different jobs.

955
00:38:16,127 --> 00:38:18,613
I know this dig is coming up,
and I'm going to be there.

956
00:38:18,713 --> 00:38:21,032
I'm going to be
standing right there.

957
00:38:21,132 --> 00:38:24,661
And I am going to literally
watch my past being dug up.

958
00:38:24,761 --> 00:38:28,415
And that's a weird kind
of thing to anticipate.

959
00:38:28,515 --> 00:38:30,709
My hopes are in one way, and
my expectations are another.

960
00:38:30,809 --> 00:38:32,127
And I don't know what
it's going to be.

961
00:38:32,227 --> 00:38:33,753
I really don't know
what it's going to be.

962
00:38:33,853 --> 00:38:37,674
I don't know what it's
going to mean to me when,

963
00:38:37,774 --> 00:38:40,834
if something comes
up, if it's there.

964
00:39:20,525 --> 00:39:23,470
Part of punk archeology
is that sense of community.

965
00:39:23,570 --> 00:39:25,722
And the fact that we're
helping each other out

966
00:39:25,822 --> 00:39:27,640
to address the issues
that we're interested in.

967
00:39:27,740 --> 00:39:30,852
And most of the time we're
doing it on a volunteer basis.

968
00:39:30,952 --> 00:39:33,980
It's going to be interesting to
see how they decide to excavate

969
00:39:34,080 --> 00:39:36,149
in order to clear a
better area, you know,

970
00:39:36,249 --> 00:39:39,152
so that we can get at more
of the content that we need.

971
00:39:39,252 --> 00:39:41,112
One of the people down
there did confirm finding

972
00:39:41,212 --> 00:39:42,322
a Donny and Marie poster.

973
00:39:42,422 --> 00:39:44,032
Yeah, yeah, which is awesome.

974
00:39:44,132 --> 00:39:45,325
Well, basically,
because we're going

975
00:39:45,425 --> 00:39:46,785
to treat this as a
salvage excavation,

976
00:39:46,885 --> 00:39:48,369
we will dig a trench.

977
00:39:48,469 --> 00:39:50,997
We'll go through and excavate
the material in the pits

978
00:39:51,097 --> 00:39:52,499
that we dig.

979
00:39:52,599 --> 00:39:53,708
At which point, we'll send
them up to the tables.

980
00:39:53,808 --> 00:39:54,959
We'll sort through the material.

981
00:39:55,059 --> 00:39:55,794
We'll weigh it.

982
00:39:55,894 --> 00:39:56,669
We'll count it.

983
00:39:56,769 --> 00:39:57,670
Identify it.

984
00:39:57,770 --> 00:40:00,819
And, yeah, that's the plan.

985
00:40:01,107 --> 00:40:02,675
What's
happened so far today?

986
00:40:02,775 --> 00:40:04,761
Basically, we started
digging in the hole,

987
00:40:04,861 --> 00:40:05,929
and the trucks have
already started

988
00:40:06,029 --> 00:40:07,639
going through the train.

989
00:40:07,739 --> 00:40:09,766
So, just so people understand...
and probably, right now I'm

990
00:40:09,866 --> 00:40:13,461
cutting to an awesome
diagram of this.

991
00:40:13,745 --> 00:40:15,772
There's, like, 20
feet of garbage

992
00:40:15,872 --> 00:40:17,982
that's on the top of wherever
the games are buried.

993
00:40:18,082 --> 00:40:19,108
Garbage and dirt.

994
00:40:19,208 --> 00:40:21,027
Sorry,
garbage and dirt.

995
00:40:21,127 --> 00:40:23,279
In the diagram it's
going to be pretty clear.

996
00:40:23,379 --> 00:40:25,657
And so, that all has
to be taken away.

997
00:40:25,757 --> 00:40:27,450
Yeah,
we'll get the vast majority

998
00:40:27,550 --> 00:40:28,868
of the hole excavated out.

999
00:40:28,968 --> 00:40:30,036
And so far,
have we found anything?

1000
00:40:30,136 --> 00:40:31,287
Found any Atari games?

1001
00:40:31,387 --> 00:40:32,080
No, nothing.

1002
00:40:32,180 --> 00:40:32,956
Nothing.

1003
00:40:33,056 --> 00:40:34,290
Nothing yet.

1004
00:40:34,390 --> 00:40:37,210
And Son, I mean, you
seem pretty nervous.

1005
00:40:37,310 --> 00:40:38,169
Right.

1006
00:40:38,269 --> 00:40:39,003
Are you?

1007
00:40:39,103 --> 00:40:39,796
Oh yeah, terrified.

1008
00:40:39,896 --> 00:40:40,588
Terrified.

1009
00:40:40,688 --> 00:40:42,090
OK.

1010
00:40:42,190 --> 00:40:43,842
I gotta be honest,
I'm nervous as shit.

1011
00:40:43,942 --> 00:40:46,970
I don't know if that'll help
motivate you guys, but...

1012
00:40:47,070 --> 00:40:48,930
Yeah, that did it for us.

1013
00:40:49,030 --> 00:40:49,889
We need to get back to work.

1014
00:40:49,989 --> 00:40:50,515
Yeah.

1015
00:40:50,615 --> 00:40:51,140
Great.

1016
00:40:51,240 --> 00:40:51,766
Let's go.

1017
00:40:51,866 --> 00:40:52,475
Go team.

1018
00:40:52,575 --> 00:40:53,268
Way to go.

1019
00:40:53,368 --> 00:40:55,368
Son, calm down, buddy.

1020
00:41:01,209 --> 00:41:02,569
People say nerd or geek.

1021
00:41:02,669 --> 00:41:04,070
I say enthusiast.

1022
00:41:04,170 --> 00:41:06,114
I love things, and I love
people who love things.

1023
00:41:06,214 --> 00:41:09,534
But if you spend all your time
focusing on all the amazing,

1024
00:41:09,634 --> 00:41:11,452
like, art and entertainment
that's being made,

1025
00:41:11,552 --> 00:41:12,829
there's so much of
it happening now,

1026
00:41:12,929 --> 00:41:16,934
you can't even take it all in.

