To be sure, the niche market of religious games has a long history. Even among such a niche market, however, Red Sea Crossing seems more mythic than real. Developed by a single programmer (as many games were in those days) in 1983, Red Sea Crossing is an Atari 2600 cartridge of which a reported 500 copies were ever manufactured– and of which only two copies are known to survive to this day.
The game has you in the role of Moses crossing the floor of the parted Red Sea as you overcome such obstacles as giant clams and wriggling kelp (or maybe they're sea snakes?). Like the later 1991 Bible Adventures for NES, the premise is a little theologically suspect, considering you can lead Moses (and by implication the entire Jewish race) to certain death without sufficient dexterity. But it is, to be certain, a curiosity on a level even Bible Adventures cannot aspire to, given its extreme obscurity. Red Sea Crossing was not marketed in conventional game magazines and instead sold through religious publications and outlets, and after the great crash of 1983 the title fell out of gaming's history books into urban legend– right up until 2007, when a forumer from AtariAge managed to track down the original developer.
Of the two known copies to still exist, one is in the hands of a curiosity shop in Pennsylvania, but the other turned up at action on August 29th. When bidding finally closed yesterday the top bid had soared to $10,400.00 US, making it more valuable than a first edition copy of Where the Wild Things Are but not, sadly, more than a Gutenberg Bible. Sorry, Moses.
Via Gamesniped.
