Written by Rich Ambler

I started playing Nintendo back in 1985 when it first came out. It wasn't well known then at all. People were still playing Atari-which I still enjoy. The game Super Mario Bros. came with the system and my family spent countless nights playing it finding those hidden warp zones and such-THE DAYS!

Other games out at that time were pretty much still one screen only while SMB was a side-scroller. It opened up a whole new level of gaming. I used to play the coin-op all the time because it was harder and had better levels than the home version. I could spend all day on one quarter flipping the score multiple times and doing crazy tricks nobody ever thought of. Crowds of people would stand around me and just watch in amazement as I jumped through walls and jumped strait off them or get fire power while small and even jump over the flag pole on 3-3 on the home version and even warp backwards!

I have had my share of fame and glory (Madison Magazine's 30 most successful people of 1990) newspaper articles, TV, and self promoted video game challenges for various video stores etc. I even called up seven finalist friends of mine that I have gotten too know while touring the 1990 Power Fest and we sort of recreated the Power Fest using our NINTENDO WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP TRIATHLON GAME PAKS. Seven of us put on a small scale tournament using the rare cart and had a great turnout over the weekend. We tried all kinds of things to boost ourselves into the pro gamer status but in those days nobody seemed to be taking pro gaming very seriously at all or it was near impossible to break into. Finalists like me could walk circles around those so called Nintendo councilors on the tip line or Power Fest. They were just spoon fed information from designers and such. Some were true gamers most were just employees. You could always tell them apart.

Like I said earlier, I won the Power Fest Tampa Bay Florida championship (12-17) which was the 30th and final city on the year tour in which you could win your ticket to the Hollywood Finals and compete against 29 other city finalists in your age group. I beat Neil Brinn in a land slide for the Tampa Title though he was very good and also seemed to come out of nothingness to compete. New people like that were dangerous to compete against because they were new to the scene and unpredictable. I toured with my friends and family too seven of the thirty cities all through the year of 1990. I seen the NWC change, grow, and downsize in that time. To this day I never have traveled so much or met so many cool people as I had that year.