Nintendo World Championships

Nintendo World Championships is a special nationwide promotion/contest in 1990. The legacy of this promotion lies in the game cartridge of the same name which came from it. 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.

NES Game
The NES game was used as the primary competition in the 1990 Nintendo World Championship.

The NES game was a combination of Super Mario Bros., Rad Racer, and Tetris. Each game was modified for the contest:
 * In Super Mario Bros., you start with 99 lives. The game ends when you collect 100 coins, and Rad Racer starts.
 * After you clear the Rad Racer track, you jump to Tetris
 * Tetris plays in a marathon mode until the timer runs out.

After you played a round of each game, your scores were totaled. Each scored was adjusted. Your score from Super Mario Bros. was multiplied by ten and your score from Rad Racer was multiplied by a hundred. This encouraged players to get to Tetris as quickly as possible and rack up a score in there, as Tetris' score was multipled by 25.

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 $20,000.

Related

 * Nintendo Campus Challenge
 * Nintendo Powerfest