But is Extra Terrestrials the rarest video game cartridge? :thinking emoji:
It seems like “rarest video game ever” is a fungible label, or at least one for which there is no consensus. But there is no dispute that very few copies of Extra Terrestrials (a knockoff, not that game), a 1983 game for the Atari 2600, made it into the wild, and that 36 years later, one of them is for sale. Whether it’s worth $90,000 is another question altogether.
Previously, listings for acknowledged rarities like Stadium Events have caught our attention, as much for their price as for their ties to video gaming history. Stadium Events contained the predecessor of the Power Pad, before Nintendo bought its maker and pulled the product from shelves. Other claimants to rarest-game honors include Air Raid, previously billed as the rarest Atari 2600 game ever.
Extra Terrestrials is much more obscure, so much so that asking that much for something that was really just a self-published work may sound unreasonable. But what it does have going for it is its manufacture date: 1984, making it one of the last Atari 2600 games made after the video game crash of 1983.
Not only was Extra Terrestrials cribbing off the supposed popularity of the game blamed for that crash, it was indicative of the even larger problem facing console video gaming at the time: A total glut of cartridges with the majority of sales going to very few games, and an ocean of schlock, advergames, and garage-business programming drowning out the rest.
Extra Terrestrials was made by Skill Screen Games of Burlington, Ontario, and appears to be a family affair, judging by the credits. The Personal Computer Museum of Brantford, Ontario (thanks, Gamebyte) has a copy, and in this video tells you more than you’d ever need to know about this novelty.
eBay seller gamewizard69 says they are “the only confirmed private owner of this game right now” (with the PC Museum being the only other one with a copy). The listing is for the cartridge only (no box, manual or other materials) and it is listed in “acceptable condition.” It arrives in a specially-made Lucite case for the winning bidder to display.
In a way, sticking a $90,000 price tag on the game is emblematic of its wild west origins — the only thing really verifying that this is the rarest video game, or that it’s worth this much, is the opinion of the seller themselves. And anyone hoping to buy it, of course.
Source: Polygon
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