1027
00:41:17,225 --> 00:41:18,835
And it's like the dig.

1028
00:41:18,935 --> 00:41:20,545
When I tell people, like, the
right kind people about it,

1029
00:41:20,645 --> 00:41:23,089
they're like, I can't believe
that it's finally happening.

1030
00:41:23,189 --> 00:41:25,133
And that you're going
to get to be there.

1031
00:41:25,233 --> 00:41:26,634
You know, I get,
look, goosebumps.

1032
00:41:26,734 --> 00:41:29,114
Goosebumps talking about it.

1033
00:41:55,930 --> 00:41:58,333
My local video game shop
in Austin, Texas, Game

1034
00:41:58,433 --> 00:42:00,543
Over Video Games, they gave
me every copy they have

1035
00:42:00,643 --> 00:42:02,754
of every one of Howard's games.

1036
00:42:02,854 --> 00:42:05,715
Little known fact... E.T. has the
very first official video game

1037
00:42:05,815 --> 00:42:07,550
Easter egg ever in a video game.

1038
00:42:07,650 --> 00:42:10,136
Warren Robinett had the
very first one in Adventure,

1039
00:42:10,236 --> 00:42:11,679
but he did that without
anybody knowing.

1040
00:42:11,779 --> 00:42:13,932
Howard asked if he could
put Easter eggs in the game,

1041
00:42:14,032 --> 00:42:15,183
and Atari said yes.

1042
00:42:15,283 --> 00:42:17,644
If you go find the
geranium, and you

1043
00:42:17,744 --> 00:42:19,896
make the germanium
regenerate, it turns

1044
00:42:19,996 --> 00:42:22,624
into Yar, from Yar's Revenge.

1045
00:42:22,915 --> 00:42:24,567
And he flies away.

1046
00:42:24,667 --> 00:42:26,694
The first time it happened to
me, when I was 11 years old,

1047
00:42:26,794 --> 00:42:28,196
I shit myself.

1048
00:42:28,296 --> 00:42:30,448
And then if you do it
again, it turns into Indy

1049
00:42:30,548 --> 00:42:31,699
from Raiders of the Lost Ark.

1050
00:42:31,799 --> 00:42:34,118
So Howard hid characters
from this game

1051
00:42:34,218 --> 00:42:36,513
and this game in this game.

1052
00:42:39,223 --> 00:42:40,166
Hello.

1053
00:42:40,266 --> 00:42:41,334
Hi, good afternoon.

1054
00:42:41,434 --> 00:42:42,335
Welcome to the Lodge.

1055
00:42:42,435 --> 00:42:43,753
Well, it's nice to be here.

1056
00:42:43,853 --> 00:42:45,046
Are you checking in?
- Absolutely.

1057
00:42:45,146 --> 00:42:45,922
Great.

1058
00:42:46,022 --> 00:42:47,048
Can I get the last name.

1059
00:42:47,148 --> 00:42:47,882
Warshaw.

1060
00:42:47,982 --> 00:42:50,610
W-A-R-S-H-A-W.

1061
00:42:50,902 --> 00:42:51,594
Howard.

1062
00:42:51,694 --> 00:42:53,694
That's me.

1063
00:43:10,546 --> 00:43:13,199
So it's the day
of the actual dig.

1064
00:43:13,299 --> 00:43:16,619
And my Wife and I are in a van,
on our way to the landfill.

1065
00:43:16,719 --> 00:43:17,996
It was a strange feeling.

1066
00:43:18,096 --> 00:43:20,081
I mean, I was, like, nervous.

1067
00:43:20,181 --> 00:43:23,071
And I didn't really
understand why.

1068
00:43:23,226 --> 00:43:26,713
But I just had this sense...
just like a tingly thing...

1069
00:43:26,813 --> 00:43:29,799
that something is
going on here today.

1070
00:43:29,899 --> 00:43:32,385
And as we pull
into the landfill,

1071
00:43:32,485 --> 00:43:33,970
there were already people there.

1072
00:43:34,070 --> 00:43:35,847
And there's more people.

1073
00:43:35,947 --> 00:43:38,516
And we go on, and
there's more people.

1074
00:43:38,616 --> 00:43:41,421
And it just keeps
going and going.

1075
00:43:45,873 --> 00:43:48,401
I guess it sort of felt like
a religious pilgrimage to me.

1076
00:43:48,501 --> 00:43:50,153
I called up some
friends, and said, hey,

1077
00:43:50,253 --> 00:43:51,696
can we get down there?

1078
00:43:51,796 --> 00:43:53,197
And I asked my brother-in-law
if he wanted to go.

1079
00:43:53,297 --> 00:43:54,532
Heck, let's do it.
Let's check it out.

1080
00:43:54,632 --> 00:43:56,927
And my wife said, whatever.

1081
00:44:05,143 --> 00:44:07,420
It's one of those
weird monumental video

1082
00:44:07,520 --> 00:44:10,173
game based events that only
comes around once a century.

1083
00:44:10,273 --> 00:44:12,550
This is our generation's
urban legend.

1084
00:44:12,650 --> 00:44:14,385
Billions of cartridges
out in the desert.

1085
00:44:14,485 --> 00:44:16,262
Growing up, you always read
the little rumors about it.

1086
00:44:16,362 --> 00:44:17,430
I grew up playing
an Atari, which

1087
00:44:17,530 --> 00:44:18,765
my babysitters had given me.

1088
00:44:18,865 --> 00:44:20,516
And I actually
had the E.T. game.

1089
00:44:20,616 --> 00:44:22,018
My friend and I, she
and I would actually

1090
00:44:22,118 --> 00:44:23,519
just for fun on
the weekends, drive

1091
00:44:23,619 --> 00:44:24,979
around trying to
figure out where would

1092
00:44:25,079 --> 00:44:26,397
these Atari games be buried.

1093
00:44:26,497 --> 00:44:27,815
It's the fun of the legend.

1094
00:44:27,915 --> 00:44:29,233
It's like looking for
the Loch Ness monster.

