Nintendo World Championships 1990

Nintendo World Championships 1990 is an exceedingly rare American NES cartridge, with only 116 cartridges in existence. The cartridges were used for the Nintendo World Championships held from March 8, 1990 to December 9, 1990 in 29 cities across the United States. 90 gray cartridges were given to the ninety finalists, and 26 gold cartridges were given away in a Nintendo Power contest. Because of this, it is a particularly rare cartridge and is valued by video game collectors. Both versions usually sell for several thousand dollars on eBay. It was not released outside America.

Competition Rules
It features the three games: Super Mario Bros., ', and '. The player had a total of 6 minutes 21 seconds to play all three games, but this can be changed by DIP switches on the cartridge.

The player starts out in Super Mario Bros. They are given 99 lives, and are required to collect 50 coins in the shortest time possible. After completing this, the cartridge moves on to Rad Racer where the player has to complete the first track, again in the shortest time possible. Finally, they move on to Tetris and have to get the highest score possible with the remaining time they have left.


 * 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 player's 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.

Trivia

 * NES Remix 2 pays homage to this event by having its Competition Mode set up like the Nintendo World Championships 1990 cartridge.

Related

 * Nintendo Campus Challenge
 * Nintendo PowerFest '94