[ Retro Scan of the Week ] Nintendo World Championships 1990
March 11th, 2014 by Benj Edwards
“Children everywhere will be crushed and digitized by the trophy of power.”
There’s a certain ultra-rare golden NES cartridge out there that originated at Nintendo World Championships 1990. Here’s an advertisement for the event itself on the back of a vintage Nintendo Power magazine from 1990.
Kinda makes you want to go back in time and attend, doesn’t it? Call 1-900-HOT-4NWC to find out more!
Discussion Topic of the Week: Video game competitions: interesting or boring? Debate.
March 11th, 2014 at 3:30 pm
I might watch the finals of a Street Fighter tournament since it goes pretty quickly, but anything longer than that would be a chore to watch. The only game competition I ever competed in was the Star Fox one from the mid 90’s. I think I won a couple of T-shirts and a few pins.
March 11th, 2014 at 9:02 pm
I recognize this Nintendo Power scan.
When I was a hardcore Nintendo nerd (8-bit NES days), I would have loved to attend (and compete) in one of these competitions. None ever came close to where I lived.
I remember hearing a radio commercial some years later for another gaming championship. I think it was operated by Blockbuster video (some Googling corroborates this). I still remember the commercial:
“So you beat your brother, you beat your friends, you beat your brother’s friends– but how good are you, really? Well Blockbuster wants to get all those neighborhood champions together to find out!”
March 12th, 2014 at 6:43 pm
Not sure if this counts, but I used to like watching Starcade about 30 years ago…dreamed of going on that show! Although I would want to win an arcade game (and not that robot). You can watch most episodes over on the web site. It’s also sad that the host (Geoff Edwards) just passed away.
March 12th, 2014 at 6:48 pm
Besides a local Super Smash Bros. tournament or two in college, I’ve never heard much of anything related to competitions for video games.
If you’re into them, that’s cool. If for some reason a game that I was really good at had a competition going, I might sign up or at the very least watch. But I doubt such a thing will happen any time soon.
March 15th, 2014 at 9:08 am
Not a tournament, but I thought the King of Kong documentary about world records was fascinating and insightful.
March 21st, 2014 at 8:50 pm
why not? video games, especially those that involves playing against or with other players are competitive in nature.
even if people won’t consider video games as sport, it would be fun to watch.
April 1st, 2014 at 5:57 pm
Speaking of King of Kong, I drove to Chicago a few years ago to see Steve Wiebe try for the record. It was mesmerizing watching a single game of Donkey Kong go for over 3 hours.