NWC 1990 Winner--title revoked?

[rbudrick]

Hi Folks,

I remember hearing something along these lines a while back...is there any truth to it?

It may or may not have been Thor Auckerland (the only winner I can remember by name). Was it for being in an advertisement for a non-licensed Nintendo product or something?

Hope I'm not pouring salt on anyone's wounds here, seriously. I just thought it might be an interesting sidenote to NES history.

Oh, and if that winner (or any of the winners) are out there, I'm curious to hear the lore: What did you do with your NWC cartridge?

Anybody know who won the NWC carts in the Nintendo Power giveaway?

Talk soon!
-Rob

[MarioAllStar2600]

http://www.nissantalk.com/registry/users/phinger23/images/lg_huh.jpg
But really that would suck. having a jewel like that and getting it taken away. OUCH![/url]

[dan2357]

Thor Aackerlund. Thor was a Nintendo gamer from Houston. A year after he won the title of "World Champion," he was hired as a spokesman for Camerica. He appeared in alot of Camerica's old ads, reccomending this game or that. Nintendo was pretty ticked because Camerica was producing unlicensed games.

So then what happened? It's rumored that Nintendo "took away" Thor's championship title.

[dan2357]

UPDATED

Still things weren't exactly great for Camerica, who even hired the 1990 Nintendo World Championship winner Thor Aackerlund to appear in their ads. Nintendo wasn't too happy about it all, but atleast didn't "take away" his title. But they didn't really acknowledge me and never wanted to have anything to do with a world competition again. They lost a lot of money on the 1990 NWC, the first and last Nintendo World Championships. Their TV broadcast deal fell through, so there went a whole lot of their potential profits. Aackerlund says.

[Guts Man]

I also recall Thor endorsing an unlicensed NES Advanage rip off.

ERrrrrr, that is to say, I heard that he is really, uh, attempting to, uh,

Uh,

Oh gawd

Uh,

He is, uh, he is trying to, uh, fuck is it hot in here? He's uh, really, uh, Yamato Man or something. Christ that was close.

[adaml]

A google search on ol' Thor will turn up some other nifty information...like where he works.

[Qixmaster]

I too remeber hearing about this somewhere along the lines. I do know for a fact tho that he did do advertising for camerica, i have two boxes of camericas Bee 52, one beat up and opened that has a quote from him in the upper right hand corner reading Thor aackerlund world champion "absolutely brilliant." Then on my factory sealed boxed bee 52 it reads Thor Aackerlund World Champion "An Absolutely Brilliant Shoot-'em up." I think i also have an old ad out of a comic book of thor and a camerica joystick... i'll have to do some looking tho.

[rbudrick]

Interesting...

If I had a websie that mattered, he'd be a great person to interview...

I'm sure they only took his "title" and not his NWC cart....but they may have took his scholarship...

-Rob

[rbudrick]

I also recall Thor endorsing an unlicensed NES Advanage rip off.

ERrrrrr, that is to say, I heard that he is really, uh, attempting to, uh,

Uh,

Oh gawd

Uh,

He is, uh, he is trying to, uh, fuck is it hot in here? He's uh, really, uh, Yamato Man or something. Christ that was close.

Guts Man, wtf? Is this some alter-ego crap? If not, I have no clu...well see below

http://www.nissantalk.com/registry/users/phinger23/images/lg_huh.jpg


Yeah.

-Rob

[rbudrick]

http://smackdown.myrmid.com/smackdown/info/rare/nwc/NEScart.Jpg

What's wrong with this image? Yep, there's no switches on it. WTF?

Anybody got any guesses why?

-Rob

[rbudrick]

Looks like ol' Thor likes his Honda:

http://www.epinions.com/auto-review-73B7-6F78A9B-39AD3BF1-prod2

And a mini interview:

http://thejadedgamer.net/archive_october_2001.shtml

About halfway down.


