10 Lost Video Games That Were Discovered Years Later
4. Akka Arrh
There are a great many arcade classics lost to time and plenty of urban legends around them. Akka Arrh is one game that was unobtainable for a long time - for both fans, and the company who paid to create it.
In early 1982, development on Atari's space-shooter Akka Arrh wrapped and a cabinet was sent to an arcade in Florida to see how it tested with consumers. Unfortunately, it was also sent alongside Robotron: 2084 which smoked its contemporary, causing Akka Arrh to make next to no money. As such, the game was cancelled and full production was never pursued. Only three cabinets were ever made and the private owners of the Akka Arrh cabs never uploaded the ROM to the internet - denying most of the public the chance to ever play it.
However, in 2019, the game was dumped anonymously on an arcade forum. Allegedly, the ROM had been stolen by a tech who had visited the home of one of the private collectors. This is pretty grim if true. However, now that the ROM had been released, those who had spent decades wondering about it could see it for themselves. Additionally Atari, who had no back-up of the game, also finally had access to it.
As such, it appears as part of the celebratory collection, Atari 50 - finally at home amongst its peers.