Ep 139: Living the 1990 Nintendo World Championship Dream w/ Danny Pittaway

[00:00:01] Live from Universal Studios Hollywood, ladies and gentlemen, please welcome your host, Terry Lee Torok. Woo! Yeah! You ready? Woo! Thank you! I don't get this at home. Welcome to Universal Studios Hollywood. This is the playing field of the future. The unprecedented 1990 Nintendo World Championships. For us, it was a year that began back March 7th, 1990.

[00:00:38] In the year 1990, Nintendo was on top of the world. By the time the decade turned from the Hairspray 80s to the gleaming 90s, the big N was omnipresent. The NES was in over 20 million homes worldwide, Mario was an international star, and video games were officially back.

[00:00:58] They even had a movie in the bank, 1989's The Wizard. For a retrospective of that cinematic milestone, see Episode 1 of this very podcast. And in a move reminiscent of the video Armageddon from that acclaimed motion picture, Nintendo put on a little contest and called it the Nintendo World Championship.

[00:01:20] Held over the course of nine months in 29 American cities, the touring competition captured the imagination of anyone who picked up a Nintendo Power magazine and read the headlines. These days, the event has an almost mythic quality to it, conjuring up childhood dreams of stepping on stage and beating the best.

[00:01:42] This week on A Gamer Looks At 40, we talked to someone who not only stepped on one of those elusive stages, but made it farther than he ever thought possible. And with a burgeoning career as a competitive retro gamer, now in his mid-40s, his story is one of triumph, redemption, and an ever-burning hope.

[00:02:04] Time to pop in our NWC reproduction carts, snag 50 coins in Mario 1, and hope for the highest score possible as we dive into Episode 139, Living the 1990 Nintendo World Championship Dream with quarter-finalist Danny Pittaway. It was a dream come true for die-hard Nintendo fans.

[00:02:27] Over 10,000 of them packed the Oakland Coliseum when the Nintendo World Championships rolled in as part of a nine-month traveling extravaganza. The Nintendo World Championships, its first year out, was really an idea that's been conceptualized about two years ago, brought out by demand of the players themselves, who seem to be socially interactive. They want to know who the best are they're playing against with their families, with their peers, their friends.

[00:02:51] This is a way to bring Nintendo out of the house and into a show, and really give those kids the spotlight that they deserve. The players were divided into three age groups and competed in Super Mario Brothers, Tetris, and Rad Racer. The winner with the highest combined score earned a spot in the finals in Hollywood, and perhaps a shot at electronic stardom. The three-day event also featured a power walk that highlighted brand new Nintendo games not yet on the market.

[00:03:18] Game counselors were also on hand to give tips to kids on improving their game skills. Figures from Nintendo show it expects to sell fewer units of its entertainment system this year. But by the year end, Nintendo also expects to have a place in nearly 30% of all U.S. households. The company's success clearly lies in churning out the popular software titles to run on those machines. I think the success of Nintendo will go on forever, really indefinite, because it's like having a VCR in your home.

[00:03:48] Once you have the hardware, you have this choice of software. There's some over 450 games now, and with the Game Boy, there's some 700 games out there. So the choice will always continue once you have the game in your home. For the Computer Chronicles, I'm Kate McGargy. Danny, man, thank you so much for joining me for this edition of A Gamer Looks at 40. I, you reached out to me and you said the magic words. You were at the Nintendo World Championships of 1990.

[00:04:17] Yes, sir. Before we get to that experience, I'd love to hear a little bit about you growing up with Nintendo, how you got into gaming, maybe some of your entry points to that, and then we'll just roll from there. No, thanks. I appreciate it. Yeah. First, again, thanks so much for having me on the show. This is all still very new to me as I'll explain. So, yeah, my name is Danny Pitaway. I'm from Anaheim, California. I am well above 40. I'm 47.