1095
00:44:29,333 --> 00:44:30,693
What did you
think when you played

1096
00:44:30,793 --> 00:44:32,737
the E.T. game last night?

1097
00:44:32,837 --> 00:44:34,155
It was awesome.

1098
00:44:34,255 --> 00:44:37,995
Because in my opinion,
I like terrible games.

1099
00:44:45,641 --> 00:44:47,877
To come back and to
relive the feeling

1100
00:44:47,977 --> 00:44:51,464
I got off those games is
something I couldn't pass up.

1101
00:44:51,564 --> 00:44:53,091
I just want to know
about the urban myth.

1102
00:44:53,191 --> 00:44:55,343
See if it's really
buried out here.

1103
00:44:55,443 --> 00:44:57,553
I just came out here to be
part of video game history.

1104
00:44:57,653 --> 00:44:59,055
Had to see whether
it's true or not.

1105
00:44:59,155 --> 00:45:01,432
You have to be a
special kind of nerd

1106
00:45:01,532 --> 00:45:06,037
to be able to want to drive
28 hours for a video game.

1107
00:45:09,498 --> 00:45:11,109
The myth
that E.T., the video game,

1108
00:45:11,209 --> 00:45:13,903
for the Atari 2600 was the
worst video game all time,

1109
00:45:14,003 --> 00:45:15,113
it would be so great
to debunk that,

1110
00:45:15,213 --> 00:45:16,948
because it's just not true.

1111
00:45:17,048 --> 00:45:18,616
But also to redeem
Howard Scott Warshaw,

1112
00:45:18,716 --> 00:45:20,868
because he's an amazing
video game designer,

1113
00:45:20,968 --> 00:45:22,968
and his game was great.

1114
00:45:24,847 --> 00:45:26,290
Ha ha, cool car.

1115
00:45:26,390 --> 00:45:27,375
Yeah, I like that.

1116
00:45:27,475 --> 00:45:28,960
E.T.'s in there.

1117
00:45:29,060 --> 00:45:30,503
This
morning, coming to a dump

1118
00:45:30,603 --> 00:45:33,197
in a small town in New Mexico.

1119
00:45:33,481 --> 00:45:36,259
There were people lined
up, waiting to get in.

1120
00:45:36,359 --> 00:45:38,219
When's the last time
you saw line of people

1121
00:45:38,319 --> 00:45:39,804
waiting to get into a dump?

1122
00:45:39,904 --> 00:45:44,579
It totally took me by surprise,
but in a delightful way.

1123
00:45:45,451 --> 00:45:48,563
You never go to a dump unless
you're throwing something away,

1124
00:45:48,663 --> 00:45:52,066
and here we are, trying to find
treasure... buried treasure.

1125
00:45:52,166 --> 00:45:53,442
I think they'll
find something.

1126
00:45:53,542 --> 00:45:55,528
I mean, the cartridges
had to go somewhere.

1127
00:45:55,628 --> 00:45:57,280
Why not here?

1128
00:45:57,380 --> 00:45:59,699
It is a lot of
open space, great place

1129
00:45:59,799 --> 00:46:01,659
to dump a million cartridges.

1130
00:46:01,759 --> 00:46:06,094
There is a definite
possibility that there is games.

1131
00:46:06,264 --> 00:46:09,500
This is archeology
for the time I grew up.

1132
00:46:09,600 --> 00:46:11,794
So nostalgia for anything
that came out of that era

1133
00:46:11,894 --> 00:46:13,894
is pretty high.

1134
00:46:20,903 --> 00:46:23,264
All right, now the wind is
really picking up, on cue.

1135
00:46:23,364 --> 00:46:24,807
On cue.

1136
00:46:24,907 --> 00:46:26,225
The weather
here, in Alamogordo

1137
00:46:26,325 --> 00:46:30,375
is awesome if you
like sandstorms

1138
00:46:30,663 --> 00:46:34,543
and an impending doom
filled cloud of white.

1139
00:46:34,834 --> 00:46:36,834
Whoa.

1140
00:46:40,047 --> 00:46:41,282
Aw, this is getting brutal.

1141
00:46:41,382 --> 00:46:42,158
Yeah.

1142
00:46:42,258 --> 00:46:44,258
Sorry, this is brutal.

1143
00:46:44,468 --> 00:46:45,828
Getting very windy.

1144
00:46:45,928 --> 00:46:47,705
Basically, what's
happening is the white sands

1145
00:46:47,805 --> 00:46:51,334
are blowing in from White
Sands, and covering everything.

1146
00:46:51,434 --> 00:46:52,877
And it's really shitty.

1147
00:46:52,977 --> 00:46:54,420
They're saying this is
like a historic wind today.

1148
00:46:54,520 --> 00:46:55,463
Really?

1149
00:46:55,563 --> 00:46:56,923
That's what somebody told us.

1150
00:46:57,023 --> 00:46:58,257
To think that we're

1151
00:46:58,357 --> 00:46:59,258
in the middle of a sandstorm.

1152
00:46:59,358 --> 00:47:00,134
Really?

1153
00:47:00,234 --> 00:47:01,552
This is what's going on?

1154
00:47:01,652 --> 00:47:02,970
And for me it was almost
like the big sand storm

1155
00:47:03,070 --> 00:47:04,680
right at the opening
of Close Encounters,

1156
00:47:04,780 --> 00:47:07,016
you know, the people wearing
the goggles and the bandannas.

1157
00:47:07,116 --> 00:47:09,393
Everybody's like, gather around,
because they found something.

1158
00:47:09,493 --> 00:47:11,437
And they can't believe
what they've found.

1159
00:47:11,537 --> 00:47:13,539
Are we the first?

1160
00:47:13,831 --> 00:47:15,691
This is Tony
Johnson, from Denver,

1161
00:47:15,791 --> 00:47:17,902
Colorado, who ran up
to me in my DeLorean.

1162
00:47:18,002 --> 00:47:18,903
He's like, I found something.

1163
00:47:19,003 --> 00:47:20,238
I found something.

1164
00:47:20,338 --> 00:47:22,281
And Tony is going to
go down in history,

1165
00:47:22,381 --> 00:47:24,533
because he found the first
evidence of Atari hardware.

