DALLAS, TX.- The Legend of Zelda is widely hailed as one of the greatest games ever made and was the first entry in a franchise that would grow to more than 20 game titles along with spin-offs, manga adaptations and an animated series. In the seven-plus years Wata has been certifying video games, out of 143 total examples, across all original release variants, only a single copy of the massively influential 1987 NES game has merited a 9.8 A++ Sealed grade. That legendary top copy of the landmark game will be available to bidders at Heritage’s Video Games Signature Auction August 22-23.

“For this to be the first Zelda graded a 9.8 A++ since 2018, that is a pretty remarkable achievement,” says Evan Masingill, Heritage’s Video Games Consignment Director. “This demonstrates the level of scrutiny Wata takes when evaluating games at the high end of their grading scale. With the announcement of a live-action Zelda film [also titled The Legend of Zelda, set for a 2027 release] and the series’ unending popularity, I only expect interest in high-end games from this beloved franchise to grow in the years to come.”

In addition to the metallic gold casing that aesthetically distinguished The Legend of Zelda from Nintendo’s customary gray cartridges, the game’s innovations included the cartridge’s built-in memory, which allowed players to save their progress and continue later without relying on complicated passwords, and a complex nonlinear map that rewarded exploration with hidden passages and weapons upgrades. This brilliantly preserved copy of the original game is more than a collectible cartridge. It’s a museum-quality artifact representing an enormous leap forward in the evolution of console gaming.

Auction 7416 features several other Zelda-related lots for collectors including an outstanding Wata 9.4 A+ Sealed copy of The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past — the only Zelda title released for the Super Nintendo — and a Wata 9.6 A+ Sealed copy of The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening — among the most highly graded copies of its original release. These two games come from Wata’s Odin Collection pedigree, which debuts in this auction.

Alongside the top-grade Zelda is an incredibly preserved copy of Super Mario 64, graded 95 by VGA, a grade comparable in quality to the record-shattering 9.8 A++ copy Heritage auctioned in July 2021.

Also of interest to adventure game collectors is the highest-graded copy of Final Fantasy III offered to date by Heritage Auctions, a CGC 9.8 A++ copy of the massively popular RPG.

Another one-of-a-kind item on the block is the only known unopened Launch Edition Super Nintendo Super Set Console. One of the most important consoles of all time, the SNES was released in North America in 1991, introducing Super Mario World and Yoshi to the U.S., ushering in the 16-bit era and initiating that decade’s console wars.

“Just when we think we’ve seen everything, a historic item like this surfaces to surprise us all.” Masingill says. “Nintendo manufactured these consoles without seals, so the fact that this system has existed for 34 years in this state without anyone peeking inside the box is truly incredible.”

This PowerFest 1990 NES controller marked with a “1” player label and official Nintendo World Championships logo is a historic artifact as well, but rather than holding value because of its unused pristine condition, its interest to collectors comes from its having been used during the NWC U.S. Tour. Never intended for public distribution, most of these competition controllers were heavily used, damaged and discarded, so these surviving relics of esports history are not common.

Other rare gaming mementos that have survived from the 1990s include several pieces of original art. Fortunately, these beautiful examples did not meet the same fate as so many now-iconic illustrations, which were often simply thrown away. Standouts for this sale include the dynamic original box art for the 1991 Sega Genesis title Midnight Resistance by acclaimed illustrator Bud Thon and a few pieces of original Sonic art. Mick Austin’s Sonic the Comic #1 Original Preliminary Comic Book Cover in acrylics shows the Sega mascot practically bursting off the page, while Greg Martin’s original acrylics painting for the cover of issue No. 22 of Sega Visions magazine captures Knuckles the Echidna punching his way through a brick wall.