Nintendo Campus Challenge 1991

I may start this post talking about this great Mega Man drawing made & signed by Keiji Inafune, a really nice contest prize that every collector would like to see on the walls of his room of doom. Today there’s even a nice insider item for sale: a set of Atari Jaguar BUBSY FRACTURED FAIRY TALES level concept artworks, Xerox copies from the development of the game.

But this day will be written with golden blood in the history of video game collecting. Golden as the money that are going to be spent on something that is even rarer than a gold NWC.

Nintendo Campus Challenge 1991 NES World Championships

In 1991 Nintendo held a nationwide video game tournament at 58 college campuses, state fairs, and spring break hot spots. Like the Nintendo World Championships in 1990, a special cartridge was created just for this event that had Super Mario Bros 3, Pin-Bot, and Dr. Mario on it and would give you one score for playing all three games. Winners from each of the 58 locations were sent to Orlando Florida to crown the National Champion at Disney World.

Unlike the Nintendo World Championships where Nintendo gave winner’s copies of the special cartridges, the Campus Challenge cartridges were supposed to be destroyed.

This cartridge has been found in 2006 by Jollerancher at a garage sale. Last time it has been sold, it fetched 14.000 USD.

It has no reserve. Will the bank accounts have one?