Nintendo World Championships

An elusive Nintendo World Championships NES cartridge

Nintendo World Championships was a special nationwide promotion/contest in 1990 that occurred in 30 cities around the United States. The legacy of this promotion lies in the game cartridge of the same name which was used in the competition. There are 116 copies of this game known to exist; 90 standard editions, given to contest winners, and 26 gold cartridges given to winners of a related Nintendo Power promotion. Because of this, it is a particularly rare game and is valued by video game collectors.

NES Game

Main article: Nintendo World Championships 1990

The NES cartridge serves as the primary competition in the 1990 Nintendo World Championship. The cartridge has a combination of Super Mario Bros., Rad Racer, and Tetris. The timer is set for 6 minutes and 21 seconds. Each game is modified for the contest:

• In Super Mario Bros., the player starts with 99 lives. The game ends when collecting 50 coins, and then Rad Racer starts.
• After clearing the Rad Racer track, the player can progress to Tetris.
• Tetris plays in a marathon mode until the timer runs out.

After the player plays a round of each game, their scores are totaled. Each score is adjusted. The players score in Super Mario Bros. are not adjusted, their score in Rad Racer is multiplied by ten, and the score in Tetris is multiplied by 25! This encourages the players to reach Tetris as quickly as possible as it is the best way to achieve high scores.

Legacy

The Nintendo World Championship cartridges are considered the "Holy Grail" of NES Collecting by many fans. Gold cartridges are the most sought-after NES cartridges in the history of video gaming, and may go for over $10,000.

Gallery

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  Standard grey cartridge

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  Flyer promoting the event

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  Promotional T-shirt

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  Promotional T-shirt

Related

• Nintendo Campus Challenge
• Nintendo Powerfest '94

External Links

• The Warp Zone article
• AtariHQ Article with info on the cartridge