Environmental regulators have blocked film makers from digging up a landfill site in New Mexico in search of a rumoured cache of a legendarily bad video game that hastened the collapse of Atari.

Cartridges for “E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial”, based on Steven Spielberg’s blockbuster hit film, were reportedly dumped in the landfill in Alamogordo in the 1980s.

The film-makers plan to make a dig for the cartridges one of the centre-pieces of a documentary about the game – an almighty flop that many in the industry believe was the worst ever made and marked the beginning of the end for Atari.



However, New Mexico environment department spokesman Jim Winchester said Wednesday that an approved waste excavation plan, or WEP, is needed before any dig can begin.

“A WEP must be approved in advance of any excavation, and that includes even the city of Alamogordo,” Winchester said.

Alamogordo city commissioners approved the search in June. However, Winchester said state environmental officials have control of the WEP’s final approval, and it was rejected in February. The companies haven’t yet submitted a new one, Winchester said.

Fuel Entertainment and LightBox Interactive plan to record the dig for a documentary to be released by Microsoft for the Xbox One console. Filmmakers have even offered fans the chance to enter a giveaway of anything that might be unearthed.

Catherine Pasciak, a producer for LightBox, said the company still plans to travel to Alamogordo, if and when the project gets approval. The filmmakers have already shot some interviews about the game, which Fuel Entertainment boss Mike Burns said at the recent SXSW conference in Austin was like the “El Dorado” of the industry.

Atari paid Steven Spielberg tens of millions of dollars to license the wildly popular 1982 movie’s name. In the game, the player takes on the role of the titular alien and tries to elude FBI agents while collecting pieces of a telephone to call E.T.’s spaceship.

The end result was a huge commercial dud that caused the troubled company’s worth to sink even further.

Atari purportedly disposed of millions of game cartridges and other equipment by the truckload at the landfill. The area’s supposed role as a gaming burial ground has snowballed into mythic status over the years.

The landfill was first used as a dumping ground in the 1920s but has been closed since the late 1980s, officials said.

A 2004 study found elevated levels of several chemicals in the landfill, prompting the New Mexico environment department to request further testing. Test results found “22 compounds of concern” according to the agency.