STUFF Vol.1
We debut the Stuff series with perhaps a
penultimate in the game collectors' universe, the Nintendo World
Championships cartage. It's really hard to say what hasn't already
been said about this thing, not really worth it, so I won't. If
interested, just press the End key on your keyboard to reach the bottom.
If you're using a Mac, please, get help.
Rather than put up an exhaustive examination of all things NWCC, I'll just give the skinny. Throughout 1990, Nintendo done did a competition. Carts were used. On them, were three titles, Super Mario Brothers, Rad Racer and Tetris. When their time of usefulness ended, they were given away or destroyed. I reckon most were smashed because those carts have printed numbers on their labels up to four digits giving the impression at least a thousand were used. And since sources (below) tell me there are 116 of these babies in circulation, something tells me many of these carts wished to be an E.T. cartridge.
I believe that many of these 116 were given away as token prizes to players who did well, but not well enough to qualify for an official prize, which might seem pretty lame at first. Here you are, gamer almost superstar, you play very well but choke just enough at the very end to not qualify for an official prize. Now you're given, as a token of pity, something that will forever remind you of your inability to excel under pressure. To compound this, it's a collection of three probably partial games, of which you most likely have all three. Screw this noise. In the end, though, it turned out probably better than whatever official prizes were in store, as these greybacks go for $3,000+ apiece.
I know this because I am the owner of one, and this is the exact price I paid for it.
Yeah, I paid more for a little plastic device than many people do for their cars. Got a problem with that?
Let me explain a little. At about September 2005, there was something of a NWC blitz happening at ebay. Three grey carts were sold within a couple months of each other and some miscallenous NWC-related crap in much less high demand (but equally scare at the world's marketplace) also made it way to the auction block also went during this time. The first cart went for over $6,000, and second for a little (like a couple hundred dollars) over $4,000 and the third for exactly $3,000.
The story behind my acquisition of that cart is moderately interesting. I placed a bid on the second cart at a little over three grand. The seller contacted me asking if I'd like his for three grand even (efforts to contact the second highest bidder were fruitless as his bid was not likely to be legitimate). After some more words back and fourth, we settled on a date and time for me to jump on the auction - at exactly 6:02 PM central time one evening. I remember working on a school project at the time and working for longer than I usually do just so I could be near a computer I knew would have the highest chances of Internet access. I won the auction at 6:08. The final price was actually $2,500 with a $500 shipping charge so ebay would take less of the booty.
Funny how I can remember what time the auction ended but not the auction # or the other guy's user ID or any other more essential information.
I did not have NWC fever, at least not in the conventional sense. Some people itch for the thing for quite some time whereas my NWC-related desires needed to be jogged via a message board post discussing the $6,000+ cart. Needless to say, there's a damn good chance I'm gonna be selling this baby in the future. Maybe to you?????
Anywho, soon after that, I also bought this snazzy NWC hat. The auction's description even said "NWC blitz" or "NWC mania" or something else to that effect and I knew I couldn't resist that kind of selling power. And I didn't. Don't remember how much I paid for it, so I'll just assume $38.11. As you can see, nothing really special, just an ordinary black trucker hat with the NWC logo slapped upon it. It's got a little bit a dust and other such imperfections, the most visible of which can be seen on the right side of the logo there.
I originally planned to put a video of the cart in action in contest time, but until I can figure out how these goofy NES AV cables work, this image will just have to do.
Here it is, again. Please note my boldness by allowing the cart to precariously sit atop a can of pop. Not actually all that daring considering I left it there for less than ten seconds in my view at all times, but still, the base is much more narrow than that which goes atop. Please note the equally bold backdrop: computer monitor. Yeah, I could've just given you a real close-up giving the impression of a more concrete plain black background, but I'm awesome by giving you more of a behind-the-scenes look like this. That blue in the lower left corner is a flag still in its plastic and the green/white box just behind it is a print still in its box. That black in the top left of the screen? That bad boy's a shadow, bearing down like a mofo.
Oh, but the main event! The cart! Here it is not in my possession.
Much clearer as you can see with the lighting and what not. You can also note the peeling of the label atop the cart, a process which has only continued between the times the two pictures had been taken. There are also the switches that give you more time to play on the cart: SW1 - 18.7 seconds, SW2, 37.5 seconds, SW3, 1 minute 15 seconds (this one's actually a mistake, I believe it's 1 minute 21 seconds), and SW4, 2 minutes 30 seconds. The default time is five minutes. The switches set to on had given you the amount of time stated in this paragraph. In the contest, all were set to off except switch 3.
Links elsewhere:
NWC @ Planetnintendo.com - A nice-looking and perhaps most complete look at the contest on the Internet. Has pictures galore and all sorts of information about the contest and the cart including contributions from contest participants.
This site also has the better
NWC @ NESplayer.com - Combine this with the Planet Nintendo feature up there to learn pretty much everything a reasonable person could ever want to know about it and beyond.
NWC @ tsr - Probably the first respectable feature on the Net about the contest and cart, written way back in the stone age of video game web sites. Looks like it hasn't been updated since, either as the look and info are highly dated. In fact, its greatest value is to see how much times have changed. Still, though, it's tsr.
Kevin fricking Gifford. K-Giff as I call him. It's this thing we
gots. Without his Atarihq space, most game-related websites woudln't be, including Arkfullofsorrow. So pay it a visit.