A video game considered by many to be the rarest in history, whose existence was barely known, has recently been preserved and made accessible to the public. This is “TRIPITAKA 玄奘三蔵求法の旅” a PC title that for years was a true legend among enthusiasts and video game historians.
Meanwhile, another game has long held the title of absolute rarity, but for different reasons: “Gamma Attack” for the Atari 2600, of which only one original physical copy is known to exist in the world.
Link to Download (Cosmology of Kyoto)
Link to Download (Gamma Attack)
The Return of “TRIPITAKA”: From Legend to Digital Reality
“TRIPITAKA 玄奘三蔵求法の旅” is a Japanese adventure game for PC, the sequel to the more well-known “Cosmology of Kyoto.” Developed by Soft Edge and published in 1999, the title was shrouded in mystery, so much so that for a long time, its actual release was doubted. Its rarity was that no copies, images, or gameplay videos could be found.
Thanks to the efforts of academic and video game researcher Bruno de Figueiredo. After years of research, he managed to locate the only known copy of the game, sold at an online auction in Japan. Subsequently, he convinced the owner to share the disc’s content, thus allowing for its digital preservation. Now, the disc image of “TRIPITAKA” has been made available on the Internet Archive, allowing anyone to discover and play it, saving it from oblivion.
“Gamma Attack”: The Holy Grail of Collecting
While “TRIPITAKA” was a digital mystery, “Gamma Attack” represents an icon of physical rarity. Produced by Gammation for the Atari 2600 in 1983, this shooter is considered by many to be the absolute rarest video game because it is believed that only one original cartridge exists in the world.
This unique copy belongs to the American collector Anthony DeNardo. Its extreme rarity is due to the fact that the development studio, Gammation, was very short-lived and produced only a small number of copies, perhaps intended for a distribution that never happened on a large scale. Over the years, DeNardo has listed his copy for sale for astronomical sums, but without ever finding a buyer, further consolidating the game’s legendary status. Unlike “TRIPITAKA,” “Gamma Attack” has not been “preserved” in the sense of being made publicly accessible, but its uniqueness makes it an object of inestimable value for the world of video game collecting.
Ultimately, the answer to which is the rarest video game in history depends on the perspective: “TRIPITAKA” was so for its almost total digital unavailability, a problem now solved thanks to its preservation. “Gamma Attack,” on the other hand, remains the emblem of physical rarity, a unique object of its kind, jealously guarded.
