A rare cartridge of Nintendo World Championships is up for auction on Ebay, and has garnered bids of $6,000 so far.
The 1990 game, created for a competition, had only 116 copies made and never went on sale. The game featured shortened versions of Super Mario, Tetris and Rad Racer. The cartridge is in poor condition and has a ripped label, with the word Mario written across it.
"This is quite unfortunate but happened many decades ago by this point in time," said the seller.
The competition gave participants 6 minutes to amass as many points as they could, and the winner was promised a trip to Universal Studios and other prizes. Ninety semi-finalists were given the gray game cartridge, like the one up for auction.
Chris Scullion, games editor for Computer and Video Games, told BBC News that the game is so rare that its poor condition will not deter collectors and buyers.
"It's like finding the rarest Ferrari but with a scratch -- you'd still buy it," he said.
The auction, which ends January 25, has received 8 bids so far and offers free shipping, possible to sweeten the deal.
[Ebay] [BBC]
