Nintendo has a veritable revolving door of rarities and oddball items, led by treats like the Nintendo PlayStation and the NES’ Campus Challenge cartridge. But, did you know there is a retro Nintendo unit out in the wild that is as idiosyncratic as the dawn, and just as awe-inspiring? Even though it comes with one massive caveat: it was never sold commercially, thus making it incredibly rare. Introducing the Nintendo M82.
The Nintendo M82
Released in August 1985 (during the third generation of video game consoles), the Nintendo M82 was used as a demonstration unit in stores across the nation — so gamers could try out new titles before buying. An absolute beast of a game console, the M82 holds up to 12 cartridges, accessible by 12 slots in the front of the unit, as detailed in the image below.
In order to pick and choose which game to play, the M82 has a red button front and centre on the console that switches play from slot one to 12 for all your finicky needs. And, to ensure you’re not in the store all day, hoarding turns of The Legend of Zelda, the unit has a timer that ends gameplay when the allotted time-limit has been reached. The timer can be set to 30 seconds, three minutes, six minutes, 128 minutes or an unlimited amount of time and be activated by a button on the rear of the unit.
Technical specifications
| CPU & PPU Power of The Nintendo M82: | |
| CPU (NTSC): | 8-bit Ricoh 2A03 |
| CPU (PAL): | 8-bit Ricoh 2A07 |
| CPU Power (NTSC): | 1.79MHz |
| CPU Power (PAL): | 1.66MHz |
| PPU (NTSC): | Custom Ricoh 2C02 |
| PPU (PAL): | Custom Ricoh 2C07 |
| PPU Power (NTSC): | 5.37MHz |
| PPU Power (PAL): | 5.32MHz |
The M82 also comes complete with a tray to hold two NES controllers, a Zapper light gun and a key to unlock the console’s fascia.
Range of prices
From my research the M82 is being sold for an average price of $12.000, depending on the overall condition and how complete it is. A loose unit in poor condition might start selling for about $3000. A complete one in real good condition could go up to $8000, and a Nintendo M82 in mint condition could cost up to $25.000.
Here’s a perfect example for that. On Ebay right now, a complete Nintendo M82 Store Kiosk unit in great condition.
Connectivity of the M82
The M82 is not made for four players. There are two ports on the left that are player ‘one’, and the three ports on the right are player ‘two’. This lets the operator have a controller and Zapper for either player, or two controllers in player ‘one’, so the customer wouldn’t pick up a controller and have nothing happening.
Now if you thought the M82 was obscure, wait until you hear about Nintendo’s Super Famicom Box!
Click here if you are looking to buy a Nintendo M82 on Ebay.
We also wrote an article about the 5 most expensive SNES cartridges ever right here.
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