The Hot New Nintendo Collectibles Are 35mm Film Slides

Before the digital era made sharing screenshots instant, game publicity relied on quaint workarounds: mailing tape cassettes or photographing a monitor. Small relics of that time are resurfacing in online auctions and catching the eye of gaming archivists. The preservation channel Hard4Games has noticed a rise in listings for 33mm film slides from the ’90s that appear to come from Nintendo of America’s media firm Golin/Harris International.

They include images from Super Mario 64 and, given their provenance, were likely official images distributed to magazines, sales flyers or box art—only now they’re available in much higher fidelity than most gamers ever saw. These tiny slides can equal a 4K to 6K digital scan, though the source material still reflects the somewhat muddy look of Nintendo 64 graphics.

Listings are already fetching hundreds of dollars, and some items for more recent games have prompted questions about authenticity.

United States

nintendo, film slides, 35mm, 33mm, golin harris, hard4games, mario 64, 4k scans, auctions, box art