Nintendo World Championship
Encyclopedia
The Nintendo World Championships was a 1990 Nintendo
-promoted video game competition
that toured twenty-nine cities across the United States. It was based on scoring points in three Nintendo Entertainment System
games (Super Mario Bros., Rad Racer, and Tetris) within a time limit of 6 minutes and 21 seconds. The competition was based loosely on the movie The Wizard
.
On Sunday night, the Semi-Finalists were divided by age group, and each Semi-Finalists group played in the "Pods". At most, 100 could play at a time. The top seven scorers from each age group then played in a final round on stage while Terry Lee Torok and John Michael Phane moderated play by play to the crowd. Out of the seven scores, the top two scorers played head-to-head for City Champion.
Each finalist won a trophy, $250, and a trip for two to the World Finals at Universal Studios Hollywood
. The runner-up won a Nintendo Power Pad
and a Gameboy.
in the Star Trek Theater, now Shrek 4D. Each age group's thirty finalists played one round for the top seven positions. The 18 and over group played first, followed by the 11 and under, and completed with the 12-17 age group. Each age group's top seven played and the two top scores played head-to-head for the age group title.
Contestants played a specialized game cartridge designed specifically for the contest. Officially, a player has 6 minutes and 21 seconds to play, which is divided up into three minigames. The first minigame of the competition is to collect 50 coins in Super Mario Bros.
. The next minigame is a version of Rad Racer
where players must complete a specialized Nintendo World Championship course. The final minigame is Tetris
, and this lasts until time expires. Once time expires, a player's score is totaled using the following formula:
(Super Mario Bros. score) + (Rad Racer score x 10) + (Tetris score x 25) = final score
There were two methods to obtaining fifty coins in Super Mario Bros. The first method involved going down the first pipe, collecting 20 coins, finishing the board, and getting the remainder of the coins in World 1-2. The second method had the player dying twice on World 1-1. Strangely, the second method proved much faster. Thor Aackerlund
used this method during the tour to get the World Record score of over 4,000,000 points.
The highest score with the first method during the city tour was 2,800,000 by Jeff Falco.
The first two games were modified so that a player could not get a "game over." In Super Mario Bros., the player was given 99 lives, and in Rad Racer, the in-game timer was permanently fixed at 99 seconds. In Tetris, however, stacking a line of blocks over the top of the playing field would effectively end the game prematurely, as the player could not start again; the game would freeze at the "game over" screen until the 6:21 competition time ran out.
The remainder of the top seven of each age category received a thousand dollar savings bond.
Semi-Finalists in each city received $50 in Nintendo Cash as well as an "NWC" semi-finalist white baseball cap with two collector Super Mario pins.
For the competition, 116 special game cartridges were manufactured. 90 of these copies exist as the official gray cartridge and were given out to finalists after the championships concluded. The other 26 are gold—like the The Legend of Zelda cartridge and were given out as prizes in a separate contest held by Nintendo Power
magazine. Each gray cartridge has a unique number making the cartridge easier to track and difficult to counterfeit. However, the gold cartridges have no unique identification numbers and are difficult to track and authenticate. The circuit boards in the gray and gold cartridges are identical. Both versions of the cartridge feature DIP switch
es on the front which select the time limit of the game. To play the cartridge, one must have a controller connected to both controller ports and press start on the second player's controller. For the competition, there was a special switch that would start all games simultaneously.
baseball card, or the Action Comics #1
comic book.
On March 18, 2007 a listing appeared on Myebid.com in which a cartridge appeared to have been inadvertently included in a bereavement sale of 24 NES games. According to the auction, a father was selling the possessions of his deceased son. The auction ended at $21,400, though collectors have speculated that neither the listing nor the bids were legitimate.
In 2008, a cartridge went for $15,000, and the next copy to surface sold in June 2009 for $17,500. Most recently, in December 2009, JJGames presented a copy on eBay as part of a charity auction for World Vision
; the auction ended with a winning bid of $13,600. The high bidder failed to pay and the cartridge sold privately for $18,000.
For the 2011 Child's Play Charity Auction, Steve Lin (@stevenplin on Twitter) will be donating a gray version of the cartridge.
(also called Nintendo World Championships II). In 1991 Nintendo held their Nintendo Campus Challenge
event which was not billed as a World Championships but used a similar format and traveled to college campuses throughout the US.
Nintendo
is a multinational corporation located in Kyoto, Japan. Founded on September 23, 1889 by Fusajiro Yamauchi, it produced handmade hanafuda cards. By 1963, the company had tried several small niche businesses, such as a cab company and a love hotel....