1166
00:47:24,633 --> 00:47:25,493
Whoa.

1167
00:47:25,593 --> 00:47:26,661
Whoa, that's pretty huge.

1168
00:47:26,761 --> 00:47:28,162
Right there it is, my man.

1169
00:47:28,262 --> 00:47:31,666
Uh, ladies and gentlemen,
we have an announcement.

1170
00:47:31,766 --> 00:47:34,911
So, Tony, tell us
what you just found.

1171
00:47:35,144 --> 00:47:38,068
An Atari 2600 joystick toggle.

1172
00:47:41,233 --> 00:47:43,010
So, Tony, where
did you find it?

1173
00:47:43,110 --> 00:47:46,159
Walking to the bathroom.

1174
00:47:46,447 --> 00:47:48,307
So it was a surface find?

1175
00:47:48,407 --> 00:47:49,809
Surface find.

1176
00:47:49,909 --> 00:47:51,352
Yeah, like we know what
a surface find is, right?

1177
00:47:51,452 --> 00:47:53,271
Well, a surface find
is something... you know,

1178
00:47:53,371 --> 00:47:54,814
you're walking around, you're
looking down on the ground,

1179
00:47:54,914 --> 00:47:56,190
you see something interesting
and you pick it up.

1180
00:47:56,290 --> 00:47:58,651
It's totally out of
archaeological context.

1181
00:47:58,751 --> 00:48:00,861
What are the odds that that,
like, blew out of the hole?

1182
00:48:00,961 --> 00:48:02,530
Actually, I think
they're pretty good.

1183
00:48:02,630 --> 00:48:04,699
I mean, the wind is blowing
fiercely in that direction.

1184
00:48:04,799 --> 00:48:06,367
You know, the stuff's
coming out of the bucket.

1185
00:48:06,467 --> 00:48:08,119
You know, we've been finding
a lot of interesting things

1186
00:48:08,219 --> 00:48:09,370
that date from around that time.

1187
00:48:09,470 --> 00:48:10,329
Anything from Atari?

1188
00:48:10,429 --> 00:48:11,998
Uh, nothing from Atari yet.

1189
00:48:12,098 --> 00:48:13,708
How can you authenticate this?

1190
00:48:13,808 --> 00:48:15,856
Can you carbon date it?

1191
00:48:16,143 --> 00:48:18,948
No, it's much too
recent for that.

1192
00:48:23,067 --> 00:48:25,761
There are really two things
that we could be dealing with,

1193
00:48:25,861 --> 00:48:27,680
when taking a look
at these cartridges,

1194
00:48:27,780 --> 00:48:28,889
if they're actually there.

1195
00:48:28,989 --> 00:48:30,808
First thing is that
they just loaded

1196
00:48:30,908 --> 00:48:32,935
the trucks are these cartridges,
and then they dumped them.

1197
00:48:33,035 --> 00:48:34,520
And that's the best
possible scenario,

1198
00:48:34,620 --> 00:48:36,230
because you could pull
them out, and I bet you

1199
00:48:36,330 --> 00:48:37,481
most of them would be playable.

1200
00:48:37,581 --> 00:48:38,899
You know, they've
just been in there

1201
00:48:38,999 --> 00:48:41,552
for... you know, since 1983.

1202
00:48:45,339 --> 00:48:46,824
We're right about
where we need to be,

1203
00:48:46,924 --> 00:48:50,494
but there's still no
Atari detritus at all.

1204
00:48:50,594 --> 00:48:52,496
We've been here for
a while, all ready.

1205
00:48:52,596 --> 00:48:53,289
It's tedious.

1206
00:48:53,389 --> 00:48:54,957
The wind's horrible.

1207
00:48:55,057 --> 00:48:57,205
We're wondering if they're
going to find anything or not.

1208
00:49:01,605 --> 00:49:03,174
I don't think there's
anything in that hole

1209
00:49:03,274 --> 00:49:04,759
except rattlesnakes
and scorpions.

1210
00:49:04,859 --> 00:49:06,802
If it's buried, it's
probably for a reason.

1211
00:49:06,902 --> 00:49:08,902
It should stay buried.

1212
00:49:13,200 --> 00:49:15,436
I wasn't thinking that
something was really

1213
00:49:15,536 --> 00:49:18,836
messed up until late '83.

1214
00:49:19,123 --> 00:49:20,900
To me, Atari was
never going to go away.

1215
00:49:21,000 --> 00:49:22,610
It was this thing that
was just part of my life.

1216
00:49:22,710 --> 00:49:24,362
And the thought that
there could ever

1217
00:49:24,462 --> 00:49:28,574
be a day where there was no
Atari... or no Atari 2600... I

1218
00:49:28,674 --> 00:49:29,950
never crossed my mind.

1219
00:49:30,050 --> 00:49:33,079
E.T. comes out, and
E.T. is not so great.

1220
00:49:33,179 --> 00:49:36,729
And somewhere toward
the end of the year

1221
00:49:37,016 --> 00:49:40,086
I'm starting to wonder,
are we making our numbers?

1222
00:49:40,186 --> 00:49:43,005
Which leads to one of the
worst nights of my life.

1223
00:49:43,105 --> 00:49:48,267
On December 7, 1982 I get a
call from Dennis Groth, who

1224
00:49:48,277 --> 00:49:50,721
was the CFO of Atari,
and he says,

1225
00:49:50,821 --> 00:49:53,290
Manny,
here's the new budget.

1226
00:49:53,574 --> 00:49:56,685
And it's a huge shortfall
from what we have been told.

1227
00:49:56,785 --> 00:49:58,312
Warner Communications
said today

1228
00:49:58,412 --> 00:50:01,857
that its once booming Atari
business lost another $180

1229
00:50:01,957 --> 00:50:04,777
million dollars in the third
quarter, for total losses

1230
00:50:04,877 --> 00:50:07,279
this year of more than
half a billion dollars.

1231
00:50:07,379 --> 00:50:10,199
I was starting to see
enough signs in the company

1232
00:50:10,299 --> 00:50:12,368
that things were
starting to unravel.