[00:04:45] And when I was growing up, just like a lot of kids in my generation, you know, growing up in the 80s, I was born in 1979, kind of a handle I've adopted recently as the 1979 kid. I just feel like it kind of resonates with, you know, kind of my entry into the retro community, which I'll, you know, I'll get into a little bit later. So, in terms of my life, as I grew up in Anaheim, I remember going to the mall with my mom and going to an arcade.

[00:05:12] Some of my earliest memories are the arcade at the Anaheim Mall and playing Q-Bert. My mom would sit me on like a chair or whatever, and I just have these really fuzzy memories of Q-Bert and my mom sort of like trying to tell me what to do. And I had no idea what the game, even today when I play Q-Bert, sometimes I have no idea what's going on with Q-Bert. Yeah. Yeah. Because my brain just still goes back to this association of just this pyramid and the colors and the, you know, little orange guy hopping around. And my brain is satisfied with that.

[00:05:42] So, I guess it started with Q-Bert. And I remember as I was growing up, I guess I was Q-Bert for Halloween. So, kind of the imagery of games and was part of my consciousness early on. And then, I guess, let's see here. When I was around seven, it's 1986. That's when I was introduced to Nintendo.

[00:06:07] And I remember at my grandparents' house, which was very near where I was growing up. So, I spent a lot of time at my grandparents' house. They were basically across the street from where I was growing up. And my uncle was living there. He was very young at the time. I guess he was like 20. He would have been 20 and I was seven. And his friend had brought a Nintendo over. And it just blew my mind. I remember, it's like a flashbulb memory in my mind. You know how, as you go through life, you know, various things happen.

[00:06:37] And you literally have like a photo album in your head forever of certain things. For me, one of those visual photograph memories is seeing a Nintendo Entertainment System and just being mesmerized by what is that gray box. And the two games that I saw that are just linked forever for me. No pun intended, Link. Gradius and Super Mario Brothers. Those were the first two games I saw.

[00:07:04] And something about it just... I don't even have words for it. It just blew my mind. And it was just like a portal to another world that was still in our world. But it was like... I don't know. It was almost like I was seeing something that I needed to know more about or work with. Or, you know, it just was fascinating to me. The whole world of video games. So anyway, Gradius and Super Mario Brothers.

[00:07:30] And from that moment on, I just really wanted to hang out with my uncle. And so he was, you know, 12, 13 years older than me as I was growing up. And I idolized him and his friends. So anything they did, I wanted to copy. So music, you know, Rush, Pink Floyd, Devo, stuff like that. I, as a very young kid, that's the kind of stuff I was listening to. Craft work. Yeah.

[00:07:55] My uncle being born in 1966, firmly a Gen X guy, very Generation X. And then for myself being born in 79, never quite understanding what my micro generation. I come to understand, I guess we're called Xennials. I don't know. Is it people? I don't know. I don't know. Keep it straight. I, but it's like there's Gen X and millennial. And like, I don't know, someone like myself just kind of falls into this pocket where it's like, I'm not really like in the Kurt Cobain generation.

[00:08:24] I'm like, I grew up with, I like Nirvana and I, but I'm not, I, when I think of Gen X, I kind of think of more of like born in the mid to late sixties. Sure. And, and then when I think of millennials, I think of folks like my brother who were pretty close in age to me, but born in the mid eighties. And they're just, just kind of a little bit different than the little pocket of the micro generation of those of us that were born. I guess you could say kind of bookended between the original star Wars trilogy, right? As they say. Yeah.

[00:08:55] I also like to think of that, not so with such tight parameters, but like, I call it like the Nintendo generation or the Sega generation a lot is, and I don't even mean to like put an end on it as anybody that's, you know, part of the part of this culture or part of the scene, you know, enjoys it. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I, I was born in 1980, so I'm, I am looking at 40. I am past it. And it's funny when the show started, I was like around forties. I was like, gamer looks at 40, but now I'm like, and I'm not updating it to gamer looks at 50 that that's just, that's doesn't, it doesn't make sense to me.