-promoted video game competition
Electronic sports
Electronic sports comprises the competitive play of video games. Other terms include competitive gaming, professional gaming and cybersports...
that toured twenty-nine cities across the United States. It was based on scoring points in three Nintendo Entertainment System
Nintendo Entertainment System
The Nintendo Entertainment System is an 8-bit video game console that was released by Nintendo in North America during 1985, in Europe during 1986 and Australia in 1987...
games (Super Mario Bros., Rad Racer, and Tetris) within a time limit of 6 minutes and 21 seconds. The competition was based loosely on the movie The Wizard
The Wizard (film)
The Wizard is a 1989 adventure dramedy film starring Fred Savage, Luke Edwards, and Jenny Lewis...
.
City Competition structure
The Nintendo World Championships had three separate age groups (11 and under, 12-17, and 18 and over). The city contests were held over the weekend and began on Friday afternoon and ended on Sunday night. Over three days, players qualified for the Semi-Finals over two rounds. The first round a player had to score at least 175,000 points in the "Pods" area. To qualify for the Semi-Finals held on Sunday night, contestants had to play on a seven player stage and score at least 200,000 points.On Sunday night, the Semi-Finalists were divided by age group, and each Semi-Finalists group played in the "Pods". At most, 100 could play at a time. The top seven scorers from each age group then played in a final round on stage while Terry Lee Torok and John Michael Phane moderated play by play to the crowd. Out of the seven scores, the top two scorers played head-to-head for City Champion.
Each finalist won a trophy, $250, and a trip for two to the World Finals at Universal Studios Hollywood
Universal Studios Hollywood
Universal Studios Hollywood is a movie studio and theme park in the unincorporated Universal City community of Los Angeles County, California, United States. It is one of the oldest and most famous Hollywood movie studios still in use...
. The runner-up won a Nintendo Power Pad
Power Pad
The Power Pad is a floor mat game controller for the Nintendo Entertainment System. It is a gray mat with twelve pressure-sensors embedded between two layers of flexible plastic...
and a Gameboy.
World Championships competition structure
The world finals were held similarly to the city contests and were held at Universal Studios HollywoodUniversal Studios Hollywood
Universal Studios Hollywood is a movie studio and theme park in the unincorporated Universal City community of Los Angeles County, California, United States. It is one of the oldest and most famous Hollywood movie studios still in use...
in the Star Trek Theater, now Shrek 4D. Each age group's thirty finalists played one round for the top seven positions. The 18 and over group played first, followed by the 11 and under, and completed with the 12-17 age group. Each age group's top seven played and the two top scores played head-to-head for the age group title.
Games
Super Mario Bros.
is a 1985 platform video game developed by Nintendo, published for the Nintendo Entertainment System as a sequel to the 1983 game Mario Bros. In Super Mario Bros., the player controls Mario as he travels through the Mushroom Kingdom in order to rescue Princess Toadstool from the antagonist...
. The next minigame is a version of Rad Racer
Rad Racer
Rad Racer, known in Japan as , is a racing game developed and published by Square for the Nintendo Entertainment System in 1987. It was programmed by Nasir Gebelli, designed and supervised by Hironobu Sakaguchi, and featured music by Nobuo Uematsu, all of whom later contributed to Final Fantasy in...
where players must complete a specialized Nintendo World Championship course. The final minigame is Tetris
Tetris
Tetris is a puzzle video game originally designed and programmed by Alexey Pajitnov in the Soviet Union. It was released on June 6, 1984, while he was working for the Dorodnicyn Computing Centre of the Academy of Science of the USSR in Moscow, Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic...
, and this lasts until time expires. Once time expires, a player's score is totaled using the following formula:
(Super Mario Bros. score) + (Rad Racer score x 10) + (Tetris score x 25) = final score
There were two methods to obtaining fifty coins in Super Mario Bros. The first method involved going down the first pipe, collecting 20 coins, finishing the board, and getting the remainder of the coins in World 1-2. The second method had the player dying twice on World 1-1. Strangely, the second method proved much faster. Thor Aackerlund
Thor Aackerlund
Thor Bjorn Thorlei Aackerlund was one of the winners from the 1990 NWC . He holds a Mario trophy from the competition.-1990 NWC :...
used this method during the tour to get the World Record score of over 4,000,000 points.
The highest score with the first method during the city tour was 2,800,000 by Jeff Falco.
The first two games were modified so that a player could not get a "game over." In Super Mario Bros., the player was given 99 lives, and in Rad Racer, the in-game timer was permanently fixed at 99 seconds. In Tetris, however, stacking a line of blocks over the top of the playing field would effectively end the game prematurely, as the player could not start again; the game would freeze at the "game over" screen until the 6:21 competition time ran out.
