Call it Pepsi Invaders. Call it Coke Wins. Call it Coke Invaders. No matter what you call it, the modded version of Space Invaders commissioned by the Coca-Cola Company is one of the rarest Atari 2600 games out there. The story goes that 125 games were produced, packed in a plain white sleeve with an "Atari goes better with Coke" sticker affixed.

The cartridges, along with new in box Atari 2600 systems, were handed out to Coca-Cola sales representatives to boost morale and get excited about outselling the competition. It is believed that most of the games were simply discarded. Just imagine, instead of shooting at the original alien invaders, shooting at the name of the rival cola company. 

It's a wonder why they didn't hang onto these! I imagine that most of the sales representatives gave the systems to their kids. The gameplay of Pepsi Invaders is identical to its base game. However, this modified version gives the player unlimited lives and a three minute timer to complete as many levels as possible. The phrase "Coke wins" appears at the top of the screen when time expires.

So, of the original 125 copies produced, it is believed that only about 30 are still in existence. Sure, there may be more out there yet to surface. The only way of finding this extremely rare Atari 2600 cartridge is to test out every game you come across without a label. There are many reproductions available, with fan-made labels to boot, but what collectors are after is the original. Here is a view of the board:

And a video offering some insight on how to verify authenticity:

I very much enjoy hearing the stories of how people find rare games. In the case of Pepsi Invaders, here is the tale shared by Reddit user GlitchCatSteven on how he discovered one:

It had been a normal day like any other. I'd stopped by my local game shop to see what was new and browse around. Earlier in the week, somebody had traded in a big box of Atari 2600 games from their attic or basement or whatever. Looking through them, I found some pretty decent titles and so I thought I'd take a gamble and pick up all the cartridges with no labels. Paid five bucks for a stack of 6 or 7 games. When I got home to test them, most were just Pac Mans and Haunted Houses....but this one was an authentic Pepsi Invaders! Only [125] of these cartridges were ever produced by Atari upon special order from Coke to give to their executives at a trade meeting, or so the story goes. All things being equal, it's one of the rarest video games there is, it's like finding an NWC cartridge for NES. I'm making this post to show off this remarkable find, to give folks some basis of comparison against repros for this incredibly rare cartridge, and to remind you that these impossible scores ARE still out there! Have hope and stay persistent...you never know what's in that dusty old box of games!

Games like this are highly sought after for their rarity. If you're lucky, about once a year this game pops up on eBay. So just how much are collectors paying for one? Between $1000 and $2000. As you can see from this list of recent eBay sales, it's not very often that Pepsi Invaders even comes up for sale. 

The speculation is that the best chances to find one of these rare cartridges could be in the Atlanta-metro area, where Coca-Cola headquarters are located. It's unclear just how many are in the hands of private collectors, and just how many are completely lost forever. There may be more yet to resurface; the truth is you just never know!