We discovered a new variant of Super Mario Bros. – Nintendo Wire

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Leave a Comment / July 29th, 2026 / Jason Ganos

We discovered a new variant of Super Mario Bros.<br>News, Featured, Retro

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For the last 20 years, I’ve been what many would call an obsessive video game collector. Nearly every weekend, I could be found at the crack of dawn at garage sales, flea markets, thrift stores, and estate sales searching for Nintendo treasures to add to my collection.

Over the decades, those early mornings have led to some incredible finds. I’ve rescued a broken Pokémon Snap Station and restored it to working condition. I’ve uncovered countless rare NES, SNES, and Nintendo 64 games, along with promotional displays, store signage, and other pieces of Nintendo history that most collectors never get the chance to see.

This story also involves finding a new treasure, but something way outside of what I ever expected to discover. So strap in, get yourself a snack or a cup of coffee, and let’s talk about how I found 97 never-before-seen variants of one of the most popular games in history.

The Discovery

The story starts in a small downtown retro store called OneStopWonders. The owner, Kevin Braun, is somebody who I’ve known for quite some time. He’s owned retro shops in a variety of sizes over the years, and I’ve purchased more items than I can count from his stores over that time.

Kevin started becoming interested in pinball machines, a hobby that I coincidentally shared, and one of his machines broke down. He asked me if I’d be willing to come take a look, and I was thrilled to do so. After about a day or two of tinkering, we got it back up and running. As we shared a moment of excitement seeing the game spring back to life, we started talking a bit about his shop and his plans for the future.

Kevin knew that I ran a website, and selling things online was something he really wanted to start doing. So an agreement was struck, and Kevin and I started working together selling some of the retro games from his store online. For me, it was an absolute thrill. There’s nothing in life I like more than sifting through old retro video games.

OneStopWonders in Waukesha, WI

Some time later, while we were discussing what items to list next, Kevin started telling me stories about some of the strange items that had made their way into his shop over the years. One of those stories involved a man whose grandfather owned a precious metal recovery service back in the late ’80s and early ’90s.

The story I was told was that he had a contract with many vendors to extract gold from circuit boards if a vendor wanted to get rid of old inventory. One of those vendors happened to be Nintendo.

According to Kevin, the box was jam-packed with NES games. The story goes on to reveal that the box of games was supposed to be melted down and salvaged for the gold on the contacts of the pins. But for whatever reason, this box never made it to salvage. Instead, it sat in a garage for over 20 years before finding its way into Kevin’s shop.

Kevin confessed that he had no idea of the value of what was in the box and simply saw an opportunity to sell each game for roughly $10 to $15 apiece. He purchased the box, put it in his storage unit, and there it sat untouched for several years. The truth is, Kevin completely forgot about the purchase. If you look at some of the other things he’s bought over the years, though, that wasn’t an uncommon occurrence.

After Kevin finished his story, I immediately could tell that the blood had drained from my face.

"Can I see the box? Do you still have it?"

Kevin...