Six-month dig in New Mexico landfill aims to find out if Atari buried millions of copies of unsuccessful movie tie-in back in the eighties.

A documentary team has been given approval to excavate the site where million of copies of Atari's commercial flop E.T. are rumoured to be buried.

E.T. was released in December 1982 for the Atari 2600, with millions of copies produced under the assumption that the link to the hit Steven Spielberg movie would guarantee sales success. The failure of the game is believed to be one of the main contributing factors to 1983's crash of the video game industry.

Local news site KRQE (via ArsTechnica) reports that Canadian film production firm Fuel Industries has been granted six months of access to the site in Alamogordo, New Mexico where the millions of copies of E.T are rumoured to have been crushed and covered in concrete. The results of the dig are to be part of a documentary attempting to answer one of gaming's most enduring myths.

The excavation coincides with the 30th anniversary of the alleged dump.

Mayor of Alamorgordo Susie Galea said "I hope more people find out about Alamogordo through this opportunity that we have to unearth the Atari games in the landfill."

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