To celebrate the 20th anniversary of Nintendo’s Year of the Cartridge, we take a look at the most expensive lumps of plastic ever sold.

It’s been 20 years since Nintendo announced 1994 as ‘the Year of the Cartridge’ and despite the rise and rise of the disc that followed the launch of the PlayStation later that same year, we do miss those chunky lumps of plastic.

Today only the 3DS and PS Vita handhelds still use cartridges, which means that carts themselves are getting rarer.

And as rare means valuable, there are plenty of vintage games on sale at mad prices.

Many are bought for nostalgia, or to complete a collection. But what are the rarest, most expensive cartridges around?

Air Raid - 1982

Platform: Atari 2600

Price: $31,600 (£19,000)

Towards the end of the hugely-popular Atari 2600’s life, an awful lot of companies were churning out utter dross to sell on it. The infamous E.T. game was one, and Air Raid was another.

The game was unique however. There were only about 12 copies in existence, it came in a strange blue T-handled cartridge and nobody knew anything else about the game – who made it, what its real name was, and so on. As there were so few in circulation, the games typically sold for up to $3,000 (£1,800).

Then in 2010, someone found a copy with the original packaging, confirming its manufacturer name and more. It eventually sold on eBay for $31,600.

Stadium Events - 1987

Platform: NES

Price: up to $41,300 (£25,000)

As with stamps, the most expensive games tend to be the rarest, with their rarity often the result of a manufacturer screw-up. Stadium Events was released in a test run in 1987 by Bandai. The game included an exercise mat, ‘the Family Fun Fitness’ mat. Only 200 were known to have been sold.

However, when Nintendo bought its North American distribution rights, the mat became better known as the ‘Power Pad’, and any remaining stock branded as Bandai or Stadium Events was destroyed. Of those 200 sold, most were thrown away – but a few survived.

And the prices today are crazy. For example, in 2013 an elderly lady bought a copy in a charity auction for $7.99 (£4.90) before reselling it for over $15,000 (£9,150). People will pay over $10,000 (£6,100) just for the box!

Another copy, completely sealed, sold in 2010 for $41,300.

Nintendo World Championships - 1990

Platform: NES

Price: up to $21,000 (£12,800)

You think you’re good at games, eh? Well, you’re not all that until you’ve won a Nintendo World Championship. And nowadays, you can’t.

However, back in 1990s USA, you could. You qualified by taking part in monthly competitions in Nintendo Power magazine and the prize was a copy of this unique Nintendo cartridge. There was a gold version for the winner and 25 silver ones for the runners up.

The cartridge contains three versions of three games – Super Mario Bros, Rad Racer and Tetris – modified to work for competition play. A Mario game no-one else owns? Desirable.

See also the similarly expensive Nintendo Campus Challenge – only one of these exists and it sold for just over $20,000 (£12,200) – and the Nintendo PowerFest 94: only two of these exist and one sold for $23,100 (£14,100).

The Flintstones: The Treasure of Sierra Madrock - 1994

Platform: SNES

Price: Up to $20,000 (£12,200)

We can’t work out why anyone would pay $20k for this pitiful game, even new, but someone did just that in 2012. It’s up there with the awful Pit Fighter for the Sega Mega Drive (also apparently having sold for $19,999 on eBay for a new version) which normally sells for just 69p.

It’s a pretty straight Super Mario World-style game, with simple platformer sections broken up by minigames. Players must help Fred and Barney find the eponymous treasure (the name of which is a parody of the famous Humphrey Bogart film).

Kizuna Encounter and Ultimate 11 - 1996

Platform: Neo Geo

Price: up to $55,000 (£33,500)

These are two separate games, both for the Neo Geo. Kizuna Encounter was a solid 1996 fighting game, while Ultimate 11 was the last game in the hugely-popular Super Sidekick footballing franchise.

Despite their popularity, they both exist in absolutely tiny quantities – as few as 10 of each – and sell for up to $10,000 (£6,100) and up to $13,500 (£8,200) respectively.

That’s pretty huge money, but notably it’s been reported that they’ve also sold as a pair for $55,000 on the Neo-Geo.com collector’s forum. That would make them worth about $27,500 (£16,750) each - not that we think he’d sell them on.