1233
00:50:12,468 --> 00:50:14,662
It was unraveling
is hard and fast.

1234
00:50:14,762 --> 00:50:16,956
And we didn't have
any ready solutions.

1235
00:50:17,056 --> 00:50:20,126
Several Atari executives,
including Atari's chairman,

1236
00:50:20,226 --> 00:50:23,045
Raymond Kassar, sold
Warner stock shortly

1237
00:50:23,145 --> 00:50:24,964
before the negative
earnings announcement,

1238
00:50:25,064 --> 00:50:27,383
and the decline in the
price of the stock.

1239
00:50:27,483 --> 00:50:30,344
Kassar denies any
wrongdoing or impropriety,

1240
00:50:30,444 --> 00:50:33,264
but a number of stockholders
have sued Warner.

1241
00:50:33,364 --> 00:50:35,015
So they got rid of Ray Kassar,

1242
00:50:35,115 --> 00:50:37,560
and they brought in a
guy from Phillip Morris.

1243
00:50:37,660 --> 00:50:43,087
And when he came in, Atari
had 10,000 employees.

1244
00:50:43,374 --> 00:50:46,402
And within about four
months, or five months,

1245
00:50:46,502 --> 00:50:48,627
Atari had 2000 employees.

1246
00:50:48,837 --> 00:50:54,765
I really got that we had
lost 80% of our staff.

1247
00:50:55,052 --> 00:50:57,371
In the short run, the market
is frequently irrational.

1248
00:50:57,471 --> 00:50:59,874
In the longer run,
hopefully it's rational.

1249
00:50:59,974 --> 00:51:02,418
The wild upside ride was over.

1250
00:51:02,518 --> 00:51:07,548
I did not understand the extent of
the downside ride that was coming.

1251
00:51:07,648 --> 00:51:09,648
This is slipping away.

1252
00:51:09,858 --> 00:51:11,986
The train is derailing.

1253
00:51:12,278 --> 00:51:17,016
It's not going to keep riding,
and what am I going to do next?

1254
00:51:17,116 --> 00:51:19,496
It was a big emotional blow.

1255
00:51:19,702 --> 00:51:24,458
It was my baby, and I
hated to see it abused.

1256
00:51:24,748 --> 00:51:26,233
New Media magazine

1257
00:51:26,333 --> 00:51:31,760
credited E.T. with destroying
the video game industry.

1258
00:51:32,047 --> 00:51:33,491
That's interesting.

1259
00:51:33,591 --> 00:51:34,867
I think that's really
interesting that I could be

1260
00:51:34,967 --> 00:51:36,994
single handedly
responsible for toppling

1261
00:51:37,094 --> 00:51:38,913
a billion dollar industry.

1262
00:51:39,013 --> 00:51:39,705
E.T. comes out.

1263
00:51:39,805 --> 00:51:40,915
The industry dies.

1264
00:51:41,015 --> 00:51:42,249
Howard's associated
with that, and I

1265
00:51:42,349 --> 00:51:44,210
think that's...
that's affected his career,

1266
00:51:44,310 --> 00:51:45,753
and what people will
remember him for.

1267
00:51:45,853 --> 00:51:47,963
And that's... that's pretty bad.

1268
00:51:48,063 --> 00:51:50,816
The fact that a guy's career

1269
00:51:51,108 --> 00:51:53,636
got destroyed because
he did E.T.,

1270
00:51:53,736 --> 00:51:56,514
given the circumstances
surrounding doing E.T.,

1271
00:51:56,614 --> 00:51:58,432
is... it's completely unfair.

1272
00:51:58,532 --> 00:51:59,558
I mean, it's sad.

1273
00:51:59,658 --> 00:52:00,976
It's really sad.

1274
00:52:01,076 --> 00:52:02,645
There's this
video game walk of fame.

1275
00:52:02,745 --> 00:52:04,355
There's also this show called
DICE, where they give out

1276
00:52:04,455 --> 00:52:05,439
lifetime achievement awards.

1277
00:52:05,539 --> 00:52:06,565
Howard's not in that.

1278
00:52:06,665 --> 00:52:08,192
He's not put in that same group.

1279
00:52:08,292 --> 00:52:09,818
They kind of keep him
out of all these things,

1280
00:52:09,918 --> 00:52:12,043
and it's kind of a shame.

1281
00:52:13,464 --> 00:52:15,324
The day I left Atari.

1282
00:52:15,424 --> 00:52:17,785
When things had really fallen
apart, and it was over.

1283
00:52:17,885 --> 00:52:21,163
And I'm literally carrying
my garbage out to my car

1284
00:52:21,263 --> 00:52:24,187
to leave for the last time.

1285
00:52:24,475 --> 00:52:28,196
That was a very
depressing moment for me.

1286
00:52:28,479 --> 00:52:30,631
Because I felt I
was losing the most

1287
00:52:30,731 --> 00:52:33,075
important thing in my life.

1288
00:52:33,359 --> 00:52:37,956
And I also knew it
was so unreal that I'd

1289
00:52:38,238 --> 00:52:40,015
never be able to recreate it.

1290
00:52:40,115 --> 00:52:44,620
The burial in Alamogordo is
basically Atari's funeral.

1291
00:52:44,703 --> 00:52:48,566
The burial of those cartridges
represents the burial

1292
00:52:48,666 --> 00:52:52,261
of that beautiful era.

1293
00:52:52,544 --> 00:52:54,446
And that may be what's
interesting about it.

1294
00:52:54,546 --> 00:52:56,323
I don't know, I mean,
that's a whole psychology

1295
00:52:56,423 --> 00:52:57,950
I'm not going to go near.

1296
00:52:58,050 --> 00:53:00,369
But it may be because it is
about the death of Atari.

1297
00:53:00,469 --> 00:53:02,469
That's what it is.

1298
00:53:05,015 --> 00:53:07,835
We can't control
how the past returns to us.

1299
00:53:07,935 --> 00:53:10,212
We may get something
that no longer

1300
00:53:10,312 --> 00:53:11,797
resembles an E.T. cartridge.