[00:09:25] So exactly. I just got to keep the name as it is. Um, so when you first played those games, it sounds like you really took to those experiences. It sounds like you connected with those two games. Did you get an NES of your own? Cause it sounds like you were playing with your uncle. Did you eventually get your own? Oh, I did. It took, it took about a year, I guess. So when I was seven, I just fell in love with Nintendo was mesmerized by it. I, one of the dominant memories I have then is, is going around with my wallet, um, which

[00:09:53] was a, which was a little Velcro wallet, which is probably common at the time. I love that bright neon, you know, really hear the thing like, but yeah, yeah. It's like a seven year old except like a dollar. And, and I had a cutout or I had a KB Toys was, was like the toy store that I went to, I would dream about that had games and had Nintendo. And I had a, an advertisement from KB and my wallet. And I carried that thing around.

[00:10:23] Like it was the most sacred document I had ever come across. I love that. And I would do anything to, to, I would do chores and, and, and try to be helpful and do anything I could for my parents and my grandparents and, and save up money. Basically a year passed. I don't know what I had. I didn't have enough. Uh, I'm still chipping away at it. My dad just took me to a store called, I think it was called best electronics. It's went away in the late eighties. But, um, I, I, another kind of memory that's kind of locked in there.

[00:10:53] It was in October of 87. He took me there and we got the deluxe set, which was the Nintendo that came with Rob and gyramite and duck hunt. So right away. Yeah. I got an old school system with the complicated robot that I don't think anybody knew how to, you know, work very well, but I tried to play gyramite. Yeah. Um, you know, I had some good times with my dad playing duck hunt and, and actually gyramite, believe it or not, we would just, one of us would hold the second controller

[00:11:22] and basically be the robot ourselves. It just press A or B rather than everybody. I had a friend who had a Rob too, and we couldn't figure it out. So it's exactly how we played gyramite. He was, someone would be second player and make the things go up and down. And yeah. Yep. Yeah. So, so it started like that. And basically I remember in the early days, so I was in third grade and it just really became a big part of my life. Basically there was school and then there was Nintendo after school and it was a really nice balance for me, you know, probably a lot of kids. Yeah.

[00:11:51] And I got, got into super Mario brothers. Um, first. Then I tried really, uh, just games that we know difficulty. Levels just crazy. Uh, ghosts and goblins. Um, stuff like that. Games that are really frustrating that just have wild hit, uh, hit collision and just kind of a chaotic, you know, frenetic energy to them where you're playing them and you're like, wow, just jumping across just the way they program some of the games. Uh, yeah. Like common word. They're just messing with us on purpose.

[00:12:21] Like purposely, purposely devious. Yes. So. Yeah. Yeah. Ghosts and goblins. Um, any other games that you really latched onto in those early years before we get to the, the world championships. Any other. Okay. Well, I guess let me just say a few things that hopefully resonate with the audience here that I think things that I did are very probably indicative of a lot of, a lot of folks our age, um, always being in like some kind of video game club, like with my friends in

[00:12:47] my class and always reformulating that kind of like pseudo student council, but we're a video game club. You know, there's, there's a president treasurer and some type of bureaucracy that we have. Right. Um, I, I started having like, you know, a list of games that, you know, we would say you, you mastered or whatever. It was like my resume, right? It was like my LinkedIn. Like in 1988 of, you know, you walk around with a notebook of like documenting why you exist on earth. And for me, it was like, well, how many games I'd mastered?

