• Log InLog In
  • Register
Liquid`
Team Liquid Liquipedia
EDT 04:31
CEST 10:31
KST 17:31
  • Home
  • Forum
  • Calendar
  • Streams
  • Liquipedia
  • Features
  • Store
  • EPT
  • TL+
  • StarCraft 2
  • Brood War
  • Smash
  • Heroes
  • Counter-Strike
  • Overwatch
  • Liquibet
  • Fantasy StarCraft
  • TLPD
  • StarCraft 2
  • Brood War
  • Blogs
Forum Sidebar
Events/Features
News
Featured News
Code S RO8 Preview: herO, Zoun, Bunny, Classic4Code S RO8 Preview: Rogue, GuMiho, Solar, Maru3BGE Stara Zagora 2025: Info & Preview27Code S RO12 Preview: GuMiho, Bunny, SHIN, ByuN3The Memories We Share - Facing the Final(?) GSL47
Community News
BGE Stara Zagora 2025 - Replay Pack2Weekly Cups (June 2-8): herO doubles down1[BSL20] ProLeague: Bracket Stage & Dates9GSL Ro4 and Finals moved to Sunday June 15th13Weekly Cups (May 27-June 1): ByuN goes back-to-back0
StarCraft 2
General
Code S RO8 Preview: herO, Zoun, Bunny, Classic Jim claims he and Firefly were involved in match-fixing The SCII GOAT: A statistical Evaluation DreamHack Dallas 2025 - Official Replay Pack BGE Stara Zagora 2025 - Replay Pack
Tourneys
[GSL 2025] Code S:Season 2 - RO8 - Group A RSL: Revival, a new crowdfunded tournament series SOOPer7s Showmatches 2025 Sparkling Tuna Cup - Weekly Open Tournament Sea Duckling Open (Global, Bronze-Diamond)
Strategy
[G] Darkgrid Layout Simple Questions Simple Answers [G] PvT Cheese: 13 Gate Proxy Robo
Custom Maps
[UMS] Zillion Zerglings
External Content
Mutation # 477 Slow and Steady Mutation # 476 Charnel House Mutation # 475 Hard Target Mutation # 474 Futile Resistance
Brood War
General
BW General Discussion BGH auto balance -> http://bghmmr.eu/ FlaSh Witnesses SCV Pull Off the Impossible vs Shu StarCraft & BroodWar Campaign Speedrun Quest Will foreigners ever be able to challenge Koreans?
Tourneys
[BSL20] GosuLeague RO16 - Tue & Wed 20:00+CET [ASL19] Grand Finals NA Team League 6/8/2025 [Megathread] Daily Proleagues
Strategy
I am doing this better than progamers do. [G] How to get started on ladder as a new Z player
Other Games
General Games
Stormgate/Frost Giant Megathread Nintendo Switch Thread Beyond All Reason Path of Exile What do you want from future RTS games?
Dota 2
Official 'what is Dota anymore' discussion
League of Legends
Heroes of the Storm
Simple Questions, Simple Answers Heroes of the Storm 2.0
Hearthstone
Heroes of StarCraft mini-set
TL Mafia
TL Mafia Community Thread Vanilla Mini Mafia
Community
General
US Politics Mega-thread UK Politics Mega-thread Things Aren’t Peaceful in Palestine Russo-Ukrainian War Thread Vape Nation Thread
Fan Clubs
Maru Fan Club Serral Fan Club
Media & Entertainment
Korean Music Discussion [Manga] One Piece
Sports
2024 - 2025 Football Thread Formula 1 Discussion NHL Playoffs 2024
World Cup 2022
Tech Support
Computer Build, Upgrade & Buying Resource Thread
TL Community
The Automated Ban List
Blogs
A Better Routine For Progame…
TrAiDoS
StarCraft improvement
iopq
Heero Yuy & the Tax…
KrillinFromwales
I was completely wrong ab…
jameswatts
Need Your Help/Advice
Glider
Trip to the Zoo
micronesia
Customize Sidebar...

Website Feedback

Closed Threads



Active: 28511 users

Before ESPORTS: Nintendo World Championship

Blogs > heyoka
Post a Reply
1 2 3 Next All
Heyoka
Profile Blog Joined March 2008
Katowice25012 Posts
Last Edited: 2011-03-15 07:34:32
March 02 2011 18:22 GMT
#1
Remember The Wizard, where Fred Savage escorts his endearingly quirky (autistic?) brother to a video game tournament while also finding love? Remember how seriously kick-ass that tournament was? He played Mario 3! That shit was rad. How about the real life event?

