Get A Look At The Video Game Black Market From The Early '90s With This Bootleg Game Catalog

The Video Game History Foundation has shared a look at what the video game black market looked like in the 1990s. On Twitter, the nonprofit organization focused on preserving the history of video games shared images of a mail-order catalog selling bootleg Nintendo cartridges with multiple games on them.

The catalog from Games Unlimited Company offered cartridges with multiple games, ranging from 16 to 110 games on a single cart. The Video Game History Foundation noted that these games were likely coming from Canada because the flier mentions not being able to get the games "without a plane ticket to Canada." The 110 game cartridge cost $138, which is slightly more than one dollar per game, a steal in the 1990s and in 2021--literally.

The flier also advertises the Game Genie, which was barred from sale in the United States at that time. The organization also shared a Game Genie ad where Camerica "thanked Canada" since that was the only way for an American to acquire the device at the time.

Nintendo was able to stop the majority of bootleg import games from making it into the U.S. Nintendo has been coming after bootleg games, as well as fan-made versions of its games, for a very long time.