A very, very rare and equally expensive Atari 2600 game is currently up for sale on eBay. It’s called “Extra Terrestrials,” and if you’re a collector of rare retro games, it can be yours for just $90,000. The seller on eBay has it listed at that price along with the option for potential buyers to make an offer. It’s listed as being in an “acceptable” condition which means that would could in theory pop this into their console and play it, but considering how expensive it is, that’ll likely never happen, assuming someone buys it.
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Not to be confused with E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, a game which was released for the same console, Extra Terrestrials was made in 1984 but was described as a “long lost video game” by the seller who offered more information in their listing. It’s the real deal, the seller says, before going into the specifics of the game with background info that cites interviews with its creator and other sources. The video above was added to the listing to help bolster the legitimacy of the claims made.
Programmer Herman Quast is credited with the creation of the game which hoped to capitalize on the success of Steven Spielberg’s E.T., though the timing of Extra Terrestrials was poor given the state of the video game market at the time.
“The team was in the development of finalizing the game targeting the Christmas market of 1983, however, production was delayed due to technical issues and the team lost the opportunity to make sales for Christmas,” the seller’s description on eBay said. “After finally finishing the game in 1984, the video game crash hit in which consumers weren’t interested in home gaming systems since they had expensive price tags and didn’t resemble the arcade experience. During this period, video games plummeted in price and big-name distributors were liquidating games by the hundreds just to get rid of inventory. With this bad timing, Herman and his team believed that there was no point in continuing production, consequently, they immediately stopped development in order to prevent further financial loss.”
Though it is indeed a rare game, the $90,000 price tag will likely deter even the most hardcore of collectors. The seller said they purchased the game for “a premium price,” though that price wasn’t shared. The seller said they’d opened it up for others on eBay to give someone else a “truly unique piece of gaming history.” This seller also has a 100% positive feedback rating on eBay, in case someone was concerned about this being a scam or publicity stunt.
The game is expected to be delivered to whoever buys it within the first few weeks of August, so we’ll have to see if someone wants it badly enough to pay one of these premium prices themselves.
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