BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) — The University of North Dakota's Department of Special Collections has an unusual addition — an Atari video game cartridge that once was buried in a New Mexico landfill.

The Centipede game for the Atari 2600 was among hundreds of games recovered at the city landfill in Alamogordo, New Mexico, last spring. A team of documentary filmmakers investigated a decades-old urban legend that centered on Atari secretly dumping "E.T." game cartridges. The "E.T." game had the reputation of being the worst game ever.

UND researchers Bill Caraher and Bret Weber took part in the excavation. Caraher bought the game and has donated it to the university. Caraher says the game represents "our very recent past," and he notes that even the Smithsonian has one of the games from the Atari dig.

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