It turns out that it was true. After a ton of rumors and speculation, the landfill that supposedly contained a crap ton of these cartridges was excavated and long an behold the rumors were true...

https://uk.ign.com/articles/2014/04/2...-mexico-desert
https://kotaku.com/e-t-found-in-new-m...ium=Socialflow

I'm honestly quite amazed that this is a true story, I've heard it countless times before and just passed it off as a rumor.