Nintendo World Championships


The greatest video in ESPORTS history


Wiki claims the event was based on the end sequence in the movie. I've never run across anything confirming, but it came out in late 1989 and the competitions were held in spring of 1990 so its probably not necessary. The entire thing was set as a weekend long convention to showcase Nintendo products that drew kids in with a multi-game tournament. Basically a miniature, traveling E3.

[image loading]


To compete, there was a special cartridge made that is now worth quite a bit. It had Super Mario Brothers, Rad Racer, and Tetris with the goal being to get the highest score, the Wiki page details nicely how it all worked.

Contestants 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 Brothers. 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 does expire, a player's score is totaled using the following formula:

(Super Mario Bros.) + (Rad Racer x 10) + (Tetris x 25) = final score

Some players focused their tactic on getting a high score in Tetris while others tried to exploit a trick in Super Mario Brothers where a part of the game may be played repeatedly using warp pipes.
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 and Thor Aackerlund used it during the tour to get the World Record score of over 4,000,000 points.


The last part is my favorite and best fitting for TL. Someone figured out the fastest way to finish the first game way to die twice, abusing the fact that you can't lose there. Serious ESPORTS.

[image loading]


The format involved playing in two pools, and advancing if you scored above certain thresholds (175k and 200k). "Winning" those qualified you to play on sunday, where you would do the same over and they selected the top 7 to play on stage, with the top 2 scorers winning a trip to the world finals. I have no idea why it was called the "World Championships" when it was obviously United States centered, although something similar was held in Tokyo at one point.

Its not clear to me how the finals worked, some pictures exist of the event exist that suggest it was the same as before, though I've read things talking about Super Mario Brothers 3 being part of what was played in Universal Studios.

Also the dude who won the middle age category is named Thor, which is badass. He went on to represent Camerica, a company only known for releasing bad and unlicensed NES games.

[image loading]


Nintendo hosted 2 more similar events, Campus Challenge and PowerFest '94, which were more of the same with different games and a slightly modified tournament structure. These must have been much less popular, as they recieved considerably less press and are more difficult to find any information on.

Blockbuster ran 2 competitions as well, of which the Donkey Kong Country Championship Edition and NBA Jam/Judge Dredd (lol) Genesis Cart are also high prized.

I have a few friends who attended these, and they have extremely positive memories. Going to a video game tournament at 10 years old is probably the greatest moment of your life, though I can't imagine making events that annoy parents is a great business model.

****
@RealHeyoka | ESL / DreamHack StarCraft Lead
gryffindor
Profile Joined November 2009
United States524 Posts
Last Edited: 2011-03-02 18:28:20
March 02 2011 18:27 GMT
#2
that's pretty cool
I really loved that movie, thanks for reminding me of that. I wonder what Fred Savage is doing right now...


edit: it's cool to see how far E-Sports has come!
i got blisters on me fingers
AirbladeOrange
Profile Blog Joined June 2010
United States2573 Posts
March 02 2011 18:51 GMT
#3
Good blog. The Wizard was a terrible movie but if I had seen it when it was released I know I would have shit myself with joy during the end competition scenes.

I don't get why they sent the kid who won the 11 and under to represent America against the Japanese person. Was it a kids only tounry? And what came of THAT competition? I couldn't find anything about it after googling for about 20 seconds.
NrG.NeverExpo
Profile Blog Joined December 2008
Canada2114 Posts
March 02 2011 19:01 GMT
#4
lol geez that announcer would have made me really pissed off if he was screaming at me from 2 feet away when i was trying to micro mah tetris blocks O_O
TwitteR: @NeverExpo follow me, i'll follow back :)
Xxio
Profile Blog Joined July 2009
Canada5565 Posts
March 02 2011 19:44 GMT
#5
heyoka is so cool that mere mortals freeze in his presence.
KTY
prodiG
Profile Blog Joined January 2010
Canada2016 Posts
March 02 2011 19:44 GMT
#6
You really can commentate anything...
ESV Mapmaking Team || http://twitter.com/prodiGsc || Real talk, I don't have time to sugar-coat it for you sir
Heyoka
Profile Blog Joined March 2008
Katowice25012 Posts
March 02 2011 21:45 GMT
#7
On March 03 2011 03:51 AirbladeOrange wrote:
Good blog. The Wizard was a terrible movie but if I had seen it when it was released I know I would have shit myself with joy during the end competition scenes.

