Cups are for More Than Drinking

After the success that was the 1990 Nintendo World Championships, NoA went on to host some more official events that didn’t quite live up to their predecessor. One such event that came soon after was the 1991 Nintendo Summer Challenge. While there are a plethora of NWC collectables that seem to constantly pop up on ebay, the other competitions seem to have gotten much less love in the way of official merchandise. In fact, this Nintendo Summer Challenge 1991 Collector’s Cup is the only piece of merchandise I have ever seen from the event.

From what I can gather from the seller’s description, the NSC was an offshot of the more famous Nintendo Campus Challenge that travelled to various college campuses and hangouts that same year. This particular cup was snagged by the seller at one of the actual event locations at a Six Flags in Arlington, TX. From a few article clips I found regarding the event, it looks like more than one location of the NSC happened at a Six Flags, and I can confirm that at the very least it traveled to Texas and two spots in California. From the looks of it, this wasn’t really a full-blown competition–just an event where kids could try out (at the time) unreleased games and take a crack at playing the competition cartridge that was used in the 1991 Campus Challenge shortly after in order to win prizes. I also found some trademark info that states the NSC as follows: entertainment services; namely, conducting competitions in the field of playing video games and conducting entertainment exhibitions in the nature of video games; namely, stage presentations and video program presentations relating to video games.

While it doesn’t quite have the same mystique and excitement attached to it as the NWC, it’s still very much a part of Nintendo’s history–so since we can’t go back in time you can at least buy a cup and pretend you were able to attend! (thanks kellyrflewin for pointing this out!)

-1994 Nintendo Powerfest Pamphlet
–1993 Nintendo Sports Report: These were given out like promotional pamphlets
–1995 Merchandising Display Catalog
–Street Fighter Kite
–Internal & Sales Colecovision Paperwork