Super Mario Bros. copy from 1986 auctioned for $660,000
What's the story
A mint condition copy of Super Mario Bros. was auctioned for a whopping $660,000 (around Rs. 4.9 crore). The unopened cartridge was sold by Dallas-based Heritage Auctions, which had previously sold another copy of the same game last year. The pristine copy was bought in 1986, shortly after the game's late 1985 release in North America, and forgotten in a desk drawer with the original packaging intact.
Mint condition
Same auction house had sold another copy for $114,000
A previous unopened copy of the game was sold by the same auction house for $114,000, but it was from 1987, making the current copy the oldest one to be auctioned in mint condition. Video game copies that have their original packaging intact fetch much higher prices. This one being a forgotten Christmas gift even had its hang tab and shrink wrapping intact.
Quote
Heritage Auctions' video game expert explains rarity of the copy
"Since the production window for this copy and others like it was so short, finding another copy from this same production run in similar condition would be akin to looking for a single drop of water in an ocean," said Valarie McLeckie from Heritage Auctions.
Ahead of its time
Super Mario Bros. is considered gold standard of videogame development
For the unversed, Super Mario Bros. was the seminal successor to 1983's Mario Bros. and stretched the technological limits of the Nintendo Entertainment System with its dynamic side-scrolling graphics. Its iconic art style, nuanced controls, and challenging gameplay that incorporated subtle physics elements such as acceleration and inertia, made it the gold standard of video game development and popular among speedrunners to this day.
Masters of Doom
How Super Mario Bros. set the course for PC gaming
Super Mario Bros. was the inspiration that kickstarted the PC video game industry. Computers back then were too weak to recreate NES's side-scrolling graphics, until John Carmack of id Software overcame the technical difficulty in a bid to port Super Mario Bros. 3 to the PC. Although Nintendo refused Carmack's PC port offer, that led to birth of PC gaming as we know it.