I don't get why they sent the kid who won the 11 and under to represent America against the Japanese person. Was it a kids only tounry? And what came of THAT competition? I couldn't find anything about it after googling for about 20 seconds.


I have no idea either, I couldn't find anything all morning about the japan competition but I might try again when I home tonight. Its especially weird because Thor is considerably more famous and stuff about him is everywhere.
@RealHeyoka | ESL / DreamHack StarCraft Lead
Bosu
Profile Blog Joined June 2008
United States3247 Posts
March 02 2011 21:47 GMT
#8
Looks like Thor started up a blog last month about retro gaming. Neat.
#1 Kwanro Fan
JamesSwift
Profile Joined May 2010
United States71 Posts
March 02 2011 23:07 GMT
#9
Yeah I remember participating in preliminaries for a blockbuster video game tournament in the early 90s. Basically, it was over the course of like 4 weeks and I can't remember exactly but either you needed to be top x % to move on to the next week or it was cumalitive score after the games to determine who went on to the live tournament.

I just remember that the games included Clayfighters and NBA Jam (on Super NES).
你好
Manifesto7
Profile Blog Joined November 2002
Osaka27139 Posts
March 02 2011 23:35 GMT
#10
Great thread. Spotlighted.
ModeratorGodfather
Gonff
Profile Joined May 2010
United States686 Posts
March 02 2011 23:59 GMT
#11
Awesome. It's nostalgia day on TL and I'm loving every second of it.
Contagious
Profile Blog Joined December 2005
United States1319 Posts
March 03 2011 00:17 GMT
#12
love these throw back videos.. this one is so cheesy though haha :D
No_Roo
Profile Joined February 2010
United States905 Posts
Last Edited: 2011-03-03 00:37:57
March 03 2011 00:35 GMT
#13
I remember my older brother competing in the blockbuster one (or one of them) for the genesis, and making it to the state finals. The games were sonic 3, nba jam, and virtua racer.

My parents did not allow me to compete for some unknown reason, despite the fact I was significantly superior to him.

Any way, nba jam is dumb, if I wanted to watch a ball bounce around all day long I would be out in the street not playing video games kthx.

I must have been 11 or 12 years old at the time.
(US) NoRoo.fighting
deL
Profile Blog Joined March 2009
Australia5540 Posts
March 03 2011 00:43 GMT
#14
Haha awesome. I love the music and the host - let's bring it back for SC2.
Gaming videos for fun ~ http://www.youtube.com/user/WijLopenLos
Trebis
Profile Joined March 2010
United States182 Posts
March 03 2011 00:50 GMT
#15
I love the Tetris commentary. Deep.
Are your friends all noobs? Send them to SC2 Noob School! www.youtube.com/sc2noobschool
FILM
Profile Joined September 2010
United States663 Posts
Last Edited: 2011-03-03 00:53:09
March 03 2011 00:52 GMT
#16
Oh man, I had no idea about this. This was almost as cool as Swordquest.

The contest prize was a "Philosopher's Stone," which in this case was a large chunk of white jade in a 18K gold box encrusted with diamonds, emeralds, citrines, and rubies, valued at $25,000. The four winners of all four game contests were also supposed to compete for the "Sword of Ultimate Sorcery", a sword with a gold handle encrusted with jewels, and a gleaming pure silver blade which was valued at $50,000.
Artosis:  "It's like Detroit in there."   Tasteless:  "Lots of shootings and damaged buildings."
Graham
Profile Blog Joined January 2010
Canada1259 Posts
March 03 2011 00:58 GMT
#17
Awesome blog and amazing read. Nice being able to read and get some insight into what game tournaments ages ago were like, not to mention the awesome commentary (why don't we have a tetris man in the SC community? ).

