The Personal Computer Museum, Brantford, Ontario, CANADA

Note: A follow up story has also been written.

It's not too often that "new" Atari 2600 games are discovered. There are many people engaged in creating new games for the system that arguably defined the entire business of video games, but the discovery of something new from the "good ole days" is quite rare. Museum curator and founder Syd Bolton found himself in a state of disbelief when fellow volunteer George Yallop delivered a "contribution" from someone he knew, who had recently visited the museum.

The envelope contained an Atari 2600 cartridge called Extra Terrestrials. Searches of the web didn't reveal any information about the game. It was at this point that Syd realized he may have found a long lost game. This was an important discovery to the muesum and the Atari community as well. The game was produced in Canada. After making some inquiries to the donator the following information was uncovered

The game was developed by Skill Screen Games and manufactured by Telcom Research Ltd. in Burlington, Ontario, Canada.
Extra Terrestrials Cartridge

Credits:

President: Tom Banting
Producer: Peter Banting
Packaging & Artwork: J. Maitland Banting
Game Design & Programming: Herman Quast

The group was hoping to capitalize on the video game market that was booming at the time. They had hoped to get the game out for the 1983 Christmas season, but delays in the programming precluded that and the game missed the Christmas window. After it was finally finished in early 1984, Peter remembers taking the game out to retailers door to door to purchase copies of the game. They had no distributor, and in the end sold only a couple of hundred copies at most. By then, the video game market had collapsed.

Adam White, Herman Quast, and Syd Bolton. Herman Quast designed and programmed Extra Terrestrials for the Atari 2600

A look inside of the Extra Terrestrials (Atari 2600) Cartridge

Extra Terrestrials Box In January 2012, the Personal Computer Museum began shipping a limited reproduction run of the game (dubbed the "Special Edition") which included a numbered cartridge, manual, box, and bonus DVD containing approximately 40 minutes of media footage.

A follow up story has been written, including links to download the ROM file for you to play on your computer.

You can also buy loose cartridge only versions of the game from Good Deal Games, the only licensed manufacturer.

Bob Beechy and a lady from Sarnia Ontario playing Extra Terrestrials while being taped by Rogers TV

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