You’re loooking at Air Raid – a cartridge for the Atari 2600 that until now was thought by most to not exist – those that do believe generally agree that there are maybe 12 or 13 copies in existence.
Texas native Tanner Sandlin is now selling his copy on eBay. Yeah, this is one of those stories.
Now, I’ve heard of Air Raid before, and I can personally confirm the mystery surrounding it is nothing if not head-scratching. With no label on the cartridge, a bizarre shape (think one of those cartoon explosion-handle-box-doodads) and absolutely no record of the manufacturer – not to mention no record that the game is even called Air Raid, Air Raid was previously thought to be a bunch of bull.
After reading an article on CNN regarding rare videogames, Sandlin came to realize he owned the cartridge, and had something to not only ensure the collection of his weight in gold coins, but also to prove to the world Air Raid is for real-real. Sandlin had the original box.
“Once I found the box, I knew that I was playing in a whole different league,” Sandlin told Betanews.
After having it verified as genuine, Sandlin threw it up onto eBay.
…On April Fool’s Day. Which led to some very cautious bidding at first. But the current bid is $11,200 and rising. I don’t know about you, but that’s just too much scratch for 640kb of fun, but if you’d like to place a bid yourself, be my guest.
“It is a very bad game which is probably a contributing factor of why I still have it,” says Sandlin.
Dear forthcoming auction winner: you’d better have the time of your goddam life with Air Raid.
[Via Betanews]
