Atari games cache being excavated

Organisers say a planned dig into a New Mexico landfill for a rumoured cache of what some consider the worst Atari video game of all time is expected to proceed despite state environmental regulators’ concerns.

Fuel Entertainment and LightBox Interactive are seeking to excavate an old Alamogordo landfill that reportedly was a dumping ground for ET the Extra-Terrestrial game cartridges.

Jonathan Chinn, an executive producer at Austin, Texas-based LightBox, said on Thursday that the search hasn’t been halted.

Chinn says a local waste-management consultant who filed an excavation permit is addressing questions raised by the New Mexico Environmental Department.

A department spokesman has said the agency was waiting for a revised waste excavation plan.

The failure of ET the video game, inspired by the hit 1982 movie, is said to have contributed to Atari’s decline.