Rare commemorative Game & Watch handheld sells for $9,100 at public sale | Engadget

In latest weeks, we’ve seen one retro Nintendo recreation after one other shatter the document for the most costly online game offered at public sale. At the beginning of July, a replica of The Legend of Zelda went for $870,000. Days later, a mint model of Super Mario 64 offered for $1.56 million. Now one other Nintendo collectible has set a gross sales document, however this one is a bit completely different.

Over the weekend, a particular commemorative version of a Game & Watch system offered for about $9,100 on Yahoo Japan. As most Nintendo followers know, the Game & Watch predates the way more profitable Game Boy. What makes this unit distinctive is that it was commissioned by Game & Watch creator Gunpei Yokoi after Nintendo offered greater than 20,000 million models of the hand-held. Before this weekend, this model of the console had by no means come available on the market earlier than.

What’s unclear is simply what number of models of the commemorative version Game Nintendo produced. According to Beforemario, a blog dedicated to video games and toys the corporate made between the Nineteen Sixties and Nineteen Eighties, the unit is “extremely” uncommon. “If I had to guess, I would say there were more than three made [one for each of the individuals pictured on the plaque], but again, just a guess,” John Hardie, the director of the National Videogame Museum in Fresco, Texas, told Ars Technica.

Given the present state of the online game collectibles market, what looks like a one-of-a-kind historic artifact promoting for thus little is shocking. Part of that may very well be the results of the Game & Watch market. As Ars Technica factors out, yow will discover frequent variations of the hand-held for about $50. Rarer variants just like the Ballon Fight one can go for as a lot as $2,000 in the event that they’re in good situation.