Copy of Super Mario Bros sold for $114,000 – here are the most expensive games you might have at home
AN unopened 1985 copy of the Super Mario Bros video game has sold at auction for a reord-breaking $114,000 (£90,000).
The rare cartridge for the Nintendo Entertainment System became the most expensive video game in history when the hammer fell on Friday.
The previous record-holder was a separate copy of Super Mario Bros bought for roughly $100,000 (£79,000) last year.
Sold by Texas-based Heritage Auctions, the new holder was bought by a gamer upon the legendary game's release in 1985.
For an unknown reason he never opened the game and kept hold of it.
The cartridge sparked global interest ahead of auction as it had vintage cardboard packaging used before games were sealed with plastic wrapping.
The game attracted 29 bids before it was bought by an anonymous American collector when it went under the hammer.
He paid a whopping $114,000 (£90,300) for the game. Heritage Auctions said it was the highest-graded copy of the game the company had ever sold.
Valarie McLeckie, video games director at Heritage Auctions, said: "The game has never been opened and it has remained in the hands of the person who bought it.
"This was an outstanding rarity for serious video game collectors."
Rarest and most expensive video games
Here are their estimated values...
1. "Gamma Attack" (Atari 2600): $20,000-$50,000
2. "Birthday Mania" (Atari 2600): $15,000-$35,000
3. 1990 Nintendo World Championships: Gold Edition (NES): $15,000-$21,000
4. "Air Raid" (Atari 2600): $14,000-$33,400
5. 1991 Nintendo Campus Challenge (NES): $14,000-$20,100
6. "Red Sea Crossing" (Atari 2600): $10,400-$14,000
7. "Kizuna Encounter" (Euro): ~ $5,400-$13,500
8. "Atlantis II" (Atari 2600): $5,000-$18,000
9. "Ultimate 11/Super Sidekicks 4" (Neo Geo): $4,800-$10,000
10. "King of Fighters 2000" (Neo Geo): $3,540-$6,000
11. "Tetris" (Sega Genesis/Megadrive): $3,000-$16,000
12. "Gauntlet" (Atari 2600): $3,000-$5,000
13. "Karate" (Atari 2600, Ultravision release): $2,500-$4,000
14. "Eli’s Ladder" (Atari 2600): $1,500-$1,700
15. "Elemental Gearbolt" Assassin’s Case (PS1): $1,400-$1,750
The mint-condition copy features "cardboard hangtab" packaging originally used in the US before plastic wrapping came in.
Super Mario Bros, featuring the classic characters Mario, Luigi and the villain Bowser, was the successor to the Mario Bros arcade game launched in 1983.
It is the highest selling Nintendo game of all time, selling more than 40million copies - and has also been turned into TV series and films.
In total, Heritage Auctions shipped $700,000 (£554,000)-worth of retro games from the 1980s and 1990s.
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