Nintendo Entertainment System Nintendo World Championships 1990 USA
0City Competition structureThe 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.
The 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 Game Boy.
World Championships competition structureThe world finals were held similarly to the city contests and were held at Universal Studios Hollywood 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
Official Nintendo World Championships 1990 gray NES cartridgeContestants 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:[1]
(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.[citation needed]
The highest score with the first method during the city tour was 2,800,000 by Jeff Falco.[citation needed]
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.[1] 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.[1]
ResultsThree World Champion titles were given. Jeff Hansen won in the 11 and under category, Thor Aackerlund won in the 12-17 category, and Robert Whiteman won in the 18 and older category. Below is a full listing of the ninety finalists from each city for each age category.