A few developers had vastly heavier designs, especially the cinematic full-motion video of Square's Final Fantasy VII (1997)-but sufficient data compression techniques had not yet been invented and ROM chips were not yet capacious and affordable-so they reluctantly had to target CD-ROM based platforms instead. Some developers such as Factor 5, Rare, and Nintendo, were fanatically supportive of the high-speed solid-state medium because it is the most effective solution to the universal video game development problem of having preciously limited system RAM. From the console's first year from late 1996 through 1997, Game Pak sizes are 4 to 12 megabytes with a typical third party retail price of US$75.99 (equivalent to about $130 in 2021), then reaching 32 megabytes in 1998, and finally 64 megabytes from 1999 onward. This strategy resulted in the 64DD, a floppy drive which was launched two years late in 1999 and only in Japan, leaving it as a commercial failure and the Game Pak as the Nintendo 64's sole storage medium. Īs with the Famicom Disk System floppy drive of the 1980s, Nintendo's strategy with the Nintendo 64 had always been to develop a higher-capacity and cheaper medium to complement the Game Pak. Integrating a CD-ROM drive, with its expensive and slow moving parts, would have drastically increased the console's base price by 50% and reduced its performance. As with Nintendo's previous consoles, the Game Pak's design tradeoffs were intended to achieve maximal system speed and minimal base console cost-with lesser storage space and a higher unit cost per game. Nintendo 64 Game Pak (part number NUS-006) is the brand name of the consumer ROM cartridge product that stores game data for the Nintendo 64, released in 1996. And it's a safe bet that the price of cult games will continue to climb in the coming months, the rich buyers of today being the child gamers of the 1980s-1990s. Record beaten on Friday, with a cartridge from another cult Nintendo game: , the first game in the series, on NES, had set a record at $ 660,000. The collectible video game market has been booming for some time. Present in the same sale but rated "only" 9.6 out of 10. This is what determines the value at an auction and which allowed this specimen to break the record. Heritage Auctions before the sale.Īs a result, the cartridge was rated 9.8 out of 10 by experts, the highest rating ever given to a video game. The cultural influence of the game and its importance in the history of video games are colossal and its state of preservation is breathtaking," the house commented. "There are no strong enough words to describe this copy. The cartridge sold yesterday was also in excellent condition, kept in its original box, never opened. , then renamed Mario, the world's most famous video game hero has remained extremely popular through the decades.Īs a result, its old games attract the greed of collectors. Except that for the first time in his career, which began in 1981, the little mustached plumber was represented in 3D. , we jump, we go through pipes, we face Bowser and we save Princess Peach. A record sum for a cult game and above all a piece of video game history. Only lasted a few minutes and reached $ 1.3 million, to which must be added the 20% auction house fee.
On NES, the first game of this other cult saga, was sold for $ 870,000 (733,000 euros).Ī new world record for a video game sale!Ī sealed Super Mario 64 just sold for $ 1,560,000 Sophie Duncan with the call. This sale shatters the previous record, set only two days earlier by the same house. , released in 1996 for the Nintendo 64, was auctioned for $ 1.56 million (1.31 million euros), a new record for a video game, according to the American auction house Heritage Auctions.
The collectible video game market is soaring! It smashes the previous record held by a copy of "Super Mario Bros.", set in April.Ī sale that symbolizes the considerable growth of the collectible video game market. A cartridge for the "Super Mario 64" video game sold for $ 1.56 million at an auction on Sunday in the United States.