Xcel Posted April 13, 2010 Share Posted April 13, 2010 First off, lemme say this is obviously my first post here as I'm a new member. No stranger to collecting videogames though, I've been doing it since the late to mid nineties while I worked at a local Funcoland. Although my collection is mostly gone now, and the items I had once thought to be rare have become not-so-rare in this modern age of communication, I am still a collector and classic game enthusiast at heart. So when my friends at gamecasa clued me in on the Air Raid box find, I almost crapped myself and came to take a look. I read all 58 pages, not for the story of some game selling for insane amounts of money, but to learn more about the history of this little known game. That's all it's about for me these days, the history. So on that note, I was happened to breeze past something in the Air Raid Box thread about Red Sea Crossing and Birthday Mania. What is the story behind these two games? I see a picture of Birthday Mania in the rarity list, but I can't even find anything on Red Sea. Whats their story, and how are they connected? Is that the only BM known to exist? I just want to learn more. I have no hopes of ever finding or buying these grails, but I really want to know more. This has definitely resurged my interest in playing old games though. I went on CL and found a working heavy six that came with a NTSC Gashog (R7 or R8, right?), so I'm totally stoked on playing my childhood favorites again! (But who isn't?) Thanks for listening! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
atari_envy Posted April 13, 2010 Share Posted April 13, 2010 Well, if you enjoyed reading the 58 pages (and counting) for Air Raid, you will enjoy 25 pages for Red Sea Crossing. http://www.atariage.com/forums/topic/113497-help-information-on-red-sea-crossing Essentially unconfirmed and could be a hoax. See this follow up thread: http://www.atariage.com/forums/topic/152833-nang2-and-red-sea-crossing Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tempest Posted April 13, 2010 Share Posted April 13, 2010 Other people can give you more details but the basics are: Birthday Mania was sold via magazine advertisements and was promoted as (obviously) a gift for birthdays. My understanding is that the gist of the game involves you (a mouth) blowing out candles in a kaboom style game. Only one copy has turned up so far and I don't think they sold more than a dozen or so. Red Sea Crossing was also apparently sold via magazines and mail order. It's a biblical themed game and the action has been described in detail in the thread you read. Only one copy has been found, but someone spoke to the developer and they apparently said that a few dozen we sold. There's talk about whether this is real or not since the owner won't dump it or show it to anyone. Air Raid was long considered to be a pirate cart from South America because of it's unusual case and scanline count. However it's now been proven (to most people anyway) that it was indeed a US release put out by a very small company in the LA area. There are no estimates on how many were made, but there are far more Air Raid's out there than Birthday Mania or Red Sea Crossing (10-12 or so I think). No box had ever been found before now which is why it went for so much. There's nothing really special about any of these games, they're just really rare because they were made in such small quantities by people basically working out of their garages. This sort of thing was somewhat common back in the day for disk/tape based games, but not so much for cartridge based games because of the higher production costs. Tempest Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Psionic Posted April 13, 2010 Share Posted April 13, 2010 Only one copy of each of these game titles (Birthday Mania and Red Sea Crossing) is known to exist at the moment and the owners of each cartridge refuse to share the game with anyone else (or sell them to someone who will). Both games were developed by private individual programmers and sold via mail order (as opposed to being developed and marketed by an actual video game company). There's not much else to say about either. A third game called Gamma-Attack was developed and sold under similar circumstances, but that game has been released. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rom Hunter Posted April 13, 2010 Share Posted April 13, 2010 http://www.atarimania.com/game-atari-2600-vcs-red-sea-crossing_20276.html http://www.atarimania.com/game-atari-2600-vcs-gamma-attack_20510.html http://www.atarimania.com/game-atari-2600-vcs-birthday-mania_18568.html http://www.atarimania.com/game-unknown-game-2-datatech_s12661.html All four rarer than Air Raid. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Omegamatrix Posted April 13, 2010 Share Posted April 13, 2010 How about Words-Attack? Only one ever found... And in this case I'm saying it's not a proto as it had a production label. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Xcel Posted April 13, 2010 Author Share Posted April 13, 2010 Now this is what I'm talking about! It took me like 5 hours last night to read the Air Raid post. I'm going to have to get back to this Red Sea one. To think that there may still be games out there we don't know exist! Indie games rule. I'll have to read further about to see what the possible hoax may be. Seems legit so far. I also can say I'm about to pack up my things and move to Tulsa, Oklahoma in hopes of finding some Xante carts or the other programmables around at some yard sales or thrift shops (although I'm sure you have members already all over that). I <3 video game history. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Xcel Posted April 13, 2010 Author Share Posted April 13, 2010 (edited) http://www.atarimania.com/game-atari-2600-vcs-red-sea-crossing_20276.html http://www.atarimania.com/game-atari-2600-vcs-gamma-attack_20510.html http://www.atarimania.com/game-atari-2600-vcs-birthday-mania_18568.html http://www.atarimania.com/game-unknown-game-2-datatech_s12661.html All four rarer than Air Raid. Again, not really going for the rarity of a game versus another (but good info none the less). I could honestly care less about Air Raid other than now being able to confirm some of it's history. Amazing find, and I hope we find more little nuggets like this over time. Edited April 13, 2010 by Xcel Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rom Hunter Posted April 13, 2010 Share Posted April 13, 2010 Amazing find, and I hope we find more little nuggets like this over time. Same here. