As someone who writes about games for a living, developers and publishers send me a lot of game-related swag to get me to pay attention to some title. The examples range from the interesting to the obscene (remind me to tell you about the Planetside 2 diaper sometime). But at this point in my career, these freebies barely faze me anymore. Usually, I quickly put them aside in the corner to await the Child's Play charity swag giveaway we run every year.

The package I got from Capcom this week grabbed my attention though. Packaged inside a decently cool metal lunchbox was a golden NES cartridge, both of which were emblazoned with the official art from the upcoming DuckTales Remastered. Amidst some shredded dollar bills in the box was a Certificate of Authenticity identifying it as one of only 150 copies. There were a few other cute, retro-inspired touches: a coupon for "green cheese of longevity," a flier advertising "upcoming" Capcom games like Mega Man 3, and a fake ad for a music album packed with duck-themed puns.

I heard Capcom PR did something similar when Mega Man 9 came out, sending members of the press a non-functional cartridge shell in an authentic box. So at first I figured that this cartridge was similarly a stylish art piece in the style of the NES carts of old. When I looked on the underside of the cartridge though, I noticed a set of surprisingly real looking contacts protruding out.

I wondered: did Capcom actually send a working NES cartridge to promote their game? There was only one way to find out. I stuck the cartridge in the top-loading system sitting to the side of my work desk.

Holy crap, it works!

My mind immediately jumped to the question of just how Capcom pulled this off. Did they gather up a bunch of old, used DuckTales cartridges and give them a new coat of paint and stickers? Was there a jury-rigged USB stick with a ROM file MacGyver'd to the contacts in there? Was this one of those legally questionable repro carts repurposed for a promotional purpose?

I didn't have the proper tool to open those frustrating NES security screws handy, and I didn't have the patience to wait for them to come in from the Internet (or to ship the game to game cleaner extraordinaire Andrew Cunningham). So I went directly to the source. A spokesperson for Capcom told me that the cartridges were made by iam8bit, the retro-inspired art collective that runs an amazing game-themed gallery out in Los Angeles. Apparently, they went to a good deal of trouble to make these collectibles as high quality as possible.

"DuckTales was programmed onto brand-new circuit boards and chips, ensuring each game's longevity," a spokesman told Ars. "They're housed in vintage NES cartridge shells, which have been carefully refurbished and hand-painted with a golden sheen. It's a specialized process, and as materials continue to age, it becomes increasingly more rare to acquire parts in good condition."

With only 150 carts in existence, this promotional DuckTales cartridge immediately becomes one of the rarest NES items in existence. At those quantities, its rarity rivals high-priced collector items like the NES World Championship cartridge and boxed copies of Stadium Events. Will this cartridge, like those, be worth thousands of dollars to the right collector?

Not necessarily, according to Wired's Game|Life editor Chris Kohler, an avid video game collector who regularly appraises games for the entertaining PAX Retro Game Road Show panels.

"The Mega Man 9 press kit Capcom did goes for a few hundred bucks," he told Ars. "I imagine DuckTales would do the same." Kohler said he'd personally pay $200 to $300 to get one of these carts for his collection, if he hadn't already received one in the initial mailing run ("You would have to pry this from my cold, dead hands" he said).

That value could drastically vary too, because Capcom could always make more regardless of those numbered authenticity certificates. "That 'Limited Edition' Mario All-Stars set for Wii was going for $150, now it's going for $30-40 because Nintendo reprinted it," Kohler pointed out. "People hoarded sealed copies of Rez, and then Sega reprinted it many years later. Capcom could make an un-numbered edition [of the DuckTales cart], so the originals may still be more desirable, but that would still have a huge effect on price because many people would be satisfied with just the un-numbered 'regular edition.'"

Whatever the value, the golden cartridge won't be enriching us directly here at Ars. While we've happily tested the cart and had a blast reliving the excellence that is the original NES DuckTales, we're going to box it back up and get it ready to be given away during the upcoming Ars Child's Play auction in a few months. Keep an eye out, because a small donation to a good cause could net you a copy of one of the rarest and coolest NES cartridges ever made!