p.s. for anyone who was wondering about the prizes (as I was), from wikipedia:
"The top winner in each age category took home a $10,000 U.S. savings bond, a new 1990 Geo Metro Convertible, a 40" rear-projection TV, and a gold painted Mario trophy. Runners up in each age category received a silver Mario trophy.
The remainder of the top seven of each age category received a thousand dollar savings bond."
[Proton]
Profile Joined February 2010
Panama17 Posts
March 03 2011 00:59 GMT
#18
That video made my day!
Yergidy
Profile Blog Joined April 2010
United States2107 Posts
March 03 2011 01:10 GMT
#19
That is so bad ass!
One bright day in the middle of the night, Two dead boys got up to fight; Back to back they faced each other, Drew their swords and shot each other.
Neoattitude
Profile Joined April 2010
Guam172 Posts
March 03 2011 01:55 GMT
#20
nice find good sir!
1 2 3 Next All
Please log in or register to reply.
Live Events Refresh
Next event in 1h
[ Submit Event ]
Live Streams
Refresh
StarCraft 2
Livibee 143
mcanning 141
ProTech56
StarCraft: Brood War
Mong 1456
BeSt 1241
Sea 1028
actioN 306
EffOrt 273
Leta 113
Sharp 46
sSak 31
hero 24
Nal_rA 23
[ Show more ]
ivOry 7
HiyA 6
NaDa 6
zelot 3
Dota 2
BananaSlamJamma386
XcaliburYe368
Fuzer 219
League of Legends
JimRising 599
Counter-Strike
Stewie2K1232
shoxiejesuss726
Heroes of the Storm
Khaldor155
Other Games
C9.Mang0882
XBOCT442
crisheroes339
Happy275
Mew2King161
Lowko15
Organizations
Dota 2
PGL Dota 2 - Secondary Stream5355
Other Games
gamesdonequick620
StarCraft 2
Blizzard YouTube
StarCraft: Brood War
BSLTrovo
sctven
[ Show 15 non-featured ]
StarCraft 2
• LUISG 34
• AfreecaTV YouTube
• intothetv
• Kozan
• IndyKCrew
• LaughNgamezSOOP
• Migwel
• sooper7s
StarCraft: Brood War
• Airneanach7
• BSLYoutube
• STPLYoutube
• ZZZeroYoutube
League of Legends
• Stunt443
• HappyZerGling101
Other Games
• WagamamaTV51
Upcoming Events
GSL Code S
1h
herO vs Zoun
Classic vs Bunny
The PondCast
1h 30m
OSC
12h 30m
Replay Cast
15h 30m
OSC
15h 30m
WardiTV Invitational
1d 2h
OSC
1d 4h
Korean StarCraft League
1d 18h
SOOP
2 days
sOs vs Percival
CranKy Ducklings
2 days
[ Show More ]
WardiTV Invitational
2 days
Cheesadelphia
2 days
CSO Cup
2 days
GSL Code S
2 days
Sparkling Tuna Cup
3 days
Replay Cast
3 days
Wardi Open
4 days
Replay Cast
4 days
Replay Cast
5 days
RSL Revival
5 days
Cure vs Percival
ByuN vs Spirit
RSL Revival
6 days
herO vs sOs
Zoun vs Clem
Replay Cast
6 days
Liquipedia Results

Completed

CSL Season 17: Qualifier 2
BGE Stara Zagora 2025
Heroes 10 EU

Ongoing

JPL Season 2
BSL 2v2 Season 3
BSL Season 20
KCM Race Survival 2025 Season 2
NPSL S3
Rose Open S1
CSL 17: 2025 SUMMER
2025 GSL S2
BLAST.tv Austin Major 2025
ESL Impact League Season 7
IEM Dallas 2025
PGL Astana 2025
Asian Champions League '25
BLAST Rivals Spring 2025
MESA Nomadic Masters
CCT Season 2 Global Finals
IEM Melbourne 2025
YaLLa Compass Qatar 2025
PGL Bucharest 2025
BLAST Open Spring 2025

Upcoming

Copa Latinoamericana 4
CSLPRO Last Chance 2025
CSLPRO Chat StarLAN 3
K-Championship
SEL Season 2 Championship
Esports World Cup 2025
HSC XXVII
Championship of Russia 2025
Murky Cup #2
Esports World Cup 2025
BLAST Bounty Fall 2025
BLAST Bounty Fall Qual
IEM Cologne 2025
FISSURE Playground #1
TLPD

1. ByuN
2. TY
3. Dark
4. Solar
5. Stats
6. Nerchio
7. sOs
8. soO
9. INnoVation
10. Elazer
1. Rain
2. Flash
3. EffOrt
4. Last
5. Bisu
6. Soulkey
7. Mini
8. Sharp
Sidebar Settings...

Advertising | Privacy Policy | Terms Of Use | Contact Us

Original banner artwork: Jim Warren
The contents of this webpage are copyright © 2025 TLnet. All Rights Reserved.