Prizes
The top winner in each age category took home a $10,000 U.S. savings bond, a new 1990 Geo Metro Convertible, a 40" rear-projection TV, and a gold painted Mario trophy. Runners up in each age category received a silver Mario trophy.The remainder of the top seven of each age category received a thousand dollar savings bond.
Semi-Finalists in each city received $50 in Nintendo Cash as well as an "NWC" semi-finalist white baseball cap with two collector Super Mario pins.
Cartridge
Nintendo Power
Nintendo Power magazine is a monthly news and strategy magazine formerly published in-house by Nintendo of America, but now run independently. As of issue #222 , Nintendo contracted publishing duties to Future US, the U.S. subsidiary of British publisher Future.The first issue published was...
magazine. Each gray cartridge has a unique number making the cartridge easier to track and difficult to counterfeit. However, the gold cartridges have no unique identification numbers and are difficult to track and authenticate. The circuit boards in the gray and gold cartridges are identical. Both versions of the cartridge feature DIP switch
DIP switch
DIP switches are manual electric switches that are packaged in a group in a standard dual in-line package...
es on the front which select the time limit of the game. To play the cartridge, one must have a controller connected to both controller ports and press start on the second player's controller. For the competition, there was a special switch that would start all games simultaneously.
Collectible value
The Nintendo World Championships 1990 game cartridge is considered to be the rarest and most valuable NES cartridge released. Because fewer gold cartridges were manufactured, they are rarer and command a higher price than the gray cartridges. The gold version is often described as the "holy grail" of console game collecting, similar to items from other collectible hobbies, such as the T206 Honus WagnerT206 Honus Wagner
The T206 Honus Wagner baseball card depicts Pittsburgh Pirates' Honus Wagner, a dead-ball era baseball player who is widely considered to be one of the best players of all time. The card was designed and issued by the American Tobacco Company from 1909 to 1911 as part of its T206 series...
baseball card, or the Action Comics #1
Action Comics 1
Action Comics #1 is the first issue of the comic book series Action Comics. It features the first appearance of several comic book heroes, most notably the Jerry Siegel/Joe Shuster creation Superman.-Contents:...
comic book.
On March 18, 2007 a listing appeared on Myebid.com in which a cartridge appeared to have been inadvertently included in a bereavement sale of 24 NES games. According to the auction, a father was selling the possessions of his deceased son. The auction ended at $21,400, though collectors have speculated that neither the listing nor the bids were legitimate.
In 2008, a cartridge went for $15,000, and the next copy to surface sold in June 2009 for $17,500. Most recently, in December 2009, JJGames presented a copy on eBay as part of a charity auction for World Vision
World Vision
World Vision, founded in the USA in 1950, is an evangelical relief and development organization whose stated goal is "to follow our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ in working with the poor and oppressed to promote human transformation, seek justice and bear witness to the good news of the Kingdom of...
; the auction ended with a winning bid of $13,600. The high bidder failed to pay and the cartridge sold privately for $18,000.
For the 2011 Child's Play Charity Auction, Steve Lin (@stevenplin on Twitter) will be donating a gray version of the cartridge.
Reproduction cartridge
In 2008, the website retrousb.com began selling reproduction cartridges of Nintendo World Championships. The reproduced cartridge is nearly identical to the original, complete with its own DIP switches. The differences are that the cartridge is blue in color and has a different board in order to avoid confusion with authentic carts. It is region free. However, it runs slower on PAL systems; as such, the time limit will be increased. The game also comes with a laser printed manual that has exclusive tips and cheats.Additional Nintendo World Championships
Nintendo held one other Nintendo World Championship event: Nintendo PowerFest '94Nintendo PowerFest '94
Nintendo PowerFest '94 was a 1994 Nintendo-promoted video game competition. Most of the town competitions were held in customized trailers outside of department stores. It was based on scoring points in a special game pack. The three Super Nintendo Entertainment System games Nintendo PowerFest...
(also called Nintendo World Championships II). In 1991 Nintendo held their Nintendo Campus Challenge
Nintendo Campus Challenge
Nintendo Campus Challenge was a video game competition sponsored by Nintendo and held at nearly 60 college campuses throughout the United States. There were two Campus Challenge events, one in 1991 and another in 1992.-Games:...
event which was not billed as a World Championships but used a similar format and traveled to college campuses throughout the US.
External links
- AtariHQ has an in-depth look at Nintendo World Championship as well as playing tactics and screen shots.