How to play Red Sea Crossing online
- Walk left or right: left and right arrow keys
- Jump: Space (you can steer in mid-air)
- Start a new game: F12 (Reset). No other switches are used.
Gameplay
Each screen is a stretch of sea bed between two walls of water. A fish swimming in the wall at the top is your timer: it turns red when about ten seconds are left, and if it reaches the far side you lose a life. You start with three, shown as the last digits of the score counter.
Sea monsters, octopuses, serpents, spears and arrows from Pharaoh’s soldiers all cost a life. Giant clams block the way and must be jumped. Seaweed and locust swarms slow Moses down and drain a point per second of contact. Doves and stone tablets give 10 points; a staff gives 10 points and an extra life. Later screens combine several hazards.
Tips
- Watch first. Every screen can be crossed without a hit; study the hazards, but mind the fish.
- Stay low for spears, jump arrows. Spears are thrown over Moses’ head; arrows have to be leapt.
- Never skip a staff. It is the one item known to give an extra life.
The story behind Red Sea Crossing
Schustack wrote the game in California on a Franklin ACE computer, believing a Christian game could find a niche market. He advertised it once, in a 1983 issue of Christianity Today. The cartridge came with a colouring book and an Exodus audio cassette recorded by Dale Evans Rogers, but no manual. Sales were poor and he made no more Atari games. Estimates of how many copies were made range from 100 to 500.
Nobody knew the game existed until a copy turned up at a Cincinnati rummage sale in 2007. Its authenticity was doubted until the advert turned up in 2011. In 2012 that copy sold at auction for $10,400, and a second, found in a Philadelphia thrift shop, fetched $13,877. By 2018 four cartridges were known; the colouring book and cassette have never resurfaced. Schustack says the game can be finished, but it has 128 screens and then starts again from screen 2.
Similar games to play next
- Pitfall! – jump over hazards screen by screen against a timer
- Bobby Is Going Home – a gentle walk-and-jump game
- Jungle Hunt – more timed jumping, including a stretch underwater