Nintendo World Championships 1990 - Revered by NES players both young and old to be the holy grail of Nintendo items. Who am I to disagree?

In the year 1990, Nintendo traveled across the continental U.S. on a self-promoted World Championships tour (or Powerfest as it was also called). The early 90's was the pinnacle of Nintendo's fiscal hold on the US toy market, as it had developed into a household staple throughout toy stores and even in Hollywood with The Wizard starring Fred Savage. Similar video gaming challenges would later follow - for example, the World Blockbuster Video Game Tournament - but none have ever managed the amount of "brew-ha-ha" and hype that surrounds as this official event today. It was, in many ways, the video game competition to end all others.

Date Location City
3/9-3/11 Dallas, TX Fairpark Convention Center
3/15-3/18 Cleveland, OH Public Hall Convention Center
3/22-3/25 Pittsburgh, PA D. Lawrence Convention Center
3/29-4/1 Detriot, MI Pontiac Silverdome
4/5-4/8 Philadelphia, PA Convention Center Complex
4/12-4/15 Indianpolis, IN Convention Center
4/19-4/23 Boston, MA World Trade Convention Center
4/26-4/29 Uniondale, NY Nassau Convention Center
5/3-5/6 Hartford, CT Civic Center Exhibition Hall
5/10-5/13 Chicago, IL Rosemonet Exhibition Hall
5/17-5/20 Kansas City, MO Convention Center

Prizes given to the contestants ranged from commemorative t-shirts and baseball caps to college scholarship money. The "real" prized items from the tournament come in the form of commerative World Championships NES cartridges - really, who cares about educational funds? Championship finalists were awarded with one of 90 NWC cartridges. An additional 26 were mailed out from Nintendo Power in its magazine sponsored contest. Although now serial numbers exceeding 116 are surfacing, it appears that more copies do exist and the gross amount is reaching near the 300 mark. There are two variations of the cart: gray and gold, with the latter color being much more sought after.

The previously mentioned prized software included a collection of three bundled games: Super Mario Bros., Rad Racer, and Tetris. Recall the memorable scene in The Wizard when Jimmy Woods and two other game players go head-to-head in the epic Video Armageddon. The Nintendo World Championships was much like this. Players' tasks were to follow and complete an objective in a game, move on to the next game, and all the while collecting as many points as possible. This lasted for a six-minute time limit.

Guidelines to Win:

Collect 50 coins in Super Mario Bros. (Once finished, x1 to scored points in objective)
Finish level 1 of Rad Racer (Once finished, x10 to scored points in objective)
Play Tetris for the remainder of the time (Once finished, x25 to scored points in objective)

1990 Nintendo World Champion and Top-Scorer Scores:

Thor Aackerlund -- 2,800,000

Rich Ambler -- 2,700,000

Robin Mihara -- 2,500,000

Jeff Falco -- 2,300,000

*scores approximately

Colleen Cardas was among the contestants to have competed in the Championships in Los Angeles. Her husband placed 2nd the first weekend and she won first place in the 18 and up division the second weekend. I recently contacted Colleen to inquire about a VHS tape she had recorded from the event.

According to Colleen, the video is like a commercial or lead into the TV Show that was filmed but never aired of the final event. It is narrated by one of the stage commentator guys that wore fancy suits and yelled out scores as people were competing to increase the drama and excitement for the players and keep the audience involved. This same guy was on stage in Denver and Georgia (Colleen's husband traveled to both those cities trying to get him to win one so he could also compete in the finals).

I know what you're thinking. "Waaaay cool. Pretty awesome, dude!" Yeah, without a doubt. Wouldn't it be sweet to own of the historic NWC cartridges to challenge yourself and party like it was 1990?

More and more of these guys are coming to light in recent times because of the current emphasis (hype) the NES community has come to put upon them (e.g. NES sources, such as this very article). Chalk it up to capitalism or the methodology behind suppy-and-demand. No matter, the now grown-up players gleefully meet our cravings today. The results are mind boggling. And even more boggling is the common "technique" some buyers have used of winning an auction of the cart only to then put it back up, charging a few extra hundred dollars more reserve to profit.

Eh, its not the gold version.