Video Game, "Swordquest," Recovered from Landfill, Alamogordo, New Mexico, April 26, 2014, Site of the Atari Video Game Burial of 1983

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Artifact Overview

In 1983, rumors circulated: Atari was bankrupt, and was dumping truckloads of games into a New Mexico landfill. Victim to the "Video Game Crash," the company buried 700,000 cartridges in the desert. The story became an obscure pop culture legend -- until "The Atari Tomb" was unearthed in 2014. This recovered cartridge is evidence of the world's first video game excavation.

Artifact Details

Artifact

Video game

Date Made

1982

Creator Notes

Video game developed by Tod R. Frye, manufactured by Atari, Inc.

Location

at Henry Ford Museum in Your Place in Time

Object ID

2015.13.2

Credit

From the Collections of The Henry Ford. Gift of the City of Alamogordo, New Mexico.

Material

Cardboard
Paper (Fiber product)
Plastic

Dimensions

Height: 11.5 in
Width: 1.75 in
Length: 10 in

Video Game, "Swordquest," Recovered from Landfill, Alamogordo, New Mexico, April 26, 2014, Site of the Atari Video Game Burial of 1983