Auctioned Atari game may be rarer than Stadium Events

With all the attention over boxed copies of the NES game Stadium Events, this eBay auction for a boxed copy of the Atari 2600 game Air Raid seems even more noteworthy than it might otherwise ... not that it needs any help. Already considered one of the hardest-to-find 2600 games, a boxed copy of the game has never been found. Until now.

AtariAge forum member Tanner claims to be the original owner of this copy of Air Raid, even offering specifics of the location and date of its purchase. For the last couple of decades, it's been quietly hanging out in his garage, being awesome. After reading an article on CNN, he realized what he had and put the cartridge on eBay; later, when he found the box, he cancelled the original auction and relisted it. It's currently going for $6,500.

Even if you don't plan to bid on Air Raid, you should really look through the auction images. The box, with the rainbow logo of its publisher "Men-A-Vision" and its thrilling back-of-the-box text, is entirely worth seeing. "Can you save Manhattan from your loan command post?"

[Via GameSetWatch]

Reader Comments (27)

I really don't understand how these people can shell out $7,000 for something like this.

It's rare. It's like finding one of the Nintendo World Championship cartridges. Only so many of them were made. You get one, that's $50,000.

It doesn't look $6,500 fun... maybe more like $2,100 fun.

I like the case design.

Because you really need that extra grip.

Some wicked price!

Wait, "Men-A-Vision"? Really?

I'm just waiting for that one company that made a bunch of atari games but only released 1 copy (to themselves) only to resell it in the 2010's for big money...

Better than "Men-A-Pause"

I heard Men-A-Pause is releasing a new game on the iPad.

Yeah, with a rainbow even.

I'll take shelter in my recently-dug borrow while you attack them from your loan command post. Should be interesting.

If we win, you'd be exiled off of earth for being an enemy of the planet... if we lose, I'll sell out your location for slave perks.

I think your post needs more appreciation.

That Stadium Events auction has stirred up some fun stuff. People on eBay are trying (and sometimes succeeding) to sell the not-so-rare PAL version of Stadium Events for a grand or more now. And then there's the Purple Gannon Incident...

I have a copy of Atlantis Ii I've had since it was sent to me as part if a contest for Atlantis high scorers. I keep seeing lists that say there are only three copies. I wonder if that includes mine.

Man if only I was born in that time that I would have so many of those old games and make some nice money.

Actually, you might not necessarily.

Some of the rarer games were limited, like mail-aways only, or by joining special clubs. Purina made one to promote themselves called "Chase the Chuckwagon", which is very rare, and could only be had by mailing off for it.

Not every game you see from that age is worth money today.

There's rare and then there's obscure. I've NEVER heard of this title nor the company that produced it. Just before the Video Game crash, there were a number of companies that were producing titles that didn't go through Atari, I suspect this is one of them.

The reason for the crash is that the market was flooded with poor quality games that were sold inexpensively.

I don't think that necessarily makes this title valuable.

Not to mention there's been a number of homebrew titles that have appeared over the years. I'm not sure how you validate the title. The box for sure doesn't appear to have any real Atari signage other than it mentions Atari.

Unlike the rare Nintendo game that recently sold for a lot, this game probably wasn't official, from a known company, then removed from market.

Lastly, this game supposedly came out in 1984, which would have been AFTER the crash. You couldn't give away the 2600 by 1983 and you nobody was really buying games by that point. People had moved on.

I'm thinking this one is worthless... but to each his own.

But this game is known to be exceptionally rare. It's like a misprinted coin - not really worth very much, but incredibly valuable because of it's so uncommon. The fact that this company only made one game, that sold approximately zero copies, makes any one instance quite special.

There weren't "official" Atari games, like official Nintendo games, unless Atari made them. You just made your game for the thing and sold it.

"I'm thinking this one is worthless... but to each his own."

The worth of a game to collectors has nothing to do with whether the game is a) good or b) officially sanctioned by the platform originator. It just comes down to rarity. Look up an NES game named "Cheetahmen II." It's an awful sequel to an awful game and was not even really released. Yet, its value in the collectors' market is very high. The point of participating in the market is to increase the percentage of completion in your collection of all games created for X system, and thus rare items, even rare crap, are highly desirable.

Also, I point out that AtariAge, pretty much the final word in the Atari retro community, seems to have already decided that the game is not worthless.

Yeah, I'm aware of the page on AtariAge about this, but I still say this is an obscure bargin bin game that probably wasn't marketed from an obscure company. It could fetch a lot, but it really shouldn't. There were other obscure companies that released obscure games. It's not like Men-a-vision was the only one. And a good number of games released in 83-84 for the 2600 were just plain poor in quality and basically shovelware. I think I'd be more on board if it were a rare game from Atari, Activision, or Imagic -or- if it was a well known game that released in low quantities.

Anyway to each their own. I'm sure there is probably a buyer for this, but I personally wouldn't treat it like gold.

I find it incredibly ironic that Atari probably doesn't have the money to buy this cart, should they wish to hold a piece of their own history . . .

Well, it's not really their own history, since the current holder of the Atari name (the company formerly known as Infogrames) is not related to either the original arcade or home divisions of Atari. It just bought the name and IP; all the old company assets are otherwise gone now. And besides, Atari didn't make this particular game, so it really isn't their own history.

Lucky guy, the most rare games that I have (Limited Edition MGS3:Subsistence & Harvest Moon SNES) are only worth around $100.

Hello April Fools!

Bid is up to 12.5 k now. Wow. Just wow.

Auctioned Atari game may be rarer than Stadium Events

Reader Comments (27)

Posted: Apr 2nd 2010 6:01PM Xiegfried said

Posted: Apr 2nd 2010 6:04PM Drakkenfyre said

Posted: Apr 2nd 2010 6:06PM Morisato13 said

Posted: Apr 2nd 2010 6:04PM SmokemeaKipper said

Posted: Apr 2nd 2010 10:30PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Apr 2nd 2010 6:08PM DarknessGoth said

Posted: Apr 2nd 2010 6:08PM Liekos said

Posted: Apr 2nd 2010 6:14PM Morisato13 said

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Posted: Apr 2nd 2010 11:26PM logicmeme said

Posted: Apr 3rd 2010 11:57PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Apr 2nd 2010 6:16PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Apr 2nd 2010 6:21PM Morisato13 said

Posted: Apr 2nd 2010 7:46PM LaudableNinja said

Posted: Apr 2nd 2010 6:48PM Levi said

Posted: Apr 2nd 2010 7:08PM Devilstower said

Posted: Apr 2nd 2010 8:59PM Caroso said

Posted: Apr 2nd 2010 9:17PM Drakkenfyre said

Posted: Apr 2nd 2010 11:25PM Starcade said

Posted: Apr 3rd 2010 1:21AM MasterYogurt said

Posted: Apr 3rd 2010 3:26AM killdash9 said

Posted: Apr 3rd 2010 5:36PM Starcade said

Posted: Apr 3rd 2010 2:08AM JCDoe said

Posted: Apr 3rd 2010 3:14AM killdash9 said

Posted: Apr 3rd 2010 6:39AM (Unverified) said

Posted: Apr 3rd 2010 12:20PM Big George said

Posted: Apr 5th 2010 3:23PM iceveiled said

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