DALLAS, TX.- A cartridge of the rarest licensed Nintendo Entertainment System game ever available for purchase in stores sparked a flurry of competitive bids to claim top-lot honors among 52 video games graded by Wata Games that were sold in Heritage Auctions' Comics & Comic Art auction Feb. 21-23 in Dallas.

The Wata-graded games brought a total of $77,904. The total sales for the auction, which boasted sell-through rates of better than 99 percent by lots and by value, topped $9.4 million.

Stadium Events: Family Fun Fitness (NES, Bandai, 1987) Wata 4.5 Loose (Cartridge) elicited bids from 18 collectors before ultimately selling for $10,500. The cartridge is believed to be one of only 200 loose, CIB or sealed copies that were sold. Significantly fewer than this reported number have been seen, making a copy of this game in any grade highly sought after.

The rarity is due in part to the fact that the game's rights were acquired by Nintendo almost immediately after its release, at which point it was rebranded as World Class Track Meet.

"Video games are a popular collectible because they take people back to when they played the games, and a lot of people played this game under both of its nameswhen they were kids," Heritage Auctions Vice President Lon Allen said. "The demand for games like Stadium Events: Family Fun Fitness shows that we are just scratching the surface of how much the market for Wata-graded games will grow going forward."

The same number of collectors made a play for Halo: Combat Evolved (NFR) (XBOX, Microsoft, 2001) Wata 9.6 A (Seal Rating) until it brought $9,000. Considered the top prize among Halo collectors, this black-label Not for Resale (NFR) of the first game in the Halo series was made available only to Microsoft employees or the developer of Bungie, and to specially selected game stores to serve as a promotional disc. Although more than 60 million copies of Halo: Combat Evolved sold worldwide, fewer than 10 sealed copies of the NFR version are known to exist, even by collectors who have sought the game in this pristine condition for more than a decade, and of the few known copies in existence, only one has a higher grade than this one.

More than 20 collectors went after Chrono Trigger (SNES, Square, 1995) Wata 9.4 A+ (Seal Rating) until it nearly doubled its pre-auction estimate when it drew $8,400. This is one of fewer than 20 factory-sealed copies known to remain in existence. The game was a commercial and critical success upon its release, considered by many to be one of the greatest role-playing games of all time.

Another popular rarity Castlevania: Dracula X (SNES, Konami 1995) Wata 9.6 A (Seal Rating), which also drew enough bids that it nearly doubled its pre-auction estimate when it closed at $4,080. The low packaging quality makes it extremely rare to find a copy in this pristine condition.

Collectors swarmed to get a chance to acquire Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (NES, Konami, 1989) Wata 9.6 A+ (Seal Rating), which more than tripled its pre-auction estimate when it realized $3,600. Michael Dooley of Mirage Studios created the iconic box art for the Turtles' home console video game debut. Dooley's artwork was featured on the second printing of the comic's fourth issue in spring 1987. Konami's shell corporation, Ultra, published this Nintendo Entertainment System game in an effort to accommodate Nintendo of America's licensing rules, which limited third-party developers from producing more than five games in a single year.

Other top Wata-graded lots included, but were not limited to:

· Zelda II: The Adventure of Link (NES, Nintendo, 1988) Wata 9.6 A+ (Seal Rating): $3,360

· Dragon Warrior (Prototype) (NES, Nintendo, 1989) Wata-Certified: $2,880

· Mega Man 3 (NES, Capcom, 1990) Wata 9.4 A++ (Seal Rating): $1,920

· Super Mario Bros. (NES, Nintendo, 1985) Wata 8.0 A (Seal Rating): $1,800

· Tetris (NES, Tengen, 1989) Wata 8.5 A+ (Seal Rating): $1,560

· Rampage (NES, Data East, 1988) Wata 9.8 A++ (Seal Rating): $1,560