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Xbox's Atari, E.T. documentary phones home on November 20
Atari: Game Over, the documentary following an excavation for Atari cartridges once rumored to be buried in a landfill decades ago, will premiere November 20 on Xbox Live, director Zak Penn has announced. Game Over was part of a six-film series called Signal to Noise, a collaboration between the now-defunct Xbox Entertainment Studios and Lightbox Entertainment, a multi-platform media company founded by Academy Award-winning producer Simon Chinn (Searching for Sugar Man, Man on Wire) and Emmy-winning producer Jonathan Chinn (30 Days, American High). We got our first peak at the documentary in July, when a teaser trailer gave us the too long; didn't read on how E.T. 2600 damaged Atari's rockstar status in the gaming industry. As for the unearthed cartridges themselves, they've been split between auctions, museums and the City of Alamogordo. [Image: Xbox]
Trailer for Xbox's Atari E.T. documentary phones home
Remember when a bunch of people hung out in a landfill for a weekend and it didn't end in total disappointment? In April, the devoted among us choked on dust in Alamogordo, New Mexico while Xbox Entertainment Studios and Lightbox Entertainment dug for an answer to the E.T. Atari cartridge legend. The rest of us slackers didn't get to witness the pivotal moment of the lot's unearthing, so we'll just have to find a way to live with Atari: Game Over, the incoming documentary you can preview with the above trailer. Game Over is part of the Signal to Noise documentary series, one of the few projects to survive Xbox Entertainment Studios' recent closure, joined by the Ridley Scott-produced Halo: Nightfall. Xbox Entertainment Studios was announced to the public in 2013 and focused on creating television programming, which could have included shows related to the Gears of War or Fable series. Its closure was announced just over a week ago beside 18,000 layoffs, which involved Xbox's European division as well as Microsoft's Nokia Devices and Services division. [Image: Xbox]
Microsoft digs up E.T. carcass-- er, cartridge at landfill
Xbox Entertainment Studios and Lightbox Entertainment's documentary on the excavation of a New Mexico landfill where supposedly thousands of copies of E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial for the Atari 2600 won't be completed for some time yet, but if you want to know how the search went, well, the above image should tell you all you need to know. Yup, they found E.T. - or at least one copy of the game. Xbox spokesperson Larry Hryb, AKA Major Nelson, tweeted pictures showing the cartridge, as well as other Atari 2600 games still in shrink wrap, from the landfill. Dude. Spoiler warning next time! [Image: Larry Hryb]
