Two unreleased "one-of-a-kind, never-digitised" NES games spotted on eBay

There are new eBay listings advertising two “one-of-a-kind, never-digitised” unreleased NES games.

The first of these games is Battlefields of Napoleon, and it includes all of its original packaging design (see below).

The second one, however, now this is where things get really interesting.

This enigmatic and very plain looking cartridge is labelled “CES SAMPLE” and is a demo game specifically for the Power Glove. In addition to this, it comes from the brains at Donkey Kong Country developer Rare.

These listings were initially spotted by Frank Cifaldi from the Video Game History Foundation (via Kotaku). Cifaldi stated he estimates the sale of these cartridges will easily reach into the “thousands”, and he is right. At the time of writing, Battlefields of Napoleon is sitting with a current bid of $5100.

Cifaldi has said hes now looking for funding to purchase these NES cartridges for the Video Game History Foundation – a nonprofit organisation dedicated to preserving, celebrating, and teaching the history of video games. However, Cifaldi also says the organisation isnt currently, financially at least, in a position to do this.

“Its been kind of a rough year. Were healthy and happy but not at a continue throwing thousands at prototypes when they show up level,” he explained on Twitter. Cifaldi concluded by stating his DMs were open if anyone wanted to make a contribution to this cause.

🚨Attention video game preservation fans with money to spare🚨

There are currently TWO unreleased, one-of-a-kind, never-digitized games for the original NES on eBay right now. This has literally never happened before. Our resources are stretched thin, and we could use help. pic.twitter.com/54ym603mHM

— Frank Cifaldi (Haunted).nes (@frankcifaldi) October 11, 2022

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Other unexpected and rare video game related items seen to pop up on eBay over the years range from rare Pokémon cards to missing Game Awards trophies.