Three ultra-rare Nintendo Game & Watch consoles, officially licensed variants used to promote the French cereal product Phosphatine, are set to go under the hammer at auctioneer Ewbank's in Guildford, Surrey. Each console is guided at £1,500 to £3,000, meaning the trio could fetch up to £9,000 in total. The devices, which include the Parachute [PR-21], Fire [FR-27], and Turtle Bridge [TL-28] games, have all been tested and confirmed to be in working order.
The 'Holy Grail' of Nintendo Collecting
James Spooner, head of retro video games at Ewbank's, described the consoles as a 'holy grail' for hardcore Nintendo collectors. 'Phosphatine-branded Game & Watch systems are considered a holy grail for hardcore Nintendo collectors,' he said. 'It was discovered by the broader retro gaming community relatively recently, with only a single-digit number of verified units documented to exist in the world.'
Nintendo first released the Game & Watch series in 1981. While vintage examples on eBay start at around £45, rarities like these can command thousands of pounds. The Phosphatine variants are particularly sought after due to their extreme scarcity and unique promotional origin.
Surge in Retro Gaming Demand
The auction comes amid a surge in demand for retro video games. Ewbank's recently achieved over £200,000 in premium-inclusive sales across three dedicated sales in a single week last month. Spooner attributes this boom to a key industry shift: 'A key factor has been PlayStation's decision to stop selling physical product, so fans have been clamouring to get their hands on historic games and consoles that are now sought-after collectables.'
This trend was evident in other recent Ewbank's results. An empty box for a Nintendo 64 (N64) Mario 64 game, expected to sell for £1,000 to £2,000, fetched a premium-inclusive £8,450. The box's value was boosted by a signature from Shigeru Miyamoto, Nintendo's leading video game designer, producer, and director, often called the 'father of modern video gaming'. Miyamoto signed the box for the vendor at a historic event at Virgin Megastore on Oxford Street in London on February 21, 2003—his first and only public appearance and signing event in Europe.
Other Notable Sales
Other strong performances included a First Print, factory-sealed Nintendo Game Boy Pokémon Emerald game, complete with red strip Nintendo seal, which made £4,940 against a guide of £1,000 to £2,000, boosted by the seal's pristine condition. Similarly, a factory sealed Nintendo Game Boy Pokémon Yellow with a Nintendo Red Strip Seal, again with no damage to the outer seal, sold for £3,640, surpassing its £500-1,000 guide.
Ewbank's, which has been holding dedicated retro video game sales for some time, publishes a collecting guide on its website. Live online bidding for the Phosphatine consoles begins on September 4.
