RF Generation Message Board

Nintendo World Championships 1990

[img width=145 align=right]http://www.rfgeneration.com/images/games/U-027/gs/U-027-S-04590-A.jpg[/img]Week: 2005.06.05 - 2005.06.11
Game: Nintendo World Championships 1990
Console: NES
Year: 1990
RFG ID #: U-027-S-04590-A
Part #: N/A
Publisher: Nintendo
Developer: Nintendo
Genre: Misc.
Sub-Genre: Competition
Players: 1 Player

Game page address: http://www.rfgeneration.com/cgi-bin/getinfo.pl?ID=U-027-S-04590-A&
Screenshots: http://www.rfgeneration.com/cgi-bin/screenshot.pl?ID=U-027-S-04590-A

Due to its widespread popularity in the 1980's and 1990's, the NES has become one of the most popular consoles to collect for, and is perhaps the largest driving factor in the resurgence of classic gaming in recent years.  Though many things contributed to it, one of the things that made the NES stand so special was the World Championship tour Nintendo held in 1990.  Visiting thirty lucky cities and making kids' dreams come true everywhere, the tour is the stuff of gaming legends.

Today, the supposed 116 cartridges that came out of this nation-wide contest are the most highly-sought after games for the NES, and probably the most highly-sought after games for any console.  Just last week, one of the ninety grey cartridges sold on eBay for a mind-boggling $1,975.00.  It's certainly a high price to pay for a bit of nostalgia.

Has this rarity done good or bad things for the prices of classic video games?  Does it even affect anything except itself?  Do any of you have memories of the competition visiting your city, or know of anyone who does?  For those members who normally stay away from emulation: Is experiencing a a game of such historical significance (and extreme rarity) reason enough to boot up an emulator on your PC?

I have wanted to run this on emulator for awhile.

Reading so much about it (i read the entire page before you posted this) and checking out the extra content and such makes me wish i was there all that much more.

I am pretty sure there was a place online that had all the scores of the original players so you could see how well you would have ranked if you got into the tourney.
I should look into that now.

What can you say about this game besides if you have it your lucky and if you dont have it....you want it....

I agree, the NWC is definitely the most "wanted" NES game out there, which I believe is primarily caused by the hype surrounding the carts, and, of course, their respective value.  I'm sure that there are collectors and gamers out there who wish to have a copy of this game in their own hands, in order to "own" part of something that set a strong mark in video gaming history.  I personally want the grey & the golden NWC cartridges for their collector's value - mainly their rarity.  I'm also interested in playing the game, but will wait until I [hopefully someday] have the cartridge to do so, so that I have more motivation to get ahold of one or both of these cartridges.  



I think the rarity plays a very key role in the price of the NWC cart(s).  This is why I'm really surprised that there has never been any serious research done on finding out the true number of NWC carts produced.  Almost every source on the web states that there are only 116 in existence.  However, it's known that NWC carts were given to employees at Nintendo of America, as can again be seen by the case at hand, where a former Game Counselor received a copy of the grey NWC.  The carts are also individually numbered, and thus this number should give an indication as to how many are out there.  The highest numbered NWC cartridge that I've seen up to now is the one reviewed here, so I would assume that at least 343 grey NWC carts were produced.  That is a whole lot more than the widely assumed 90, and even though this may not affect their value by any large degree, if this is really true, it will surely allow for more patience on the collector's side.  Why pay big bucks for a NWC with a very crappy label, when you can wait a bit longer to pay a similar amount for one with a better label?  All the NWC carts that I've seen pictures of have had relatively bad labels with the exception of the copy reviewed here.  



Nope ;)  Like mentioned earlier, with extremely rare games like these, I like to save the gaming experience for when I have attained a copy of the game, to give me more motivation to actually get ahold of one. ;)  If I were to play the game in and out on an emulator, and then buy a copy of the game for lots of $$ on eBay, I would feel as though I were paying for nothing but a plastic cartridge and a label. ;)

-Speedy

I agree completely and sent another e-mail to Mr. Smith regarding this earlier this evening.  Hopefully he can shed some light on the situation and perhaps even give us a better estimate of the actual number produced.  As soon as I hear back from him, I will let everyone here know.  It could definitely change the way people think of the NWC cart.