[00:13:17] That was my only value. What is how many? So I, I, a legend of Zelda, um, all, all the original, I guess, kind of, I guess they're called like the black box titles. I got into most of them, but then also like Zelda, um, Metroid was a little trippy for me. No pun intended. It's a little hard to grasp when you're like eight. Yeah. Tricky. It's yeah. Very tricky. Yep. So I always felt like I was a little bit on the younger end getting into games and titles

[00:13:47] that slightly older kids were getting into. And that's kind of like a, a common theme that actually carried me right into the 1990, uh, Nintendo world championships. Cool. Well, let's go, let's go ahead and just jump into that section of it then. So 1990 rolls around. You're probably around the 10, 11. I'm 11. I'm 11. February of 1990. I turn 11. Yep. And Nintendo, Nintendo power had announced in late, um, 89, that there was going to be

[00:14:16] a nationwide tournament called the Nintendo world championships, 1990. Um, they basically announced it as a 29 or 30 city, uh, tour, uh, for which it was by their own account, going to be a combination of like a rock concert. Uh, uh, just, they, they, they use like three or four huge concepts to just say, this is

[00:14:42] going to be big and it's going to be basically fitting for just how large and how mainstream Nintendo was at that time for anybody who lived through that time, the late eighties, you know, if you didn't live through it, you still kind of know because you can look at history to, to an extent and see huge, um, Nintendo in particular was and Sega, but Nintendo was just on this upswing from the mid eighties. That was just, we hadn't even hit the peak yet.

[00:15:11] So the timing of the 1990 event is just almost mystical in that it really touched a magic time, um, to grow on Nintendo. Totally. So Nintendo power, you, you read about it, like, like millions of other kids who read about it and, and dream. And you're like, this sounds amazing. Did you, did you see the wizard, the movie? I did. I did see the wizard. It was kind of like themed almost after the wizard, the video Armageddon, right? Like, yeah. Yeah.

[00:15:42] Kind of going through your head a little bit. Yeah. You know, I think for a lot of us that lived half in fantasy, half in reality, right? Whether professional wrestling, Nintendo movies, it was all the pop culture at the time just blended for us. Right. And so we all lived in this like space that was this kind of magical dimension. So things at that, that moment, like you're talking about the wizard came out. And for folks who don't know it, basically it's a children's movie that, that, that attempts

[00:16:08] to popularize, uh, Nintendo or kind of capitalize or acknowledge the role that Nintendo in particular and console gaming was having, you know, that the moment it was having in the late eighties, just sweeping the, you know, youth culture and really all pop culture in general. Um, it, it's not as like big as the Goonies or whatever, but it is, it is, it is remembered. It is a movie that, uh, you know, is out there and it is a pop culture defining movie.

[00:16:37] It's one of those that belongs in the canon of helping folks understand, you know, if they want to in a way study like pop modern pop culture, that film definitely belongs, um, in there. It captures a lot. Yeah. And then, so the tournament did seem very analogous and with Nintendo power being the main source for all of us to learn about and dream about Nintendo and whatever level we wanted to be engaged with it on when they started to announce that, that I think got so many of us, uh, just really fired up.

[00:17:07] Um, yeah. So I was in Southern California and it didn't come around my area until the fall. So as I, as I recall, and it's helped to actually talk with some folks like Dorian Whitlock, um, who was a 1994 power fest, um, finalist. Um, and he's a Nintendo world championship historian and, you know, very prominent in the community, uh, really spent a lot of time talking with me to, to help me situate what the experience was.

[00:17:36] And he shared a lot of information about Chris Tang, who, you know, is, is, is connected with the, uh, the, the Tetris, um, you know, enterprise, everything going on with Tetris, um, and ESPN and all that. And, but back in those days, Chris was a contender who had come down from Oakland, um, as the tour was coming down to Southern California and Chris participated in, in a regional Southern California event.

[00:18:05] And then later when Dorian, you know, met Chris and then Dorian learned about Chris's experience. So the, the history of the Nintendo world championship at the time that I was involved in it, it's interesting that even though this is 1990, we're talking about, you know, modern times that this, the thing still was so big that not all parts of it were really documented as, as cleanly or as well as some other parts of it. So sure.