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rom Hunter Posted April 13, 2010 Share Posted April 13, 2010 (edited) How about Words-Attack? Only one ever found... And in this case I'm saying it's not a proto as it had a production label. I'm saying it is a proto. The gameplay makes no sense whatsoever and there's still over 1K of free space left (for the missing word-pool if you ask me). Never ending discussion, this one. Would be interesting to see if the coding is really waterproof or if it somehow contains lines that refer to the missing part. Omega, I think this one would be worth another very close examination. Edited April 13, 2010 by Rom Hunter Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tempest Posted April 13, 2010 Share Posted April 13, 2010 Protos have shown up with production labels before, who knows? My guess is that Sancho grabbed a WIP prototype game and released it without knowing that it wasn't finished. Tempest Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Psionic Posted April 13, 2010 Share Posted April 13, 2010 Protos have shown up with production labels before, who knows? My guess is that Sancho grabbed a WIP prototype game and released it without knowing that it wasn't finished. Indeed. I tend to think this is a proto due to the apparently unfinished state of the game, but with these quasi-pirate things, one never knows. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rom Hunter Posted April 13, 2010 Share Posted April 13, 2010 Protos have shown up with production labels before, who knows? My guess is that Sancho grabbed a WIP prototype game and released it without knowing that it wasn't finished. That's an interesting theory. Still, the Home Vision logo inside was hidden. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CPUWIZ Posted April 13, 2010 Share Posted April 13, 2010 Protos have shown up with production labels before, who knows? My guess is that Sancho grabbed a WIP prototype game and released it without knowing that it wasn't finished. Tempest Best one is Sky Patrol IMHO. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Omegamatrix Posted April 13, 2010 Share Posted April 13, 2010 Omega, I think this one would be worth another very close examination. Yes it would. I think at least both Thomas and Nukey have already looked at it. I've looked at it a little bit too a few years ago, but found nothing new. Maybe in the future I'll take another look. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Xcel Posted April 13, 2010 Author Share Posted April 13, 2010 Other people can give you more details but the basics are: Birthday Mania was sold via magazine advertisements and was promoted as (obviously) a gift for birthdays. Red Sea Crossing was also apparently sold via magazines and mail order. Tempest May I inquire as to what magazines the ad's were posted in? Circa what year? Let's say there was some underground Atari or programmer's magazine or Game enthusiast magazine that they got advertised in and we knew it was in say 1983. With today's internet and archives the way they are, can we not track down these mags, find the ad's, and scan them to the site for some kind of verification? Seems like an awful lot of work I know, but it's just another way to the answer.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gamme Posted April 13, 2010 Share Posted April 13, 2010 Monogrammed Space Chase is another one. I haven't seen the ads for the two games in the title but I've seen the Gammation and Space Chase ads. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Xcel Posted April 13, 2010 Author Share Posted April 13, 2010 Monogrammed Space Chase is another one. I haven't seen the ads for the two games in the title but I've seen the Gammation and Space Chase ads. What is this monogrammed Space Chase that you speak of? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Omegamatrix Posted April 13, 2010 Share Posted April 13, 2010 Aboot halfway done the page, eh? http://www.digitpress.com/library/interviews/interview_ed_salvo.html Also: http://www.digitpress.com/DP/cmf/game.cmf?gameid=23931 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rom Hunter Posted April 13, 2010 Share Posted April 13, 2010 (edited) Protos have shown up with production labels before, who knows? My guess is that Sancho grabbed a WIP prototype game and released it without knowing that it wasn't finished. Tempest Best one is Sky Patrol IMHO. Not a production label, that one. It's Riddle of the Sphinx with some paper glued on it. Spacechase (monogrammed): http://www.atarimania.com/game-atari-2600-vcs-spacechase-monogrammed-edition_18567.html Edited April 13, 2010 by Rom Hunter Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CPUWIZ Posted April 13, 2010 Share Posted April 13, 2010 Fake label. The drugs in your town must be pretty hardcore. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rom Hunter Posted April 13, 2010 Share Posted April 13, 2010 I don't think so, wiz. It's Riddle of the Sphinx with some artwork glued on it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Psionic Posted April 14, 2010 Share Posted April 14, 2010 May I inquire as to what magazines the ad's were posted in? That isn't known. Circa what year? 1983-84 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Despina83 Posted April 14, 2010 Share Posted April 14, 2010 What could nagn2 possibly be thinking? It still makes no sense whatsoever....what exactly is he gaining by keeping this game hidden away in his house? He knew he could get a small fortune for it, but he refused to sell it. Even though the game apparently is horrible and has zero sentimental value to him since it was just something he picked up at a garage sale. He doesn't still post here so he can't even brag about it...it just doesn't make sense. What is he getting out of this? Same thing for the Birthday Mania guy.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ericwierson Posted April 14, 2010 Share Posted April 14, 2010 Is'nt this the same guy under a different name starting up with the Red Sea Crossing crap? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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