Sounds good!!  This is something I've been wanting to find out for quite some time now!  ;)

-Speedy

We could make a list of the rarest games across multiple systems, with their respective prices/demand and see how rarity, as well as possible other factors, affect price. ;)

-Speedy

Rarest games I know of

Kizuna Encounter (Neo-Geo): I think 3 of these are know to be around. I read on DP one sold for 11k. I dont believe it but that is what the rumor was.

Air Raid (Atari 2600): I think 5-7 of these are know to be around. There is a debate on the status of this game being a US released game or not. Last one I saw on Ebay for $3300. I went to a big time Atari collector that lives about an hour from me and he has this cart in his collection. When I held it I actually got goose bumps. What can I say I am a game geek.

Video Life (Atari 2600). About 20 of these are know to me made. I saw and held a copy of this came that sold for $1800

MagiCard again the Atari 2600. Around 150 of these where made.

Blockbuster Championship Cart: Sega Genesis: I think 5 of these are know to be around. Like the NWC cart I don't think you need to have this to have a complete US released collection. As far as I am concerned only games released for sale go into a complete collection. Extras like competition carts are icing on teh cake.

Other rare carts are the Star Fox Super Weekend cart and the Donkey Kong Country Competition cart.

That is true.  Last year one ended on eBay for something like $12,500, but the seller closed the auction early.  Supposedly somebody had offered something out of the bounds of the auction that the seller was happy with.  Who knows what that was though.

That Kizuna Encounter was a specific version too i believe. .
I know it was the PAL one only but then i thought there was some other specific.

Anyways back to the NWC.
Since each one is individually numbered maybe we could keep a running tally of numbers with confirmed existances?

Damn, didn't know about some of those!  Some of those prices are pretty insane ;)  

I don't know what else I could add there, besides possibly the Myriad 6-in-1 for NES...I've personally never seen anyone else with one in his/her collection, nor on eBay for that matter.  I know that according to DP the highest individually numbered Myriad is 888, so I take it that someone has that particular cartridge, plus the cartridge scanned by tsr, but those are the only other 2 then that I "know" of.  Anybody ever seen one for sale on eBay or by a private collector?  There was an auction for a Myriad on eBay a couple weeks ago from a scammer that got pulled, which had ripped Caltron 6-in-1 pics etc, so that one doesn't count ;)  

-Speedy

Yup ;)  I already did this for myself, here's the list for those interested:

Nintendo World Championships 1990 - Grey:

055 (according to thread in DP; no pic to verify)
083
087
166
215
240
280
343
1 other one (totally ripped label)

Nintendo World Championships - Gold:

3 different ones (pics)

Myriad 6-in-1:

190 (blissfulnoise's myriad; DP; dirty cart only; refused offer of 900$)
508 (only box and instructions; cart caltron [Myriad label likely removed], from DP member)
514 (box/manual separated from cart; sold by TSR to two different people)
519 (sealed; mine)
570 (complete, DP member)
580 (sealed; purchased by portnoyd for 300$ a long time ago)
588 (sealed; http://schwillz.com/ccdebt/listo.html ...webpage does not load...found info from google)
595 (loose cartridge, 355.00$ on eBay Aug 2005)
631 (loose cartridge, 472.52$ on eBay Nov 2004)
670 (Myriad label removed and placed on video rental case;  http://www.fossilweb.com/Nintendo/caltron.htm)
801 (complete; simplyNES)
888
unknown# (complete, 308$ on eBay June 2003...last complete one seen on eBay?)
unknown# (complete, 265$ on eBay May 2003)
unknown# (complete, 255$ on eBay early 2002)

UPDATED: did some research, added a whole bunch of Myriads on there with some extra info...most of them are not based on pics, so the count can't be completely verified.  One or more of the numbered ones could also be one of the unknowns...