[00:18:31] The earlier stops of the tour, the East coast legs of it, it's easier to find information about that as it was sweeping across the country from East to West. Basically Nintendo relied on a 900 number that you had to call with, you know, there's a paywall and you had to ask your parents permission to go back in the old days, right? Yep. To get, to get like a recording that would tell you like, okay, on this date, it's going to be here or there. As I've kind of gone back into that memory, I actually remember that I called that number

[00:19:00] at some point and remember, you know, getting information about universal studios. Universal studios was where the finals was held in December, but it was also the same location where they had some regional stops before then. So as I was trying to understand when, cause for most of my life, since I did it, I just knew it was 1990 and I had lost track of what month it was. It just didn't seem that for me.

[00:19:28] I knew that my experience, which I'll, which I'll get to is, is I think is somewhat interesting. Um, it's kind of reveal some of the inner workings of how this actually went down when it happened. Um, but anyway, of late, I've figured out that I was there. I think it was Saturday, October 13th. It was universal studios, Hollywood, and it was a large regional event. It was very well attended. I have photos from it, uh, fortunately where I'm on the stage competing.

[00:19:55] And like you said, it's very similar to the movie, the wizard, where you start out basically competing on the floor. They call it the pods. If you get a certain score threshold and you're invited to the main stage where they had seven on the, the, the setup that I was at, they had seven monitors and then like a larger, um, chair in the back. Mm-hmm . So I guess eight contestants total and a, and a host on stage with a microphone, uh, doing

[00:20:21] a professional, you know, hosting gig, just like it's TV or a game show and hype and everything. And it was as legit as anything could be. And the photos even, you know, bear that out that I have, um, which I'm happy to, to share. Or we can, yeah, I'd love to see that. Yeah. Just wanted to take a break from the conversation to shout out and celebrate my wonderful patrons

[00:20:48] who have been so faithful to this show all throughout its many ups and downs and turns and twists. Y'all are just beautiful, amazing people. Thank you so much. Shout out goes out to DJ Merrill, Lucas Thompson, Lindsay Harney, Philip Becker, Joe Cade, Terry Kinnair, Greg Seward, the Let's Play Princess, BT Goebbels, Julian of the Stage Select Podcast, and the one and only international man of mystery, the smashing and debonair, Pete Harney.

[00:21:18] If you would like to support this podcast in any way at all, please sashay on over to patreon.com forward slash agamerlooksat40, check out the tiers and sign up today. Before that, I do want to talk a little bit about the actual you getting to the point where you're in regionals. Um, did you have like the game packs? I know there was a Nintendo World Championship game pack.

[00:21:48] It was, did you have to submit that or was this before any of that stuff happened? No. Okay. I've had, I've, I've had questions around how did I enter? And, and honestly, I don't remember any type of, uh, qualifying activity that I necessarily had. Gotcha. My memory is such that I just went to Universal Studios like anybody else would. Cool. I believe there was some type of registration process to sign up for it that I think my dad helped me with. Would you, right. Parent had to help with that, of course.

[00:22:18] That makes sense. You know, have your name and whatever information they tried to collect. I kind of remember that. And then I just seem to remember just waiting a little bit and then walking right into one of the stations at a pod and just going. And I, I knew that it was Super Mario Brothers, Rad Racer and Tetris. I did not have any opportunity to practice the particular, you know, medley configuration. Right. Right. Specialized, you know, what's called the NWC, you know, cart or, you know, whatever. Nineteen ninety.

[00:22:48] Um, I just had the actual Super Mario Brothers, Rad Racer and Tetris, you know, games and was trying to stay sharp with, with them. Uh, I had no clue really about tournament gaming or even what I was about to step into other than that. I just craved deeply the opportunity to perform or to just be a part of Nintendo is like the best way I could explain it. Yeah. It to be part of Nintendo is what it felt like.

[00:23:17] I love that. And I, I'm going to, I'm going to write that down because being part of Nintendo. Um, so, so, so the scene is set. You're at universal studios. You're at this regional competition. You go into the pod, you start playing the game. Um, so obviously you scored well enough to move forward in, in your, whatever in bracket or however, how was the format? Yeah. Explain the bit about the format. How did it all work when it started out in the pods? I'm actually, okay. The, there were age brackets connected with the tournament.

