Yes it is the talk of the classic gaming world this week. A 30-year-old “urban legend” turned out to be a reality, or at least most of it turned out to be real. And yes, it is now the subject of an upcoming Xbox Entertainment documentary.

And yes, it is official. Thousands of copies of the ET game for the Atari 2600 were found in a New Mexico landfill.

I understand why this is such an important event for gamers everywhere. Even I admit I was interested in the news and am looking forward to the documentary when it’s released, but I do have to ask everyone again, was ET the ONLY reason the game industry crashed back in 1983? Not by a long shot!

When ET was announced by Atari to come out in time for the Christmas 1982 shopping season, programmer Howard Scott Warshaw was only given six weeks to come up with a game idea, program that idea, and have it ready for publishing. That has to be a daunting task for any programmer, even with Warshaw’s background. After all, he already made another licensed 2600 game in Raiders of the Lost Ark, another game that required a lot of understanding to complete. In fact, it took me nearly four years just to finish playing it (and this was back when we didn’t have any internet to look for cheats.)

I remember first playing ET at a friend’s house back in 1983, and as I was only eight at the time I didn’t know much of how to play the game. All I remember from that experience was the same issue many other people had, those darn pits and constantly trying to get out of them. Shortly afterwards I forgot about the game, and when the whole crash took place, I admit I didn’t know what exactly happened.

I didn’t even know the Atari 2600 port of Pac-Man, the first game I ever got, was so poorly received. I didn’t even care, as I just enjoyed playing it.

We all know the aftermath of the 1983 crash. Games dropped in price from $40 down to as low as a dollar. But ET wasn’t the only factor; neither was 2600 Pac-Man. There were TONS of poorly made games that oversaturated the market, let alone way too many consoles. And to make matters worse, some consoles back in 1983 allowed you to play rival console games (Colecovision and Intellivision both featured Atari 2600 modules.) Not counting portables, cell phones, and tablets, it makes me glad that there are only three consoles in this generation otherwise we might be heading towards another crash (but issues such as micro transactions, paid betas, and unnecessary DLC aren’t helping the cause.)

But let me get back to ET. I eventually bought a copy in 1986, one of those that escaped the landfill trip, at a local KB Toys store for one dollar. After reading through the manual, figuring out exactly what symbol meant what, and using simple common sense, I was able to beat the game, at least on Game 3, where you don’t have to worry about those darn scientists and FBI agents ruining the rescue. Yes ET was a rushed product due to a strict holiday deadline, but it was not the worst game ever made. Ever play Big Rigs?

Now here we are, 30 years later, and the New Mexico landfill was excavated. To my surprise, most of the ET games were left quite intact, with some of them still in their original shrink wrap. But what did surprise me was that there were other games found, such as a shrink-wrapped Centipede, and that was actually a pretty good 2600 game. I’m curious to see what else has been exhumed, and more importantly, do they still work?

But either way, I do have a concern. With all of these ET carts being uncovered, how many of them are going to end up on eBay? How many of them will be the victim of troll bidders? Will it end up being like the $100,000 grey NWC cart fiasco earlier this year? I don’t want to think of it.

But in any event, I will still watch the Xbox documentary when it comes out, just to see how they explain a key part of my childhood.

Currently Playing: Skyrim (360,) Saints Row IV (360)

Waiting For: Wolfenstein: The New Order (X1)