July 7, 2021- 1:10 p.m.
FORT WORTH, Texas- Alex Juarez, an e-commerce item processor at Fort Worth-based Goodwill North Central Texas found a rare copy of “Air Raid,” a game published for the Atari 2600 game system in 1982 by Men-A-Vision.
The game was distributed on a limited scale, and only 13 copies are known to exist, the magazine reported.
“I was just doing my job and pulled a bin out, and it was full of old Atari games,” Juarez said in a video produced by Goodwill. “When I was younger, me and my dad used to watch these ‘Top 10 most expensive video games’ and stuff like that, and this would pop up all the time.”
On June 10, Goodwill North Central Texas placed its copy of the game for auction on shopgoodwill.com/nct and it sold for $10,590.79.
The concept behind “Air Raid” is simple by today’s standards but was an exciting game for the 1980s. The fixed shooter game is noted for its blue, T-shaped cartridge design. Players control an airship and fire at aliens attacking the earth, a game concept similar to “Space Invaders” and “Galaga.”
Because of its scarcity, the game has fetched some big prices. One complete edition sold for $33,433.30 in 2012 and a previous cartridge-only copy sold for $3,575 on eBay in 2011, according to Fort Worth Magazine.
