A look at the most expensive game cartridges ever sold

The 1987 classic was auctioned off by heritage for a whopping $870,000. The game is widely looked at as one of the first adventure titles that introduced free roaming and an open map, setting the standard for what we now know as open world games. It along with Hydlide (1984) and Ultima (1981) were the first open world games.

A forgotten copy of the NES Classic Super Mario Bros bought in 1986 was left in a desk drawer for 35 years. Once it was found, it was auctioned off for $660,000. What is there to be said about Super Mario Bros.? The name alone is enough to get you hum that famous jingle in your head. Mario improved upon the platformer formula of its cousin Donkey Kong (1981) and was among the first games to use 2D side scrolling without the need to switch screens. It first hit arcades in 1983 and then was released for the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) in 1985. The rest as they, is history.

The record holder for the most expensive game cartridge ever sold is the 1996 classic Super Mario 64. As one of the games released for Nintendo's new 3D console, it had a lot of responsibility on its shoulders. Back then, 3D gaming was little more than a collection of blocky sprites and boorish polygons. Super Mario 64 not only rectified that with charming art and a fantastic musical score, it also set the standard for 3D platformers in general. Aspects of the game such as the innovative 3D camera are still being iterated on to this day. Let's just say it deserves every penny of that $1.5 million auction price.