From: lan7112@rigel.tamu.edu (NIEH, LEON ANTHONY)
Newsgroups: rec.games.video
Subject: Re: Nintendo Campus Challenge
Date: 14 Apr 92 20:50:00 GMT
Article-I.D.: rigel.14APR199215503100
Organization: Texas A&M University, Academic Computing Services
News-Software: VAX/VMS VNEWS 1.41

In article <14APR199212081054@rigel.tamu.edu>, lan7112@rigel.tamu.edu (NIEH, LEON ANTHONY) writes...
$>Just curious to see if Nintendo has come to your campus to promote their
$>SNES in their Nintendo Campus Challenge.  They came to Texas A&M 
$>University in early March (and therefore probably UT at Austin).  Nintendo is
$>supposed to visit 35 campuses across the US - just wondering what the other 33 
$>universities are.

      I apologize for being presumptious.  I naturally assumed that since 
Nintendo came to A&M, they would go to UT.  These are two of the largest
universities in the state.  Maybe Nintendo has to be invited; the Recreation
Committee here stated in their ads that they sponsored the event.  Anyway, 
a friend here says that his buddy at UCLA went to Nintendo's Campus Challenge
there.

$>Two parts to their bandwagon:  the contest part, where given 7 minutes, 
$>you attempt to rack up as many points as you can on Super Mario World, 
$>F-Zero, and Pilot Wings.  You must collect 50 coins, finish two laps, and 
$>complete as many parachuting stages (along with bonus stages!) as quickly as 
$>you can, respectively.  Point system: Mario world score x 1; F-Zero score
$> x 100; and Pilot Wing x 10,000.  They gave away 1  SNES system along with 
$>the above three games as grand prize.  1st prize - $100, 2nd - $75, 3rd -
$>$50.  Two different prize categories - one for men, one for women.

      There was a playoff for the top high scoring men and women.  Single 
e   ination until the highest scoring woman and man were left.  These two 
then competed for the grand prize.  I thought that this was kind of unfair.

      The grand prize winner has an additional chance of winning more stuff.
In a random drawing that is supposed to occur on June 1, 1992, there will
be one $10,000 prize, one $5,000 prize, and 5 $5,000 prizes.  A 1 in 5 
chance of winning something - pretty good odds!

      The contest lasted for two days, which translated into two days of
missed classes!  Of course, Nintendo passed out their token prizes like cups
and t-shirts.  Still, it was really fun, and plus you got a free tan!

$>The other part was a tent booth which allowed you to play games that were 
$>not released yet, e.g. Contra III, Rival Turf, Legend of Zelda III - A 
$>Link to the Past, Addams Family, Super Scope, etc.  Seems like the only
$>game not out yet that I saw there is Zelda III.  

     They also had a gameboy booth, but playing was pretty hard due to sun 
glare.  Didn't see any new gameboy games, however.

$>I had a chance to play Zelda III for about 6 minutes (after about 5 minutes
$>a Nintendo "Plug" commercial comes on, interrupting and restarting all the 
$>games-arrggH!)  The game play is very smooth and they did away with the grid
$>system of movement.  Remember in Zelda I how you could move only in squares (
$>left, right, up, down).  In III, you can move in any direction.  Also, the 
$>messages are translucent, so they don't interfer with game play much.  
> 
$>You first start off in your home during a thunder storm.  I only managed to
$>get to the King's castle before I ran out of time.  The game is pretty funny;
$>you can either chop down bushes (to look for secret items or fairies) or you 
$>can pick them up and throw them at your enemies.  The only only enemies I 
$>encountered in the game so far were these knights that looked somewhat like
$>Darknuts from the first Zelda.  
> 
$>You can, of course, attack by swinging your sword.  Or, by charging the attack
$>button, you can make Link swing his sword in a 360 degree motion.  I couldn't
$>figure out the item menu, since the only item I had was a lamp and I didn't
$>quite figure out how to implement it.
>
     Has anybody seen the Toys R Us circular advertising Zelda III for $49.95?
"Reserve your copy now!" as the ad states.  Do you think Nintendo is going to
make the cartridge gold, like the previous two?  Is the Super Famicom version
"gold plated"? 

>Leon Nieh
Newsgroups: rec.games.video