In an effort to fight piracy back in 1994, Nintendo set up a small PR stunt where they used a steamroller to crush a whole bunch of pirated games.
The “event” took place in the Netherlands in 1994 and was documented in a newspaper. Twitter user “Gamegeschiedenis” unearthed some of those old photos, showing a steamroller run over a whole bunch of game cartridges while Mario participates (someone in a really bad Mario costume).
The article reads:
“Video game company Nintendo is using a roller to combat piracy. At Lelystad airport ten thousand counterfeit video games were crushed. The Japanese company has started a targeted and structured worldwide campaign to combat forgeries of their video games. The destroyed games came from Hong Kong and were confiscated from a Dutch importing company.”
Check out the photos below.
