'Super Mario' Nintendo Cartridge Auctions for Record $1.5 Million

A cartridge of Nintendo’s classic video game “Super Mario 64” set a world record Sunday, selling at auction for $1.56 million (roughly Rs. 11.6 crores).  

The sale, the first-ever of a game cartridge to surpass $1 million (roughly Rs. 7.4 crores), came just two days after a sealed copy of The Legend of Zelda – made for the old Nintendo NES console – sold for a then-record of $870,000 (roughly Rs. 6.4 crores). The cartridge, dated to 1987, was still in its original packaging. 

Blending adventure, action, and exploration in a magical universe, Zelda is one of the most significant titles in the history of video games and one of Nintendo’s best-known series. 

The game was the “masterpiece” in a sale of 443 lots that runs until Sunday, Eric Bradley, a spokesperson for the Dallas-based company, told AFP. 

Dallas-based Heritage Auctions, which handled both sales, has not identified the buyers. Before Friday, the record for a video game auction was the sale in April of a 1986 Super Mario Bros. cartridge: it went for $660,000 (roughly Rs. 4.9 crores).  

Retro video games have become increasingly popular among nostalgic collectors in recent years, driving up prices for old-school consoles and cartridges at auctions. 

The past year has seen record prices not only for video games but also for Pokemon cards and for the digital collectibles known as NFTs (Non-Fungible Tokens).