Super Mario Bros. / Duck Hunt (NES) - Authentic Nintendo Combo Cartridge, Tested & Cleaned

Two games, one cartridge - the NES starter classic

Authentic Nintendo Super Mario Bros. / Duck Hunt - the combo cart that came bundled with a million NES consoles. Two of the most iconic 8-bit games on a single cartridge: run through World 1-1, then go shoot some ducks (and try to ignore the dog laughing at you). Powered on, verified to boot and play both, and contacts cleaned before it ships.

Before you buy - the Duck Hunt catch: the light-gun half needs a Zapper and a CRT/tube TV - it won’t register on a modern flat-panel. Super Mario Bros. plays with a normal controller on any TV, so half the cart works anywhere; the shooting half is CRT-only. Worth knowing up front.

The cartridge that made a generation of gamers

For millions of us, this exact gray cartridge was the on-ramp. As the pack-in for the NES Action Set, it initiated a whole generation into the brotherhood of gamers - and the numbers back it up: Super Mario Bros. (~40 million) and Duck Hunt (~28 million) are literally the two best-selling NES games of all time, #1 and #2. Super Mario Bros. taught you to run and jump; Duck Hunt taught you the dog was never, ever on your side. That dog got his revenge decades later - he became a playable fighter in Super Smash Bros. in 2014 and is still throwing hands in Smash Ultimate.

Two boards, both genuine - pick the one you want

Nintendo built this cartridge on two different circuit boards, and I have both. They look identical from the outside and play identically. The difference is only visible if you open the shell:

• Standard chip board: the ROMs and lockout chip are individual black packaged chips with their part numbers printed on top (NES-MH-0 PRG, NES-MH-0 CHR).
• Epoxy-blob board: the same chips, but sealed under four blobs of black epoxy, with (c) 1988 Nintendo NES-MH printed on the back of the board.

If you open an epoxy-blob cart, it is not a reproduction. Blobs often do mean a bootleg on other games, which is why it surprises people, but this board is Nintendo’s own and is documented in NesCartDB alongside the standard ones. Same price either way; choose whichever you’d rather own.

Condition, and a great bundle anchor

Sold by condition grade: every grade plays both games the same, and the grade only describes looks - here’s how I grade condition. (And yes, as noted up top: Duck Hunt’s shooting needs a Zapper and a CRT; Super Mario Bros. plays on any TV.) The perfect anchor game for a restored NES bundle - add it to a console and the savings kick in.