For 
more than 20 years, rumors have flourished: Buried in a New Mexico landfill are millions of unsold copies of E.T.: The Extraterrestrial for the Atari 2600.
Last year, a pair of documentary filmmakers claimed to have finally found the location. On April 26, they’ll start the search — and they’re inviting the general public to come watch.
In 
1983, video game companies were riding high. U.S. sales hit a peak of $3.2 billion (the equivalent of $7.3 billion today) and developers couldn’t make games quickly enough.
No one knew it at the time, but the industry was about to dive into a crisis that remains the most serious publishers, developers, and console makers have ever faced.
The crash that followed 1983 almost destroyed the video game industry, nearly relegating video games to the same cultural scrap heap as Pet Rocks and bell bottoms. It came about due to a confluence of events — some eerily similar to where the industry finds itself today.
Chris Morris: Journalist 