1301
00:53:11,897 --> 00:53:14,049
We may get something
monstrous, something twisted,

1302
00:53:14,149 --> 00:53:15,342
something decayed.

1303
00:53:15,442 --> 00:53:16,468
We may not even know
what we're looking

1304
00:53:16,568 --> 00:53:19,822
at if we unearth Atari's E.T...

1305
00:53:20,114 --> 00:53:22,558
Part of me feels
that when you finally crack open

1306
00:53:22,658 --> 00:53:24,184
this place, and
you start to look,

1307
00:53:24,284 --> 00:53:25,936
it's going to be a lot like
the Ark of the Covenant.

1308
00:53:26,036 --> 00:53:27,688
It's just going to
be a bunch of sand.

1309
00:53:27,788 --> 00:53:31,588
But another part of
me hopes that what's

1310
00:53:31,875 --> 00:53:33,193
found there is going
to lead to a lot more

1311
00:53:33,293 --> 00:53:35,821
understanding, and
a lot more discovery

1312
00:53:35,921 --> 00:53:38,216
about what really happened.

1313
00:53:46,181 --> 00:53:47,875
What's his name?

1314
00:53:47,975 --> 00:53:48,667
Joe.

1315
00:53:48,767 --> 00:53:49,871
Joe!

1316
00:53:51,395 --> 00:53:52,546
They want me to come in?

1317
00:53:52,646 --> 00:53:54,646
Let's go.

1318
00:53:57,581 --> 00:53:59,261
So what's up?

1319
00:53:59,361 --> 00:54:01,401
You guys find something?

1320
00:54:04,241 --> 00:54:07,216
I should have
brought my binoculars.

1321
00:54:09,079 --> 00:54:11,079
Could you show me?

1322
00:54:20,924 --> 00:54:22,284
They're
bringing some stuff

1323
00:54:22,384 --> 00:54:24,495
over to the archaeologists'
table right now.

1324
00:54:24,595 --> 00:54:26,805
Let's see what's going on.

1325
00:54:29,683 --> 00:54:31,683
Can everybody hear me?

1326
00:54:34,438 --> 00:54:36,691
We found something.

1327
00:54:36,982 --> 00:54:40,135
The archaeologists have
confirmed it's from 1983.

1328
00:54:40,235 --> 00:54:42,329
28 feet down.

1329
00:54:42,613 --> 00:54:43,972
It's E.T., the video game.

1330
00:54:44,072 --> 00:54:46,072
Intact in its box.

1331
00:54:51,580 --> 00:54:52,356
Wow.

1332
00:54:52,456 --> 00:54:54,456
There you go, Son.

1333
00:54:57,795 --> 00:54:59,780
It's an emotional,
emotional event.

1334
00:54:59,880 --> 00:55:02,157
They've backed up
this legend with fact,

1335
00:55:02,257 --> 00:55:04,451
and it's incredible
to be a part of it.

1336
00:55:04,551 --> 00:55:07,555
Good job, Joe.

1337
00:55:07,846 --> 00:55:09,832
I wasn't nervous until we
got down to that, where he was

1338
00:55:09,932 --> 00:55:11,417
almost reaching his max length.

1339
00:55:11,517 --> 00:55:13,961
But yeah, it was a big
weight off my shoulders

1340
00:55:14,061 --> 00:55:18,612
when that bucket came
up and E.T. was there.

1341
00:55:18,899 --> 00:55:19,758
Congratulations.

1342
00:55:19,858 --> 00:55:21,260
Thank you.

1343
00:55:21,360 --> 00:55:22,761
I didn't think they were
going to find them intact,

1344
00:55:22,861 --> 00:55:24,388
I thought for sure they'd
be crushed and ruined.

1345
00:55:24,488 --> 00:55:25,806
Now I've got
goosebumps, and it's

1346
00:55:25,906 --> 00:55:27,224
not because of the dust storm.

1347
00:55:27,324 --> 00:55:29,560
What's this moment
like for you?

1348
00:55:29,660 --> 00:55:30,769
Look at all the
excitement that's

1349
00:55:30,869 --> 00:55:33,759
been generated
today over something

1350
00:55:33,831 --> 00:55:36,129
that I did 32 years ago.

1351
00:55:36,416 --> 00:55:42,767
It just... it's an immensely
personal thing.

1352
00:55:44,550 --> 00:55:49,603
What it took to make
these games, was a lot.

1353
00:55:50,889 --> 00:55:53,375
And this one was
done in five weeks.

1354
00:55:53,475 --> 00:55:58,151
That was one of the hardest
five weeks of my life.

1355
00:55:58,438 --> 00:56:02,443
So I need a little moment.

1356
00:56:02,734 --> 00:56:05,369
I'm just so excited to be here.

1357
00:56:13,453 --> 00:56:15,397
A lot of these people are
complaining about E.T.

1358
00:56:15,497 --> 00:56:16,774
and never actually even played it.

1359
00:56:16,874 --> 00:56:18,358
And I ever since then,
I would talk to people,

1360
00:56:18,458 --> 00:56:19,610
and we would talk about
E.T., and I'm like,

1361
00:56:19,710 --> 00:56:20,944
well, have you ever
played the game?

1362
00:56:21,044 --> 00:56:22,529
And it would come
out that they didn't.

1363
00:56:22,629 --> 00:56:24,907
They would just kind of
continue this myth of the game

1364
00:56:25,007 --> 00:56:25,699
being really horrible.

1365
00:56:25,799 --> 00:56:27,075
It is a good game.

1366
00:56:27,175 --> 00:56:29,077
It wasn't the worst
that Atari had to offer.

1367
00:56:29,177 --> 00:56:33,874
There was, like... I remember
getting a game called Fire Fly.

1368
00:56:33,974 --> 00:56:35,334
That is the worst
game for Atari.

1369
00:56:35,434 --> 00:56:36,502
That's what every
should be focusing

1370
00:56:36,602 --> 00:56:38,045
their efforts on, not E.T.

1371
00:56:38,145 --> 00:56:39,922
Now let me be clear,
the worst game ever made

1372
00:56:40,022 --> 00:56:42,147
was obviously Trespasser.

