A box of vintage video games brought to a Wisconsin retro store has turned into a notable gaming preservation mystery, according to UPI Odd News. Inside were 97 copies of a previously unknown variant of Super Mario Bros./Duck Hunt for the original Nintendo Entertainment System.
Jason Ganos, who runs Nintendo Wire, was asked by Kevin Braun, owner of One Stop Wonders in Waukesha, to help sort through a backlog of games. The cartridges had been brought into the shop years earlier by a seller who said they had come from his grandfather, who worked for a precious metal recovery service.
Ganos said the games appeared to have been sent for gold recovery from the circuit boards, but were never processed. When he opened the box, he found the cartridges were wrapped and looked unusual in several ways, including differences in the back sticker, screws, manual and motherboard.
After examining one cartridge, Ganos found a late-August 1993 date code, which was two years after the last known printing of the game. He later sent the cartridges to Professional Sports Authenticator, where five earned PSA 10 grades, making them the first NES cartridges ever to receive a perfect score from the company. The rest were graded 9.8, 9.6 and 9.4. Some of the games will be kept, while others will be auctioned, including three that are set to be sold at Goldin on Wednesday.
