The excavation of Atari's game graveyard—which unearthed many copies of the infamous failed E.T. game—definitely happened. There are pictures. There are trustworthy witness reports. But somehow, some folks are still skeptical about it. Not everyone actually believes the entire thing happened, amusingly enough.
In an excellent write-up of the dig, Wired's Chris Kohler reports on what actually happened at the landfill—and while the entire thing is worth a read, it ends on a note about the general reaction to Microsoft's involvement with the dig, as well as "Atari Truthers:"
There was a third group, one I did not expect: Atari truthers. Microsoft, they believed, faked the dig. There's no way the games could have survived so long, some argued. Others said there had to be more games than that in the hole. A few actually claimed the hard hat atop Major Nelson's head had been Photoshopped.
The picture in question, in case you're curious:
You can look at people arguing about whether or not the hardhat belonging to Microsoft's Larry "Major Nelson" Hryb is photoshopped here. It's kind of hilarious.
And naturally, people are commenting about the veracity of the dig, too—click on 'expand' to read the text on these comments:
"50/50 thinking this might be BS," one commenter writes.
"This smells like utter reality TV bullshit," another opines.
Kohler attributes this reaction to a "Law of Conservation of Myths,"—now that one myth has been proven true, another myth replaced it. Makes sense to me!
You can read the entire report here, though it's worth noting that most people do trust that the excavation happened.