It's the stuff of videogame industry legend, a myth perpetuated throughout the ages, a warning to game designers everywhere - the story of the little grey man buried in a landfill in New Mexico. Before readers of a particularly nervous disposition decide they'd be safer reading this article from behind the sofa, we guarantee that, while this story does tell of terrible deeds done in days gone by, it's definitely not the kind of horror story you are probably expecting.

Atari's 2600 home console, encased in a stylish wood veneer

After being purchased by Warner Brothers for an estimated $30 million, and riding high on a wave of mainstream success in the late 1970s and early 1980s, it seemed that Atari could no wrong. Yet the releases of two big-name games were to lay the seeds for the destruction of the Atari empire.

Pac Man's lesser known career as a Playboy Bunny was somewhat short lived

The story begins with the port of arcade hit Pac Man to the Atari 2600. With terrible sound and flickering graphics, only around seven million of the twelve million cartridges produced were sold. After the commercial failure of the greedy pill popping yellow guy, Atari's next release had to be a hit. It looked like they were onto a winner when a deal with Spielberg earned Atari the rights to produce a videogame version of hit family sci-fi movie E.T.