{"id":61791,"date":"2014-02-05T15:12:03","date_gmt":"2014-02-05T13:12:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/?p=61791"},"modified":"2014-02-06T12:48:39","modified_gmt":"2014-02-06T10:48:39","slug":"nintendo-world-championship-and-the-quest-for-r1-million","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/business\/61791-nintendo-world-championship-and-the-quest-for-r1-million","title":{"rendered":"Nintendo World Championship: R1 million quest"},"content":{"rendered":"

Yet another copy of Nintendo World Championship (NWC) has been sold on eBay for the whopping price of US$100,088<\/a> (\u00b1R1,112,000) – this time it’s a rare gold version of the NES cartridge.<\/p>\n

You may recall the news from a few weeks back that a grey version of the cartridge had been sold to a winning bid of US$99,902<\/a>. However, the winning bidder soon backed out claiming that his 2-year-old child had somehow accidentally (improbably) placed the bid. That cartridge is now back up on auction, currently at a bid of US$65,000 with 3 days to go.<\/p>\n

Despite the hoax bidding, interest has been renewed in this collectible item, with 3 more having gone up for auction since.<\/p>\n

A brief history of NWC sets the context for the rarity:<\/p>\n

The Nintendo World Championship game was produced as part of a Nintendo competition of the same name held in 1990 across the US. In the competition, competitors had 6 minutes and 21 seconds to complete a customised mixture of Mario, Rad Racer, and Tetris.<\/p>\n

While it’s difficult to find an original source for the claim, it is thought that only 116 of the grey cartridges were manufactured for use during the competition.<\/p>\n

90 of the grey cartridges were given to the tournament\u2019s 90 finalists, and 26 special gold editions were created from the spare grey versions and given away as prizes in a Nintendo Power magazine contest.<\/p>\n

The grey edition label (when intact) has a unique identifier making it difficult to counterfeit, while the gold edition label has no such identifier. Both versions come equipped with a DIP switch to set the time limit of the game.<\/p>\n

Do you think the intrinsic value of these undeniably rare and collectible cartridges can approach the R1 million mark? Let us know in the comments.<\/strong><\/p>\n