Julian Turner, a collector of retro video games, went to a market earlier this month and bought some old NES games. When he got home, he discovered that he’d got more than he paid for: two of the cartridges were packed with illegal drugs.
The two games in question were Rollergames and Golf. Alarm bells started ringing when Julian realised that the copy of Rollergames was a PAL (Europe/Australian) version, which isn’t something you’d see every day at a flea market in Georgia.
After then noticing the cartridges felt heavier in the hand, Turner weighed them on digital scales and found both games were around 50% heavier than they should have been (he had other copies of both games on-hand to compare).
So he unscrewed the backs of both games to investigate, opened them up and found four shiny plastic bags. After opening those, he … called the cops.
(I’ve asked the attending officer for information on exactly what kind of drugs were in the bags, but am waiting to hear back).
We actually get a chance to see all this happen in realtime in the video below, since Turner often films his pick-ups:
Officers from Newnan Police Department answered the call to come investigate (you can see them visiting in timelapse in at the end of the video), and also checked out the market at which the games were bought, but it was clear this wasn’t a fresh transaction; those drugs had been in there a while if they’d found their way to a market.
Interestingly, while poking around his circumstances online, Julian learned of another copy of Golf that a collector had found to be stuffed with $US5000 ($6,452) in bills dating back to 1985.
Photo: NintendoAge
Have we stumbled, 30 years later, on the remains of an old Golf-related drug smuggling ring operating between the United States and Europe in the 1980s, which these specific carts somehow found their way out of?
I wonder how that happened. Maybe there was an innocent mix-up at some drug dealers home, whose kid already owned a copy of Golf. Which then led to a tense 1986 standoff at Brussels airport, as a burly man with a thick moustache opened a NES game expecting drugs and instead found…a NES game.
Meanwhile these drugs have just been chilling inside old cartridges for 30 years, waiting for Julian to open them…
Comments
28 responses to “Game Collector Finds Drugs Hidden Inside NES Cartridges”
Man, on-disc DLC was some hardcore shit in the 1980’s…
Does this mean that some of these games were “crack”-ed?
X-P
I’ll get my coat.
“What club should I use on hole 8?”
“A credit card and a mirror according to the instruction manual…”
I can imagine a third person viewing this article right now.
“Hm, are those pictures WiseHacker’s? His or her posts imply he or she is one something.”
X-P
[Shouts from the exit]
That modification of the Golf game seems a bit rich too!
X-P
I just thought video games themselves were addictive
This takes Game modding to a whole new level!
I guess he had to “Blow” in the cartridge to get the game to work.
“Pablo Escobars Putting Challenge!”
“You have chosen. ASSAULT. RIFLE. Might I suggest a three wood?”
“The ball cannot get into the hole… it seems there’s a GIANT PACKAGE OF COCAINE blocking it…”
Your courier has been stealing from you, your caddy recommends a 3 wood to break his legs followed by a 9 iron for snashing his skull in.
Cant say i would have called the cops myself. Would have tested the drugs just to make sure I wasnt giving the cops anything dangerous…
Excluding that its 20+ years old. Well if it was smuggling ring… thats probably uncut and deadly.
No extra lives, no respawn, no press start to continue. Press X to pay respect! You Died!
Meanwhile how much free space was in those carts? Holy crap
Design asthetic was to look less like the Atari cartridges post-consile market crash and look more like VCRs.
There were also different types of PCBs that changed over the years… small games small pcb, while nintendo originals would have full size boards but the cartridges ad to stay the same size due to the consoles lock and eject mechanics.
Depends on the game, as different games had different memory and effects requirements the amount of physical hardware differed.
Along with what’s already been mentioned, the extra space also allowed for external co-processing, battery backed RAM for saves, etc.
>click on the video
>420 views
>nice
Finding some drugs under some old NES cartridges that claim to be Nintendo Entertainment System games. Well that’s no way to hide illegal drugs under some NES cartridges and sell it on the black market but whoever is responsible for hiding the drugs under some NES cartridges should be brought to justice.
Sounds like a scheme to increase the value of old Golf cartridges 🙂
Blow in the cartridge.
Hmm, doubt he will get the drugs back if nobody comes in and claims them within a specific time. In saying that doing drugs is bad, however these could be just weed (packaging surface a little rough) which is pretty minor if you ask me. It would be silly to open the packages, for obvious legal reasons!
I thought with the Nintendo cartridges the idea was to “Blow on them” not have “Blow in them”.
So that’s how people afford to collect those games!
Nah, they’re pretty cheap. Just depends if one is carrying liquid or pod Tide.
X-P
And I promise, that’s my last “dad-joke” for the year.
REMEMBER KIDS! Say No To Golf!