Sometimes, my job has perks.
Above: Dave Morton of Gemr.
Recently, I had a chance to play the Nintendo World Championship 1990 cartridge, one of the rarest Nintendo Entertainment System games ever. Game historian Frank Cifaldi told GamesBeat that Nintendo only made around 90 of them, which went to regional finalists in a competition Nintendo held that year (that it’s recently revived). The rest in circulation are from Nintendo employees who took home cartridges from work.
Dave Morton [right] is the owner of the cartridge I got to play, which he says can sell anywhere from $4,000 to $25,000. While his is a gray one, a rarer, gold version can sell for $125,000. Cifaldi says only 26 of them exist. Morton is the pop culture community curator at Gemr, a community for collectors to buy, sell, trade, and show-off neat items like the Nintendo World Championship 1990 cartridge.
The game is deceptively simple. People have to play through Super Mario World, Rad Racer, and Tetris in a set time limit while trying to get the highest score. You can see the game in action and learn more about this unique title in the video below.