28.11.2026

Slopfest #57 · 1983 · Vienna

Bury It in the Desert

Unsold game cartridges were buried in a New Mexico landfill. We had the same problem, and a meadow.

Painted board-game box lid: 99 balloons over a meadow, 'SLOPFEST #57: THE BOARD GAME', a yellow sticker reading 'NO RULES INCLUDED'
Painted board-game box lid: 99 balloons over a meadow, 'SLOPFEST #57: THE BOARD GAME', a yellow sticker reading 'NO RULES INCLUDED'

Museum status: Awaiting restoration by an AI that keeps adding fingers.

Venue
Prater, the Jesuitenwiese
Attendance
4,550
Also spotted
Nena's '99 Luftballons' on repeat, and exactly 99 balloons, which nobody thought was a coincidence
Fun fact
8,000 games, 0 rules, 1 exhumation

What happened

The committee overproduced its commemorative board game by 8,000 copies, then discovered it had no rules. The surplus was ceremonially buried under the Jesuitenwiese at midnight, with a brass band. In 2014 a documentary crew asked to dig it up. The committee sensed an anniversary, said yes, and sold the copies again.

“Nobody knows anything.”

— William Goldman, Adventures in the Screen Trade

Elsewhere in 1983

Atari buries unsold video game cartridges, including many copies of its E.T. game, in a landfill in Alamogordo, New Mexico.

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