Blockbuster World Video Game Championships
Here's the obligatory Blockbuster World Video Game Championships post that comes around every so often. My recollection is that the plaque and gold pin were given to store champions and the white diamond pins were given to participants - regardless of their score. Based on my research, I still find little information about this competition on the Internet. Please feel free to share items, stories, and general thoughts on the competition.
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Comments
Have you ever seen a shirt or hat of the competition?
I was 9 years old when I signed up for the second one which is what the plaque is from and the pins are from the first competition. I never got a pin for participating so that may have varied by location or was unique to the first competition. Anyone who submitted a score when I did it received a pack of Marvel cards and a separate card with event info saying "thank you for participating..." (I was young so if anyone recalls anything differently please interject).
I focused on Donkey Kong Country and had a score that was close to 5 or 6,000. I was number 1 for a few days and then heard some kid found a secret or trick that gave him a ton of bananas. The other kids that were there saw this and one after another posted some high scores. I know that didn't sit well with my dad because he got in a pretty heated argument with the Blockbuster employee over this because he thought the kid cheated.
I think I gave the Sega games one try. Judge Dredd wasn't my thing and the way they handled NBA Jam was garbage. I don't exaclty remember how but the rationale they gave for letting the other kid pick first was bogus. He picked the Bulls and I got smoked.
I'm on my way home and will post pictures of the cards I was given.
Nice collection! You should frame them all together! Were you the store champion? Tell me what you can remember, because I know little to nothing about it.
Have you ever seen a shirt or hat of the competition?
Thanks, I really appreciate that! Yeah, store champion of the Springfield, Ohio location in the Super NES format. There were two championships, and I was the store champion in that particular location for SNES - one in 1994 & the second in 1995. The pins are from the first one in 1994 & the plaque from part II in 1995. The first championship involved playing three games on three separate occasions and tallying up the total score. The three games were NBA Jam, TMNT Tournament Fighter, and Clay Fighter. The second championship involved playing Donkey Kong Country three times and also tallying up the score. I also remember there being two different age groups for these competitions 13 and younger and 14 and over. For the first one I was in the first group and for the second I was the second age group so I was right on that age line. I have never seen a hat or shirt in person, though it does appear there were some given away at some point (not sure if they were given locally and I just missed getting those or they were a regional thing). I believe in addition to the pins, Blockbuster gave store champions 1 year of free rentals (only 2 per month though) and I think Domino's gave us free pizza for a year (1 or 2 per month for that). I only remember the plaque as the prize from part II. Apparently, my scores were not quite good enough to move on in the competition - I would have loved to win one of those DK Competition carts
I love seeing stuff like this. Very cool items.
I was 9 years old when I signed up for the second one which is what the plaque is from and the pins are from the first competition. I never got a pin for participating so that may have varied by location or was unique to the first competition. Anyone who submitted a score when I did it received a pack of Marvel cards and a separate card with event info saying "thank you for participating..." (I was young so if anyone recalls anything differently please interject).
I focused on Donkey Kong Country and had a score that was close to 5 or 6,000. I was number 1 for a few days and then heard some kid found a secret or trick that gave him a ton of bananas. The other kids that were there saw this and one after another posted some high scores. I know that didn't sit well with my dad because he got in a pretty heated argument with the Blockbuster employee over this because he thought the kid cheated.
I think I gave the Sega games one try. Judge Dredd wasn't my thing and the way they handled NBA Jam was garbage. I don't exaclty remember how but the rationale they gave for letting the other kid pick first was bogus. He picked the Bulls and I got smoked.
I'm on my way home and will post pictures of the cards I was given.
Thanks! Interesting story - I love hearing about this since there's so little information out there and we each have our own experience. I don't remember the trading cards at all and would love to see those. The pins are definitely from the 1st one, and I don't remember seeing or having any of those from the 2nd. Winning one of these at 9 years old would have been difficult, I doubt I would have won at that age. Didn't even attempt the Sega format as I would have got smoked, too. During the 1st competition, I practiced Clay Fighter to the point where I found a way to easily defeat opponents with a certain character. I think each competitor got something like 5 minutes and I remember almost beating Clay Fighter in just that one sitting.
http://snescentral.com/article.php?id=0910
Out of curiousity...what do you think that item is worth? I know it holds sentimental value for you but in the market? Thanks!
Man, I wish I knew. There's not much out there in terms of previous sales and such. Heck, it doesn't help that we don't know how many of these items are out there either (Wikipedia states there were 9,094 stores in 2004, but the competition was in 1994/1994 and I doubt all of those stores held the competition). If I had to speculate on a price range, I think somewhere in the neighborhood of $250-$500 for all of it doesn't seem too far-fetched, but maybe that's just wishful thinking. I will say the interesting thing about this particular collection of items is that you have store champion items from both competitions - 1st championship 1994 (pins) and 2nd championship 1995 (framed certificate). Pretty sure some of these items have sold on here and on Ebay in the past, but they sell so infrequently, it's hard to gauge a true marketplace value on the items.
I don't recall getting a pin/button with my store champion card and framed award.
The pin/buttons were from the 1st championship in 1994. The framed award was only given out in 1995 during the 2nd championship, if I'm not mistaken.
I don't recall getting a pin/button with my store champion card and framed award.
The pin/buttons were from the 1st championship in 1994. The framed award was only given out in 1995 during the 2nd championship, if I'm not mistaken.
Yeah. I only participated in #II (1995).
Out of curiousity...what do you think that item is worth? I know it holds sentimental value for you but in the market? Thanks!
Man, I wish I knew. There's not much out there in terms of previous sales and such. Heck, it doesn't help that we don't know how many of these items are out there either (Wikipedia states there were 9,094 stores in 2004, but the competition was in 1994/1994 and I doubt all of those stores held the competition). If I had to speculate on a price range, I think somewhere in the neighborhood of $250-$500 for all of it doesn't seem too far-fetched, but maybe that's just wishful thinking. I will say the interesting thing about this particular collection of items is that you have store champion items from both competitions - 1st championship 1994 (pins) and 2nd championship 1995 (framed certificate). Pretty sure some of these items have sold on here and on Ebay in the past, but they sell so infrequently, it's hard to gauge a true marketplace value on the items.
I was thinking around the same price. Just wanted to ask your opinion on the matter. Thanks for the reply and thanks for sharing what you know about the competition. I've been getting into early videogame competitions recently and there isn't so much information on the matter.
There was a competition in England I beleive in 1990 but I can't find much info on it. There was a national competition in Canada in 1990 as well. Canada had some sort of competition in 1988 and 89' but i can only find a button for both. Nothing written. No pictures.
IIRC, the first year's pamphlet showed Sonic running across a globe (Sega sponsored it). I think it was on the left when you opened the first fold.