-Speedy

Anthony, you are right that it was the Euro version.  For a long time people assumed it was a U.S. version because it was in English, but the opinion is now that Kizuna Encounter had a very limited release in Europe.  It's not really PAL specific since Neo Geo has no region lockouts, but it was a Euro release.  The other specific you were trying to think of is probably that it was an AES (home) cartridge.  I believe the MVS version, which is more or less identical in terms of gameplay, if not exactly the same, sells for under $100.

@ Speedy
The Myriad label was just stuck over the Caltron Label anyways.
Or vice versa. I would check but my PC is extremely laggy lately.
I know i have it in the game trivia.

Amazing how this thread just turned into a thread about ultra rare games and not the NWC.

Yup, I know...still makes it a separately "released" game though (with unique manual/box)..there have also been rumors that some Myriad carts did not have a Caltron label underneath the Myriad one...nothing confirmed though.  I'm just trying to see what happened to every numbered "Myriad" release...which is why I stated the condition that they're in, etc)

-Speedy

Those are the first things that come to mind when most collectors think of the NWC ;)

-Speedy

I was just wondering if we can say with 100% certainty what the top right of the label means?

I understand the SW would mean StopWatch but then there is one more set of time than there are switches.

I think the SW stands for Switch...each switch turned "on" adds a certain amount of time to the time limit...and no matter which switches are turned on, the cart always has a default time limit of 5 minutes to begin with...which is the 5th "time" on there... ;)

-Speedy

Makes more sense than Stop watch.
I thought each switch might have added or detracted that much time from the original.

it's funny that the golden NWCs didn't have this info on the label...people actually have to guess and check with those ;)

-Speedy

I don't thin the gold ones were ever meant to be played.
ust put in a glass container to show off.

That's true...altho in that case Nintendo might just as well have made them in 24k gold ;)  I wonder if the gold color of the golden NWC cartridges is identical to that of the golden Zelda versions.

-Speedy

I'd rather have this cart than one of the ULTRA RARE OMG L@@K Streets of Rage 3 carts.

Who even decided SoR3 was anything like rare?

Oh and P.S., I think I read somewhere (rumour mill probably once more) that a gold NWC cart went for $6.3k

Yea, that's what it says in the DP guide, that a golden version has sold for as high as 6.5k$.  I remember a golden NWC selling for over 8000$ on eBay several years ago.  I'm starting to doubt my memory though, as it may have been 800$, which was already a high amount for a NES game at the time (in 1998 or 1999).  

-Speedy

I went to the world championships when it made a stop in Detroit.  To this day, I have never been so in awe of anything in my life.  

I went with one of my older sisters.  If I remember correctly (I was no older than 9 at the time), The first site that greeted you as you drove down the street was a two story tall inflated Mario.  We pulled into the parking lot and walked through the hall doors and you were immediatley hit by the glorious world of Nintendo.  No feeling in the world was like walking through those doors.  To this day, I don't think that I have ever been as excited about anything in my life.

The first thing we tried out was the Power Pad.  I don't remember what game we were playing, but my sister actually seemed as excited to play it as I was.  We walked up to the two huge pedestals they had set up for this.  Looking down off of these things, you could see the throngs of people pouring through the door and sucking in every ounce of video goodness that the gods at Nintendo could provide.  When our game started, my sister and I started running our asses off and she whipped me pretty handly.

Everything else from that point forward is pretty much a blur as I tried to see as much as possible in the thin 2 hour time period I was alotted.  The one thing that does stick out in my head was wandering over to the Gameboy area.  I came over here because there was hardly anybody in this area and it's pretty hard to fight for a chance at an NES when your 9.  The Gameboy area became my favorite area of the entire show.  They had dozens of Gameboy displays set up, each playing a different game, and there was no wait for any of these.  Some of the games that I remember playing were Castlevania, Boxxle, and Nemesis.  One game however sucked me in for the last 30 minutes that I was there, and that was Wizards and Warriors.  

I wish Nintendo or some other company would have another tour like that.  The closest that I have seen so far is Sony's Playstation tent at Ozzfest, which is not even close.