1373
00:56:43,525 --> 00:56:45,219
So I just want to
be clear with that.

1374
00:56:45,319 --> 00:56:47,387
With the shitload of
just horrible, poorly made

1375
00:56:47,487 --> 00:56:50,390
cranked out Atari games,
to call E.T.

1376
00:56:50,490 --> 00:56:52,351
the worst one is just...
shameful.

1377
00:56:52,451 --> 00:56:55,562
In contemporary game culture
we like trashing games.

1378
00:56:55,662 --> 00:56:57,606
I don't mean putting
them in landfills,

1379
00:56:57,706 --> 00:57:00,511
but verbally,
trashing game design.

1380
00:57:00,709 --> 00:57:04,363
It's become fashionable to sort
of regard E.T. as the worst

1381
00:57:04,463 --> 00:57:05,948
video game of all time.

1382
00:57:06,048 --> 00:57:08,534
In fact, it makes everybody's
list as the number one.

1383
00:57:08,634 --> 00:57:10,160
And I'm going to go
out on a complete limb

1384
00:57:10,260 --> 00:57:12,079
here, and say... maybe people
will attack me for this...

1385
00:57:12,179 --> 00:57:15,374
but I'd rather play Atari's
E.T. than any Call of Duty.

1386
00:57:15,474 --> 00:57:20,045
In context, given the time and
the situation that Howard had

1387
00:57:20,145 --> 00:57:22,047
to live in, to
program that game,

1388
00:57:22,147 --> 00:57:24,007
it really is an
astonishing master work.

1389
00:57:24,107 --> 00:57:26,009
He made an amazing
fucking game that's

1390
00:57:26,109 --> 00:57:28,637
a whole self-contained
world in five weeks,

1391
00:57:28,737 --> 00:57:30,180
that's even more impressive.

1392
00:57:30,280 --> 00:57:32,891
I don't know any human
being who could have turned

1393
00:57:32,991 --> 00:57:35,185
E.T., in the time
frames involved,

1394
00:57:35,285 --> 00:57:36,937
into a really successful game.

1395
00:57:37,037 --> 00:57:39,022
He should be
applauded for being

1396
00:57:39,122 --> 00:57:43,923
able to have done anything in
the time that was allotted.

1397
00:57:44,211 --> 00:57:47,271
The scorn should be
heaped upon those

1398
00:57:47,381 --> 00:57:52,396
who thought it was even rational
to try to build a cartridge

1399
00:57:52,511 --> 00:57:54,121
in a month and a half.

1400
00:57:54,221 --> 00:57:57,040
The analogy that people always
use for these first timers...

1401
00:57:57,140 --> 00:57:59,167
for people who try
something first...

1402
00:57:59,267 --> 00:58:01,003
is the first penguin analogy.

1403
00:58:01,103 --> 00:58:03,463
Where the first penguin
who jumps down the hole

1404
00:58:03,563 --> 00:58:05,757
through the ice is
the one who invariably

1405
00:58:05,857 --> 00:58:07,175
gets eaten by the seal.

1406
00:58:07,275 --> 00:58:09,136
But if there wasn't
a first penguin,

1407
00:58:09,236 --> 00:58:11,096
then the penguins wouldn't be
going down through the ice.

1408
00:58:11,196 --> 00:58:14,057
So, it sucks to be
the first penguin,

1409
00:58:14,157 --> 00:58:16,537
but somebody's got to do it.

1410
00:58:20,539 --> 00:58:22,482
So it turned
out that Joe Lewandowski

1411
00:58:22,582 --> 00:58:24,359
had been right all along.

1412
00:58:24,459 --> 00:58:28,030
The games were buried, almost
exactly where he had predicted.

1413
00:58:28,130 --> 00:58:32,409
And no mercury filled pigs
popped up out of the ground.

1414
00:58:32,509 --> 00:58:35,569
So the legend of
the burial was true.

1415
00:58:35,804 --> 00:58:37,623
Or was it?

1416
00:58:37,723 --> 00:58:40,208
When the archaeologists
cataloged all the games,

1417
00:58:40,308 --> 00:58:42,753
there were a bunch
of E.T. cartridges,

1418
00:58:42,853 --> 00:58:44,838
but nowhere near the
millions that were

1419
00:58:44,938 --> 00:58:46,757
such a big part of the legend.

1420
00:58:46,857 --> 00:58:51,738
In fact, E.T. made up about
10% of the total games found.

1421
00:58:52,029 --> 00:58:55,015
The rest included some of
the best games ever made,

1422
00:58:55,115 --> 00:58:58,685
Defender, and Centipede,
and Yar's Revenge.

1423
00:58:58,785 --> 00:59:03,290
There was even one copy of
Adventure, which I snagged.

1424
00:59:06,293 --> 00:59:09,613
The burial wasn't a cover
up, or done out of shame.

1425
00:59:09,713 --> 00:59:11,782
It was a warehouse
dump done by a company

1426
00:59:11,882 --> 00:59:13,882
in financial distress.

1427
00:59:13,925 --> 00:59:15,994
At the time, the Alamogordo
landfill was just

1428
00:59:16,094 --> 00:59:19,064
the most practical solution.

1429
00:59:19,347 --> 00:59:23,377
E.T. wasn't buried because
it was the worst game ever.

1430
00:59:23,477 --> 00:59:25,295
People called it
the worst game ever

1431
00:59:25,395 --> 00:59:28,069
because it had been buried.

1432
00:59:28,356 --> 00:59:30,509
And as a result, it got
blamed for destroying

1433
00:59:30,609 --> 00:59:32,344
an entire industry.

1434
00:59:32,444 --> 00:59:34,763
The game and its creator
had taken the rap

1435
00:59:34,863 --> 00:59:37,498
for a crime they didn't commit.

1436
00:59:37,574 --> 00:59:41,499
The notion that E.T.
caused the demise of Atari

1437
00:59:41,787 --> 00:59:43,397
is simply stupid.

1438
00:59:43,497 --> 00:59:45,107
It's just stupid.

1439
00:59:45,207 --> 00:59:47,067
Atari committed suicide.

