To ensure that every competitor in the 1990 Nintendo World Championship had an even playing field, the company produced a custom cartridge that contained the same timed challenges. Players would compete for the best time while running through a montage of three popular NES games, Super Mario Brothers, Tetris, and Rad Racer.
Most of those cartridges today look relatively unassuming, featuring none of the pastel label graphics associated with early Nintendo cartridges. Instead, a black and white label shows the Nintendo World Championship’s triangular logo underneath a serial number. These cartridges were produced only twice, once for the tournament itself and again as a prize for a Nintendo Power contest.
The rarity of these cartridges has turned them into the “holy grail” of collectible cartridges. The original cartridges, produced for the Nintendo World Championship itself, come in standard gray. In 2019, one of these cartridges was purchased by a vintage videogame store in Seattle for $13,000, although the store’s owner estimated its final value to be between $15,000 and $20,000. The gold cartridges, produced for the Nintendo Power contest, have been auctioned off for over $100,000.
