Red Sea Crossing (video game)
Red Sea Crossing is a Christian side-scrolling video game for the Atari 2600. Released for mail order only in 1983, its existence went unrecorded until it was discovered at a garage sale in 2007. Only four copies have been found as of 2018, making it one of the rarest published video games.
One of the [List of Christian video game|Christian video games|earliest Christian video games], Red Sea Crossing is the first published console game based on an event described in the Bible. It was created and published by an independent programmer without any involvement from Atari, Inc.
Gameplay
Moses parts the Red Sea and the player directs him between the parted waters. Moses must avoid obstacles such as seaweed and giant clams, as well as the pursuing Egyptians, by precisely timing his movements and jumping.A fish swimming in the water behind Moses serves as a time limit – he must reach the end of the screen before the fish. Bonus points are awarded for collecting stone tablets or catching doves, and a staff item awards an extra life.
The game is not known to have an ending, but the developer has claimed that it is winnable. When the player runs out of lives, the Red Sea closes up.
Development
In 1983, Red Sea Crossing was developed independently by the self-taught programmer Steve Schustack. He developed the game in California using a Franklin ACE computer. He decided to make a Christian video game believing that it could be a marketable niche, but also notes that he enjoys making software for children:Schustack had between 100 and 500 copies of Red Sea Crossing manufactured. He self-published the game and sold it exclusively through a single magazine advertisement by Michael Nason. Instead of a manual, the game shipped with a coloring book and an "explanatory" audio cassette tape, apparently recorded by Dale Evans Rogers. The publisher was named "Inspirational Video Concepts".
Rediscovery
A copy was found at a Cincinnati rummage sale in 2007, and the discovery of the unattested game proved controversial. Users of the AtariAge forum identified Schustack as the developer and contacted him; he recalled advertising the game in an unspecified religious magazine. In 2011, an advertisement for Red Sea Crossing was found in a 1983 issue of Christianity Today, finally verifying the game.Calls for the finder, who was not a video game collector, to sell the game increased after another alleged found copy was discovered to be a hoax. The finder scheduled an auction in 2012. Days before the auction was to occur, a genuine second copy of Red Sea Crossing was discovered by a Philadelphia thrift store owner. The auction was carried out after a deferment, and the game sold for $10,400. The second copy was also auctioned in 2012, for $13,877.
One of the buyers used the game cartridge to create reproduction copies for collectors and the ROM image is now readily available online. The coloring book and cassette tape originally packaged with Red Sea Crossing have not resurfaced and may be lost.
Two additional original copies of Red Sea Crossing were found by 2018, bringing the total to four. One of the cartridges, with a missing end label, was sold for a lower price than was seen in the 2012 auctions.