1440
00:59:47,167 --> 00:59:49,167
It was not homicide.

1441
00:59:49,336 --> 00:59:52,056
And it wasn't the
E.T. cartridge.

1442
00:59:52,339 --> 00:59:59,689
It was a concomitant effect of
a lot of missteps in technology,

1443
00:59:59,971 --> 01:00:01,748
and deployment, and marketing.

1444
01:00:01,848 --> 01:00:03,750
Some people say E.T. destroyed
the video game industry.

1445
01:00:03,850 --> 01:00:05,002
And I'm sure I've
heard that before,

1446
01:00:05,102 --> 01:00:06,128
but it's just really funny.

1447
01:00:06,228 --> 01:00:07,629
No.

1448
01:00:07,729 --> 01:00:10,007
The behavior pattern that
created the conditions

1449
01:00:10,107 --> 01:00:12,259
for the E.T. failure
is what destroyed

1450
01:00:12,359 --> 01:00:13,760
the video game industry.

1451
01:00:13,860 --> 01:00:18,741
The cause of the fall was
Atari trying to sell yet

1452
01:00:19,032 --> 01:00:23,583
another 10 million Atari
2600s into a market that

1453
01:00:23,870 --> 01:00:24,730
was saturated.

1454
01:00:24,830 --> 01:00:26,648
E.T. didn't destroy Atari.

1455
01:00:26,748 --> 01:00:29,735
It wasn't good, but it
didn't destroy Atari.

1456
01:00:29,835 --> 01:00:32,980
That's one of those
things people say.

1457
01:00:33,255 --> 01:00:36,241
And the reality of life is,
if enough people say it,

1458
01:00:36,341 --> 01:00:38,201
it becomes the truth for people.

1459
01:00:38,301 --> 01:00:41,701
A simple answer that
is clear and precise

1460
01:00:41,888 --> 01:00:44,875
will always have
more power in the world

1461
01:00:45,017 --> 01:00:47,142
than a complex one
that is true.

1462
01:00:54,109 --> 01:00:56,574
Here's another E.T. six-pack.

1463
01:00:59,322 --> 01:01:01,433
What I would like
to see happen,

1464
01:01:01,533 --> 01:01:04,895
is I would like to see
whatever remains are recovered

1465
01:01:04,995 --> 01:01:06,813
will then find their
way into a museum,

1466
01:01:06,913 --> 01:01:09,441
in the service of game history.

1467
01:01:09,541 --> 01:01:11,359
Well, you know,
the city of Alamogordo

1468
01:01:11,459 --> 01:01:12,944
owns the games
and what have you

1469
01:01:13,044 --> 01:01:14,529
that came through there,
by virtue of the fact

1470
01:01:14,629 --> 01:01:16,990
they are in our landfill.

1471
01:01:17,090 --> 01:01:20,235
We might be able to
sell them on eBay.

1472
01:01:20,468 --> 01:01:22,913
<i>So, if another
terrible video game needed</i>

1473
01:01:23,013 --> 01:01:25,165
<i>to be buried, will
you be prepared to</i>

1474
01:01:25,265 --> 01:01:27,042
<i>let it be buried
in Alamogordo?</i>

1475
01:01:27,142 --> 01:01:28,251
Absolutely.

1476
01:01:28,351 --> 01:01:31,241
Come on down, we'll
bury your game.

1477
01:01:34,816 --> 01:01:38,696
Atari was the first
great consumer company

1478
01:01:38,987 --> 01:01:40,305
to come out of Silicon Valley.

1479
01:01:40,405 --> 01:01:41,098
It was exciting.

1480
01:01:41,198 --> 01:01:42,557
It was different.

1481
01:01:42,657 --> 01:01:43,809
It was the first engagement
that a generation

1482
01:01:43,909 --> 01:01:45,560
had with computers.

1483
01:01:45,660 --> 01:01:49,898
So a generation grew up being
introduced to the computer age

1484
01:01:49,998 --> 01:01:51,399
by Atari games.

1485
01:01:51,499 --> 01:01:54,820
We brought a whole massive
new entertainment medium

1486
01:01:54,920 --> 01:01:56,655
into public consciousness.

1487
01:01:56,755 --> 01:01:59,783
So for a whole generation,
we are the definition

1488
01:01:59,883 --> 01:02:01,923
of the video game era.

1489
01:02:02,135 --> 01:02:03,537
And it's cosmic.

1490
01:02:03,637 --> 01:02:07,082
These guys really never
got their due for really

1491
01:02:07,182 --> 01:02:08,834
starting the whole industry.

1492
01:02:08,934 --> 01:02:11,753
Three lives was
invented by a person.

1493
01:02:11,853 --> 01:02:14,381
Flying a ship around was
invented by a person, who had

1494
01:02:14,481 --> 01:02:15,882
to figure out what that was.

1495
01:02:15,982 --> 01:02:20,362
And it was so good that
it was copied everywhere.

1496
01:02:20,654 --> 01:02:22,389
And because it was
copied everywhere,

1497
01:02:22,489 --> 01:02:24,808
and because it's
so ubiquitous,

1498
01:02:24,908 --> 01:02:27,435
it's impossible to remember
why it was so special.

1499
01:02:27,535 --> 01:02:30,414
I think Atari's
legacy is that we

1500
01:02:30,705 --> 01:02:35,443
started the Silicon Valley ethic
of engineers as rock stars.

1501
01:02:35,543 --> 01:02:37,362
It didn't exist before.

1502
01:02:37,462 --> 01:02:41,183
I think the casual
culture, the meritocracy,

1503
01:02:41,466 --> 01:02:43,076
didn't exist before.

1504
01:02:43,176 --> 01:02:46,538
I believe these were
underpinnings of the things

1505
01:02:46,638 --> 01:02:49,583
that made, and continue to
make, Silicon Valley

1506
01:02:49,683 --> 01:02:52,653
a special place in the world.

1507
01:02:52,936 --> 01:02:57,737
And I think that Atari
will continue to endure

1508
01:02:58,024 --> 01:03:02,996
as an icon of innovation.