An anonymous bidder purchased an extremely rare, unopened copy of the classic video game Super Mario Bros. for $114,000 USD during an auction conducted by Dallas-based Heritage Auctions.
The cartridge was originally released in 1985 for the Nintendo Entertainment System console. The $114,000 (approximately Rs 85.7 lakh) figure shattered last year’s record, which was a $100,150 (approximately Rs. 75.28 lakh) bid made for an unopened copy of the same game.
According to Heritage Auctions, this is the highest-graded copy of the game the company has ever sold.
The rare Super Mario Bros. game was a part of a collection of video games from the 1980s and 1990s that were sold to various buyers for nearly $700,000 USD (approximately Rs. 5.2 crores). The final amount well exceeded Heritage Auction’s initial expected target of $500,000 USD (approximately Rs. 3.75 crores). Apart from the Mario game, a rare copy of Mike Tyson’s game Punch-Out!! sold for $50,40 USD (approximately Rs. 37.87 lakh) along with a never-sold prototype of the Sega Pluto-02 Console which went under the hammer for $84,000 USD (approximately Rs 63.18 lakh).