Original URL: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/03/01/bonkers_bandai_auction_outcome/
Rare NES title takes $43,000 at auction
Still in shrink-wrap
Posted in Games, 1st March 2010 10:55 GMT
The seller said it was a "priceless" item, and while bidding didn't quite reach infinity, one lucky bidder has now agreed to buy a "one of a kind" copy of Bandai's 1986 videogame Family Fitness Stadium Events for $41,300 (£27,102).
Developed for the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES), the game was released in Europe in 1988, and in the US the year before. The copy on offer on eBay [1] was a US, NTSC copy still in its shrink-wrap and with its $29.99 price tag.
Stadium Events was not a success, however, and relatively few copies made it on to shop shelves. Production was limited, and these factors combined to make the title something of a rarity, particularly now more than 20 years on from its release.
Long pre-Wii, Stadium Events allowed players to engage in on-screen athletic events through the Family Fun Fitness Mat peripheral, later bought from Bandai by Nintendo and re-released as the Power Pad.
Sprints, hurdles, long jump and triple jump were among the ten events [2] in which players could compete.
The competition for the game this time round saw the bids lead from $6.16 to $100 before hitting $9800 on the first day of the auction. Over the next ten days, bids shot upward and upward. ®