Nintendo World Championships
In 1990 Nintendo held a special video game competition. The competition dubbed Nintendo World Championship was based on scoring points in three Nintendo Entertainment System games within a timelimit of six minutes. The movie The Wizard is based on this competition.
Cartridge
For the competition 116 special game cardridges were manufactored. 90 of these copies exist in a common Grey cartridge and were given out to winners of the 1990 NWC. 26 of these cartridges are "Gold" - like the Legend of Zelda cartridge - and were given out through Nintendo Power Magazine.
This game cartridge is hailed by most collectors to be one of the most rare and sought after cartridges for Nintendo, promo cartridges aside. Recently, a grey cartrige went on eBay and sold for a record $6,100 [1].
Games
A player has six minutes to complete the contest, which is divided up into three minigames. Your first minigame on this competition cartridge is to collect 50 coins in Super Mario Brothers. Next, you play Rad Racer on a specialized Nintendo World Championship course. Finally, you attempt to get the highest score possible in Tetris. Once all three minigames are completed, your score is totaled.
Most players focussed their tactic on getting a highscore in Tetris, other players tried to exploit a trick in Super Mario Brothers where a part of the game can be played repeatedly using warp pipes.
External links
- Nintendo World Championship at MobyGames
- Nespit A cardridge owner's website
- AtariHQ has an in-depth look at Nintendo World Championship as well as playing tactics and screen shots.
- The Warp Zone A site with a lot of information about the event instead of the cardridge.