-Rob

[dan2357]

After reading some pages about the 1990 nwc,
the no switchs could be either the Nintendo Power give away versions? Or I found some pages that originaly said something like 141(not right number) were originaly produced but carts with serial numbers in the 300's are starting to surface. So my opion is people are making there own versions and throwing them in Zelda carts, printing a label and selling them for $1,000's

[MarioAllStar2600]

After reading some pages about the 1990 nwc,
the no switchs could be either the Nintendo Power give away versions? Or I found some pages that originaly said something like 141(not right number) were originaly produced but carts with serial numbers in the 300's are starting to surface. So my opion is people are making there own versions and throwing them in Zelda carts, printing a label and selling them for $1,000's

That's messed up. I would never buy oen though without a switch.

[Rolland]

I've never seen any like the one in the advert, actually the one in that ad is just an artist's rendering.

[TRM]

I would agree with Rolland. That was just from an old Nintendo Power advertising the contest and the giveaway carts...

[kainemaxwell]

What switches you mean, if I may ask?

[dan2357]

on the left side of the cart under the thumb grab area in the lines(the raise lowered area) there should be 4 dip switches. What they are for I dont know but they should be there.

[orrimarrko]

There's a guy on the Buying and Selling forum that has a grey one, but I can't tell if it's real or not.

I have never seen a nice one with a complete label before.

Can anyone authenticate that one?

Steve

[Darth Vader]

There's a guy on the Buying and Selling forum that has a grey one, but I can't tell if it's real or not.

I have never seen a nice one with a complete label before.

Can anyone authenticate that one?

Steve

Steve:

I can authenticate for you that the $2K starting price is way too high. (which is the starting price of that NWC cart) If that helps any. ;)

Danny

[WizDawg]

The dip switches set the time for how long the "competition" lasts. Also to start the game you press start + A on the second controller.

[rbudrick]

Here's something I never heard anyone ask:

What kind of packaging was involved for the NWC carts given to NWC winners? What packaging was used for the Nintendo Power giveaway? I'm sure they were at least in a plastic bag or something, heh heh.

Anyone know?

-Rob

[Nespit]

I figured most of us would know by now that that gold one from that add was a cheap mockup made by one of the mags employees.

The real gold one looks like this: http://www.nespit.com/oldpage

The gold carts lacked a label days before they were shipped out to the ones who supposed to get one. So Nintendo employees just printed out that NWC logo, took some superglue and glued those printed logo's on the gold cartridges.

The dipswitch on the top left is to adjust the time. u can set it to different available playing times.

grtz,
niels

[NintendoMan]

They lost a lot of money on the 1990 NWC, the first and last Nintendo World Championships. Their TV broadcast deal fell through, so there went a whole lot of their potential profits[/i]. Aackerlund says.

This might explain why there was NEVER another NWC again? I had always wondered why there was only one.
That would be a good question to email to Nintendo, I think I might do that.

[GarrettCRW]

http://smackdown.myrmid.com/smackdown/info/rare/nwc/NEScart.Jpg

What's wrong with this image? Yep, there's no switches on it. WTF?

Anybody got any guesses why?

-Rob

It's a mock-up, using a Zelda cartridge (or more accurately, the image of a Zelda cartridge).

[Push Upstairs]

Wait a minute...there was an actual Thor Ackerlund?

I just figured he was someone made up for those game ads. @_@

And his name is actually Thor? Again, i thought that was made up for those ads ^^;

[Darth Vader]

Nothing quite like bringing back a topic from the dead. LOL It must be a timeless topic, I guess.

Danny

[Arkaign]

Wait a minute...there was an actual Thor Ackerlund?

I just figured he was someone made up for those game ads. @_@

And his name is actually Thor? Again, i thought that was made up for those ads ^^;

Yes, I do exist :D :eek 2:

[rbudrick]

Great to see you here, Thor. That's an oooold thread you dug up, heh heh.

Of course, the title of this thread is anient history...it's pretty common knowledge now Nintendo never revoked your title.

I'll be PMing you soon.

-Rob