Atari 2600, 1983
Developer: Steve Stack
Publisher: Inspirational Video Concepts
Genre: Action
Back in the early 80s gaming was still in its wild west phase. Just about anyone could try to make a game and seek their fortune. Atari had created such a boom that many fly by night companies set out to find success in an industry they didn’t understand. The history of Atari is littered with mail order games that are only known about by a couple of print ads, strange foreign games that maybe trickled into the states but maybe didn’t, and at least one that was sold door to door. You don’t know rare if you don’t know Atari. The rarest Atari games make the Nintendo World Championship cart look like Super Mario Bros./Duck Hunt. Red Sea Crossing is such a cart. It is only known about from a single print ad in a religious magazine and two known copies that both sold for over $10,000. Supposedly the designer of the game made 100 carts and then promptly lost track of them. No part of the story makes any sense, especially now that I have actually played the game and can’t see anything amateur about it. How does a game this well made end up being so rare?
In Red Sea Crossing you play as Moses crossing the newly parted Red Sea. The game plays similarly to Pitfall in that the object is to avoid obstacles as you move across the screen. Unlike Pitfall though it is a color extravaganza. It’s hard to think of a 2600 game that is more colorful. It is also one of the most musical 2600 games I have played with a song at the beginning, a brief one when an enemy is jumped over, and a separate one for game over. There’s also a sun that slowly moves across the screen and friendly fish that swim around both above and below your character. That’s a lot going on in one game.
Since this is a religious game Moses doesn’t do any fighting himself. Instead he has to avoid hazards such as giant crabs, clams, cacti, and Egyptian soldiers shooting arrows. Some enemies will take away points while some cost a life. It has a very good pace and the difficulty increases slowly enough to let you learn the game. Every time I played I did a little better, and I always wanted to play again. I was also surprised by how many different types of enemies there were. Honestly I don’t know if I have seen them all, but there must be about a dozen enemies and hazards. That’s surprisingly deep for an Atari game.
Everything about this game screams hoax to me. How did one guy make such a quality game for a tiny religious company and then promptly lose all the copies? Also, the original ad claims that the game came with a coloring book and cassette narrated by western star Dale Evans. They must have invested some money into the project to get her to participate. Also, the game plays somewhat similarly to foreign game Bobby is Going Home which I doubt the programmer would’ve had access to. However, the ad is definitely real. The game looks just like the game in the picture. Also, everyone I trust in the Atari community believes that it is real. It’s just a game that is so strange that its very existence is the strangest part of all.
However all of this speculation has no bearing on my list. All games are welcome homebrews and bootlegs included. As I said already this game is impressive for a one man indie game. It’s not a masterpiece, but it definitely goes above the Baraduke line. I am going to put it just above Walt Disney World Quest because I think I could have fun with Red Sea Crossing longer. It’s actually a pretty good high score game. Of course I don’t have a copy of it so I played it over at atarimania.com. I’m glad that site exists so I can check out all these weird old games.
1. Galaga
2. Pac-Mania
3. Mickey’s Racing Adventure
4. Metro-Cross
5. Gaplus
6. Dragon Spirit
7. Walt Disney World Quest: Magical Racing Tour (GBC)
8. Red Sea Crossing
9. Baraduke
10. The Legend of “Valkyrie”
11. Galaxian
12. Gyruss (2600)
13. Looney Tunes Racing
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