The player must fly around in their aircraft, launching missiles at enemy ships. Others argue that the suspicious re-use of code from Space Jockey, absence of advertising, and lacking grammar and punctuation point to it being a Taiwanese hack sold in the States.Īir Raid’s gameplay centers around the player attempting to protect a city by shooting down flying saucers, airplanes, and other kinds of enemies which are trying to bomb said city. Some were later convinced it was indeed a US release from a small LA-based operation. This odd-looking cartridge not only has an unusual T-shape handle and powder blue shade, but it also doesn’t even contain the name of publisher on the game (that’s only to be found on the box).Īir Raid was long considered to be a pirate cartridge from South America because of its unusual case and scanline count. It should be noted, prices vary based on the condition and completeness of the title.Įven though the last decade of Atari 2600 collecting has seen a handful of exciting discoveries and pricing drama, this curious game from Men-A-Vision resulted in the highest-dollar public transaction for the platform and a now-iconic collector’s piece. In stark contrast to the Cheapest Games series, this Rare & Valuable series will round up the rarest and most valuable games for a given console or handheld so you’ll know what to look for whether you are buying or selling. Be sure to study this list and keep it handy as you might encounter one in your collection or in your game hunting routines. In fact, many of the games in this list were discovered in unlikely places and without unusual effort. We have been building out this guide over the last ten years and have recently been talking with some of these elite collectors to refine the ranking of the games and trying to provide the most accurate pricing possible.ĭespite the challenges in tracking down some of the gems contained in this list, it is entirely possible to stumble on treasures yourself by chance. The Atari 2600 pioneered the cartridge-based games console and was by far the most successful video game console until the NES arrived - which we will be looking at in the next article.The Rarest and Most Valuable Atari 2600 Gamesĭue to its vintage and the bizarre state of the video game industry in the late 1970s and early 1980s, the Atari 2600 library boasts some of the most common and affordable cartridges, as well as some of the rarest and most valuable games ever released.īecause of the rarity of certain games, only a few elite collectors are able to even get close to building a complete collection for the iconic Atari console. Overall, more than 27 million Atari 2600 units were sold (the console saw further success from 1985 to the early 90s after the crash as well as the boom years of 1981 to 83) and around 130 million units of software. (of which more than 5 million units were produced) helped push Atari to a loss of $536 million in 1983 and are largely to blame for the video game crash.Ī number of other classic games feature in the top ten - Pitfall, created by David Crane for Activision, was hugely influential and successful in the adventure game genre and classic shooters Asteroids and Space Invaders had their most successful console ports on the Atari. The lacklustre reception and sales of both Pac-Man and E.T. However, despite selling more than 7 million copies, Pac-Man was a very poor port of the arcade game, a massive critical failure and sold far less than the 12 million units that Atari had produced and hoped to sell. When Pac-Man released in March 1982 it quickly became the best-selling game of all time, surpassing Asteroids in the process (which was ahead of Pitfall at the time). The Atari 2600 was an enormous hit with gamers and featured games such as Space Invaders, Missile Command, Breakout and Pitfall. The console was normally bundled with two controllers, a conjoined pair of paddle controllers and a game. The console was originally sold as the Atari VCS (Video Computer System) but after the release of the Atari 5200 in 1982, the VCS was renamed Atari 2600. It is credited with popularizing the use a cartridge-based system (although the Fairchild Channel F was actually the first console to do this) which could play multiple games rather than having games built-in as previous systems had. The Atari 2600 is a video game platform released in September 1977 by Atari. Without further ado, we present the godfather of modern video game consoles and the driving force in the first video game boom (and crash) - the Atari 2600. Welcome to a new feature series on VGChartz where we aim to explore major video game platforms, past and present, and bring you the most successful games on each. By VGChartz Staff, posted on 04 April 2013 / 53,444 Views
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