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As a child growing up in Gander in the 1980s, Brad Mouland lived for the weekends. 

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Not only did he not have to go to school for two whole days, but once Friday evening rolled around, Mouland knew that he and his brothers would be heading to their neighbourhood rental store to grab the newest game for the original Nintendo Entertainment System, committing every moment of their precious free time to beating every level and destroying every bad guy before being dragged back to school on Monday.  

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As he grew older, Mouland’s childhood passion for video games never left him.  

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Mouland soon began stockpiling the games that he and his brothers had spent hours fawning over as children, and has now amassed a collection that has become increasingly valuable over time.  

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In recent years, the buying and selling of retro video games has become a big business as more and more nostalgia-fuelled collectors started shelling out big bucks to capture their youth and relive those precious childhood memories.

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Having already collected mint condition copies of all of his childhood favourites, including factory sealed copies of both games from the popular Legend of Zelda franchise, Mouland figured his collection was complete.

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That is, until he had the opportunity to become the owner of the rarest and most famous ‘holy grail’ video game collecting: a grey competition cartridge from the 1990 Nintendo World Championships.

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“I’ve been collecting Nintendo for a very long time,” Mouland told The Telegram.

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“I saw this thing come up on a consignment sale down in Boston. I got in contact with the shop owner, and within a few days, I flew to Boston, picked up the cart, and I was there less than 24 hours and back home again.”

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‘Only three in Canada right now’

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If you’ve never heard of the 1990 Nintendo World Championships game, that’s because it was never available for purchase.  

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In the late 1980s, Nintendo embarked on an ambitious marketing campaign for its first gaming console, motivated in part by sputtering video game sales in the early 1980s.

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Nintendo took a gamble and became one of the first brands to have a video game featured in a film when ‘The Wizard’ hit theatres in 1989, starring a young Fred Savage playing the now-beloved Super Mario Bros. 3 game in a high-stakes video game competition.

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A real-life video game contest soon followed in 1990, as Nintendo hosted the inaugural Nintendo World Championships; a 29-city tour across the United States with regional winners earning a trophy, $250 and a trip to Los Angeles to compete for the title of world champion.

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It was at the World Finals in Los Angeles where this mystical grey cartridge would make its debut.

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Nintendo created a small number of custom game cartridges for tournament use featuring shortened versions of some of their most popular games, including Super Mario Bros, Rad Racer and Tetris.  

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As they were never intended for retail sale, the game’s simple label was printed in black and white ink but contained a peculiar distinguishing feature.

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As video game programming was in its relative infancy in the late 1980s, the game’s settings and features were modified via a set of physical dip switches on the face of the game, which extended or shortened the amount of time players would have to complete their in-game tasks.

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It is believed that Nintendo manufactured upwards of 350 of these game cartridges for the tournament, but the number of copies that have found their way into the hands of collectors remains a mystery.

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Of those 350 estimated copies, only 90 were distributed to tournament participants as a keepsake, while another 26 gold-coloured copies were handed out as a magazine prize for subscribers of Nintendo’s flagship publication, Nintendo Power.

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Mouland believes the number of copies in the collector market today is significantly lower than the 350 originally produced, as more and more copies became lost over time, have become damaged or were inadvertently sold off at yard sales or traded in to video stores.

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“There are only three in Canada right now,” Mouland said confidently.

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“I think there have been 93 documented copies that have been found. The majority of them are residing in the United States, and there are a couple in Europe. I know the two other people in Canada who have the cart. There might be somebody that’s hiding one away, but as of right now, I know of just three in Canada, and I’ve got one of them.”

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‘I was shaking when I was playing it because of the history’

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Landing the holy grail of Nintendo games came at a hefty premium for Mouland.

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Not only was the price tag an eye-watering $25,000 Canadian, but he had to liquidate the majority of the other items in his collection to come up with the money. 

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While he admits it was hard to say goodbye to his factory-sealed Zelda game collection, he knew he had to complete the deal to maximize the future value for his family’s sake.

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“I originally purchased the cart for my daughter’s education fund,” Mouland said. “If I do sell it, that’s where that’s going to go. She will be six years old in October.”

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Since making his big purchase in 2019, the rare collectible has continued to rise in value, with some high-grade copies bringing in north of $100,000 each via auction.

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Last week, Mouland made the tough decision to list his copy for sale online, hoping to cash in on an era of strong retro video game sales to build a bright future for his daughter.

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Mouland has no delusions about asking $150,000 for his copy in particular, as his copy has not been professionally graded and does have a tiny flaw that may impact its value.

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“I didn’t get it graded because of the crack,” Mouland said.

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“The story I got from the original owner was that it was found at a yard sale in a stack of games. It was on the bottom of the stack, and it crushed it. The broken piece was actually still there, but they didn’t take the piece. The person that found it at the yard sale, they bought it for ten dollars.”

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‘It’s quite the item to have in the collection’

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Factoring in the missing plastic, Mouland is asking a mere $70,000 for his copy and hopes another collector will appreciate the history and nostalgia as much as he did.

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“It’s very difficult, but I’ve come to terms with the fact that it’s just sitting,” he said.

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“I’m not using it, I’m not playing it. It’s sitting in a safety deposit box, and that’s it. I played it with the gentleman I purchased it from when I was down in Boston. It was really cool. I was shaking when I was playing it because of the history. It was an amazing feeling, it really was.”

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Mouland says he’s being patient in his attempt to sell the game and isn’t willing to sacrifice his daughter’s education fund to complete a quick transaction. He remains in talks with several serious collectors, including one from St. John’s, but says he would rather keep the game if his ideal price isn’t met.

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Mouland still enjoys playing and collecting games on Nintendo’s newest console, the Nintendo Switch. While selling his beloved retro cartridge would represent a big hole in his collection, Mouland says he has already purchased the modern re-release of the Nintendo World Championships game for the Switch, which will help to soften the blow of having to move on from owning one of the most treasured video games of all time.

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“I’ll buy the Nintendo Switch games, the console variants and that kind of stuff, but nothing old anymore,” he said with a chuckle.

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“It’s beyond reach now… It’s quite unbelievable because of how few there are. It’s quite the item to have in the collection. It’s the holy grail of Nintendo, or even video game collecting.”

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