A rare console game called Nintendo World Championships that contained short versions of Super Mario, Tetris and Rad Racer, but that never went on general release, has been put up for auction on eBay and is set to sell for thousands of dollars.
Described as in ‘Acceptable’ condition (by eBay’s definition – functional but with signs of wear, which is an understatement in this case), the cartridge designed for the NES console has lost its original label and has had the word Mario scrawled on it. However, this is no normal game – only 116 copies (90 of which were grey and 26 that were gold) were made and they were never put on sale. Instead, they were handed out to semi-finalists of the Nintendo World Championships.
Bidding currently stands at around $5,500 with one day and 11 hours left to run. So, if you’ve happen to have a genuine copy of the game sitting in your loft – or better (and rarer) still, one of the 26 gold versions of the game given away in a competition run by Nintendo Power magazine, then you should probably go and look for it about now. Naturally, if you’re considering bidding on the item you should exercise some caution, as we’ve no way of verifying its authenticity, but the seller maintains it’s genuine and there are sections of the original label that are still visible, such as the corners of the triangle.
Update: The auction has now ended and the game sold for a whopping $99,902. Did we mention you should start scouring your loft for copies yet?
➤ Via ‘Super-rare’ Nintendo game hits eBay [BBC]
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