Earlier this week we told you about a The Legend of Zelda prototype cart for sale on eBay, with the seller establishing a target price of $150,000. A sale has now been made for a handsome sum, but it's ultimately just over a third of that target price.

According to examiner.com, $55,000 is a record total for a Nintendo Entertainment System game, and seller Tom Curtin stated that his choice of buyer wasn't simply down to money.

I care about the collecting community and giving it a good home was important. I feel as though that was accomplished. It was also important getting prototype video game collecting into the news. ...I am satisfied. Do I think it's worth more? Yes. There was no way I was taking less than the previous world record. The fact that it remained in tact over the last 25 years is amazing. The legacy of this cart and how it came into the hands of the previous owner is incredible.

...Amazing to play something that was in the hands of the Zelda dev team. I simply cannot describe it. I played this with my brother as a kid, for hours and ours as many of us did. To own the cart that brought this to America was a dream.

The name of the new owner will remain undisclosed due to a non-disclosure agreement, but that's a lot of money for the prototype cart; it'll be interesting to see whether that record will ever be beaten in the future.