Nearly 100 found in storage
Perfect PSA grades, auction set this week
A Wisconsin video game store has discovered nearly 100 previously unknown Nintendo game cartridges, sparking excitement among collectors and gaming historians.
According to ABC News, Onestopwonders, a game shop in Waukesha, Wisconsin, uncovered the cartridges while cleaning out a storage unit. The collection includes an unreleased version of the classic Super Mario Bros./Duck Hunt combo cartridge.
Video game preservation experts said the newly discovered cartridges feature different screws, labels, circuit boards and instruction manuals from all previously known versions. The box containing the games was marked with a 1993 production date, two years later than the last previously documented production run of the title.
Store owner Kevin Braun said he purchased the box two to three years ago from a man who had stored it in his garage for more than two decades. The cartridges had reportedly been destined for a metal recovery facility, where they would have been melted down to recover gold, but they were never destroyed.
Although the games themselves play the same as the well-known Super Mario Bros./Duck Hunt release, experts believe the cartridges may have been manufactured as replacement stock for warranty repairs, refurbished systems, or for a game bundle that was planned but never released.
Several of the cartridges will be offered for sale this week through Goldin Auctions. Professional Sports Authenticator (PSA), a leading grading service for collectibles, awarded several copies a perfect grade of 10—the first perfect grades ever given to Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) game cartridges.
Collectors say the discovery is extraordinary because Super Mario Bros. is one of the most extensively documented video games ever produced, making the appearance of an unknown production variant exceptionally rare. The find is expected to draw strong interest from collectors as the market for vintage video games continues to grow.
