$17,500.00 For What?

[triverse]

Hmm, anyone here fancy completing a set of Nintendo cartridges? Kevincal? Anyone? Well, if you do, get ready to cough up some serious cash as one of the only 26 made Nintendo World Championship cartridges just sold for $17,500.00. What is funny is, I remember people complaining about games like God of War on PSP being only 4 hours or so long (that only cost about $40 new), or the fact that you could beat Resident Evil in under 8 hours (I am not sure exactly how much under but I know it is a lot, around 4 hours too) and that was about $50 new. Well, you would think for $17K+ that you would have the penultimate in gaming in your hands. Nope. The game lasts 6 minutes and 21 seconds and is just a series of short segments of Super Mario Bros, Tetris and Rad Racer. WOW.

Think $60 video games are too expensive? You won't hear any argument from us, but you might from JJ Hendricks, a collector who just paid a clinically insane $17,500 for an obscure NES game from 1990.

The game in question is an ultra-rare, gold-colored version of Nintendo World Championships, a cartridge specially produced for use in a Nintendo-sponsored gaming contest. According to Wikipedia only 26 were created, and Hendricks calls it the "Holy Grail" of video game collectors.

The game itself has a time limit of just 6 minutes and 21 seconds and consists of three short segments from other NES games: Super Mario Bros., Tetris, and Rad Racer. Players are scored according to their performance in each game, and their scores are totaled once the time limit expires. Doesn't sound too riveting to us, but then somehow we doubt Hendricks is in it for the gameplay.

And while $17,500 might seem a bit much for a collection of ones and zeroes, Hendricks actually got a bargain: the game was originally listed on eBay for a cool $25,000.

Pic and quote thanks to Videogames Yahoo.com

[Guest s1500]

Some people are just born suckers. I remember the sucker that sold me that gold collectible Adventures of Link cartridge for only $3000. Heh.

[Mister Zero]

Adventure of Link gold cart is collectible? With box or no??

Good lord that's a lot of money for that little World Championship cart!

Strange to think of how much we pay for such short games in some cases.. I can understand collectible old carts, but anything new for $40+ that ends in 4 hours or less is a ripoff IMO.

Try Resident Evil in under an hour and a half. Oh it's possible. My friends and I used to do that for fun, same with 2 and 3, they're actually pretty short if you blast through and know it front to back. It was big in PSM for a while to see who could finish the fastest, if I remember right.

[Guest s1500]

Naw, I was just joking. I made the joke as the Link cart is just as gold as that NWC cart.

[E-Day]

You can't compare this to a regular retail game since it was never a retail game. This is a true collector's item for a real collector.

[Thor]

GOOD GOD! The Holy Grail!!!!!

[Hidinger]

Hmm, anyone here fancy completing a set of Nintendo cartridges? Kevincal? Anyone? Well, if you do, get ready to cough up some serious cash as one of the only 26 made Nintendo World Championship cartridges just sold for $17,500.00. What is funny is, I remember people complaining about games like God of War on PSP being only 4 hours or so long (that only cost about $40 new), or the fact that you could beat Resident Evil in under 8 hours (I am not sure exactly how much under but I know it is a lot, around 4 hours too) and that was about $50 new. Well, you would think for $17K+ that you would have the penultimate in gaming in your hands. Nope. The game lasts 6 minutes and 21 seconds and is just a series of short segments of Super Mario Bros, Tetris and Rad Racer. WOW.

Pic and quote thanks to Videogames Yahoo.com

I swear I have one of those cartridges.

and there were more then 26 made. I was there