Editor's Note: Portions of this article originally appeared on 1up.com in 2010. It has been updated and expanded.
Nintendo kicked off its enormous marketing spectacle, the Nintendo World Championships, with a three-day event in Dallas, Texas on March 8, 1990. It was the first stop of what would be a thirty-city tour across the United States and Canada.
A three-stories-tall inflatable Mario loomed over the Fair Park's Automobile Building, leading visitors to the "Power Walk," the section of the show where visitors could play the newest (and sometimes not-yet-released) NES games on 130 dedicated demo units (in addition to 200 Game Boy stations!). Titles like Chip & Dale's Rescue Rangers and Astyanax made their first public appearances at the show, and recent releases like Batman, RoboCop and Super Mario Bros. 3 were available too; essentially, parents paid to have new games directly marketed to their kids.
Continue reading…
Continue reading...
Nintendo kicked off its enormous marketing spectacle, the Nintendo World Championships, with a three-day event in Dallas, Texas on March 8, 1990. It was the first stop of what would be a thirty-city tour across the United States and Canada.
A three-stories-tall inflatable Mario loomed over the Fair Park's Automobile Building, leading visitors to the "Power Walk," the section of the show where visitors could play the newest (and sometimes not-yet-released) NES games on 130 dedicated demo units (in addition to 200 Game Boy stations!). Titles like Chip & Dale's Rescue Rangers and Astyanax made their first public appearances at the show, and recent releases like Batman, RoboCop and Super Mario Bros. 3 were available too; essentially, parents paid to have new games directly marketed to their kids.
Continue reading…
Continue reading...