With the advent of the Internet, it has become significantly easier to preserve video games. However, some people still do the good work of actually preserving the cartridges on which the games were manufactured.
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The Atari 2600, one of the first cartridge-based gaming consoles and really the first massively successful piece of video game hardware to ever release, has a massive library of titles with some impressively valuable cartridges. The ten rare games listed below are coveted by collectors everywhere. Most of them are quite valuable, while a couple are desired simply because of their place in gaming history.
Updated On May 23, 2021, By Jason Wojnar: History is set in stone and there is only a limited amount of it to uncover. Still, there always seem to be new oddities from the past popping up from the darkest corners of antique stores, garage sales, and Internet auctions. With this considered, we decided to revisit this list and add a few more rare Atari games hard for collectors to come by.
13 Xante Rewritable Cartridges (1982-1983)
- Valued between $200 and $1000 depending on the game
Believe it or not, some companies did not sell many games over many different cartridges. The Xante cartridges allowed consumers to continuously rewrite new games onto the format. They coul play new experiences without having to clutter up their home with numerous games.
If players thought a PS5 hard drive was too little space, think about this cartridge only holding one Atari 2600 game. Six games came out in total for this format, all of which are difficult to come by.
12 Mangia (1983)
- $700 for a used copy
- $1500 for a copy in the box
Mangia means "eat" in Italian, and serves as a just description of the game's mechanics. Players are forced to eat plate after plate of spaghetti until their stomach explodes. To prevent this game over, players must feed some food to their dog or cat without their mother looking.
The graphics are surprisingly good for an Atari 2600 game. It's hard to tell if the game's rarity and desirability among collectors is because of the weird concept, or in spite of it.
11 River Patrol (1984)
- $500 for a copy approximately
- Port of an arcade game
River Patrol came out in the arcades and several other platforms, but that does not stop the Atari 2600 version from being extremely valuable. Players have to save NPCs on a river while avoiding hazards along the way.
The arcade version came out in 1981, but the port for the Atari 2600 was released in 1984, the same year as the infamous video game crash. The poor sales due to the crash is seen as a major reason for its rarity.
10 Air Raid (1982)
- In 2012, a copy sold for $33,433.40
- The cartridge alone has sold for $3,575
This simple shoot 'em up is worth well over 30 thousand dollars with the complete package. This is partly due to the curious T-shape design of the cartridge. Even in an incomplete state, just the cartridge itself has been known to sell for about three thousand dollars.
Less than five transactions of this game have taken place, making it the veritable holy grail for collectors looking for truly valuable Atari 2600 games.
9 Red Sea Crossing (1983)
- Sold for $10,400
- Only rediscovered in 2007
The story behind this game is as mysterious and magical as the biblical event that inspired it. The game, which depicts Moses parting and traversing the Red Sea after leaving Egypt, was made by Steve Slack at Inspirational Video Concepts. Only one hundred copies were made, and they all disappeared without a trace.
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Only within the past ten years have copies popped up, often selling for exorbitant sums. The real kicker is the coloring book that accompanies the game. If the two were sold together, the value would be exponentially higher.
8 Extra Terrestrials (1983)
- Sold for $16,000
- Only Canadian-developed Atari 2600 game
Do not confuse this one for the infamous video game adaptation of E.T. for the same console. This game was made by a small family who wanted to take advantage of the video game craze, but came in just a little too late. Production was finished by the programmer after the market had crashed as a result of the aforementioned adaptation.
To try and salvage their money, the game was reportedly sold door to door locally, with only one hundred copies produced. This game and its rarity did not come to light again until 2011, and now it is worth 80 thousand dollars. However, the most expensive copy bought went for sixteen thousand.
7 Birthday Mania (1984)
- Never publicly sold, but said to be worth $6500
- Not a video game in the traditional sense
The idea of Birthday Mania involved people sending money to the company and receiving a personalized copy of it for either themselves or the birthday person. Their name would be written inside the game congratulating the person on their special day.
Needless to say, the idea was not super successful, or else the cartridges would not be so valuable considering their rarity today.
6 Gamma-Attack (1983)
- Exact value is unknown due to the private auctions
- Only one copy is known to exist
Gamma Attack beats out all the others on this list in terms of rarity. Reportedly, only a single copy exists, and its whereabouts are well documented. One collector has it, and will not part with it for anything less than half a million dollars.
One wonders if any collector other is bold enough to take the offer. No other modern video game even comes close to such value, unless someone really goes overboard with microtransactions.
5 Superman (1979)
- Worth more than $10,000
- Several different editions exist of this game, only the copies with yellow letters are particularly valuable
The Man of Steel has not had the best luck in the video game space. His first entry into the medium fared better than most follow-ups, however, and is important for being both one of the first licensed games and one of the first action-adventure games to utilize numerous screens, even predating Adventure. While not every edition of the title is worth something, certain editions can fetch up to ten thousand dollars.
4 Karate (1982)
- Worth $2,000
- Considered one of the worst games for the console
Back in 1982, games were so novel one could release with a title as generic as Karate. By all accounts, this fighting game is not particularly great. However, it was released by two different publishers, Ultravision and Froggo.
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The copies from Ultravision are particularly valuable finds. Considering the game is not of high quality, surely most would not mind parting with it for that a nice chunk of change.
3 Gauntlet (1983)
- Worth between $3,000 and $5,000
- Released as a mail-order product
Not to be confused with the popular arcade game, Gauntlet is a western where players go through a series of trials as a cowboy. Instead of buying the title at a store like most, players had to buy and wait for it in the mail.
This mail-order style perhaps lends to its value, which goes between three and five thousand dollars. Coincidentally, Atari would go on to make the unrelated arcade game, which was far too powerful to ever work on the 2600.
2 Pepsi Invaders (1983)
- Worth $800
- 125 copies were distributed
People complain about ads in sports games all the time. Back in the Atari 2600's day, entire games were essentially interactive ads — like Pepsi Invaders, a clone of Space Invaders made by the Coca-Cola company.
In this title, players destroy ships that spell out the word of their main competitor, Pepsi. Only about 125 copies were made and given out for free during conventions.
1 E.T. (1982)
- Sold for $100,000
- Nine hundred copies were buried in the desert
Much has been written about E.T. on the Atari 2600, mainly about its quality (or lack thereof). Still, gamers should not think any less of programmer Howard Scott Warshaw, who developed the game.
When the mythical buried copies were finally unearthed in 2014, nine hundred of them were found. When brought to auction, they sold for over 100 thousand dollars. Few great games will ever be worth that much, so it is not a bad legacy for E.T. after all.