[00:23:46] I honestly can't recall at the earliest stages when you're at the pod level. Um, how, how it really factors in unless they're, they may have already been tracking me, I guess, by age. I wasn't, I'm not sure a hundred percent. What I remember focusing on is being told in the memory that stayed with me was that I had to score over 200,000, uh, based on the score multiplier they had, you know, with Mario rat racer and Tetris where Tetris was weighted more heavily.

[00:24:15] Um, anyway, the, the overall score, you know, that, that would be yielded. I was told that the threshold to get on the stage was, I think it was 200,000. Um, which. It doesn't take a whole lot to get 200,000. You can't, you know, totally mess up. You have to be fairly competent and getting through, you know, getting 50 coins and some kind of industrious manner in Super Mario.

[00:24:39] You know, one way or the other, there were clearly ways to do it that some, that some, uh, contest, uh, contenders were figure, figuring out that. Sure. I, I don't, I remember that day for me, I didn't, I didn't really, um, explore, you know, creative ways of getting the 50 coins kind of just a brute force, just straightforward. Like I was actually advancing to world one, two, not, not dying in one, one. And I hadn't thought about that.

[00:25:07] It was just, just kind of a very linear approach for me, just straightforward. And I kind of remember everybody around me, at least the community that was around me that day was all doing the same thing. And we would practice, everybody was just kind of repeating this idea of you'd hit the 50th coin somewhere in one of the coin rooms in like one dash two. Um, anyway, that's maybe neither here nor there, but that's, that's kind of a real experience of being on, on, literally on the ground level of this as a kid who just kind of wandered in.

[00:25:35] And so, and I, and not having any real techniques, you know, that I figured out and just, you know, just whatever skill I had to, to, with the dynamics for Mario, Rat Racer and Tetris. Um, so yeah, I, I got to the stage and I re I remember at first, I don't remember exactly what the rules were once you're on the stage, other than just vaguely.

[00:25:58] Of course, you'd hopefully want to beat the other, you know, progress seven or eight that are up there with you, uh, seven that are up there with you. If it's a full, full stage, um, to be invited to, you know, whatever the next stage was going to be. And in this case, it's, it's an evening stage. So basically you're on the, you're in pods, you get the 200,000, you get to the main stage. If you do satisfactory there, then you get invited to continue on that evening.

[00:26:26] Um, and I actually received a letter and that's the thing that I guess is one of the unique things about my story. I still, I always save this, um, internment letter that was given to me that day that said, you have the, congratulations. You have the chance to become a power fest semifinalist.

[00:26:41] And then it had the instructions for reporting in at 6 PM or, and, and, or for being ready to go at 6 PM, but reporting in at five something so that they could stage us, you know, and they were, they were running it. Like it was, you know, televised or like, like, like, like a, you know, like a legit sports event or like anything that, you know, obviously it wasn't formally regulated, but they did their best to run it like, like it was.

[00:27:09] Um, so I, I eventually from doing well on the stage, I got to the stage a couple of times. I think the first time I was, I didn't do well. And then I was up there a couple, one or two more times and did much better. And then at some point that letter was given to me and the memory is fuzzy. I don't remember exactly what I did to get better given to me.

[00:27:28] And then, um, and then I remember something about the age bracket that I was in, even though the letter says the age brackets are supposed to be 10 and under, I'm sorry, 11 and under 12 to 17 and 18 and over. I actually remember in my memory being told that the age bracket that I'm actually competing in is 11 to 17. And it just, it just, that's just, it's just what it, that's just what it was.

[00:27:57] And that's just what I always remembered it being. And I always remember through the years, whenever I would randomly mention to somebody or, you know, like, Hey, I was in, you know, that's how it always kind of stayed with me because I don't know, I'd have some friends over or something. It just, as I'm going through life, the most interesting thing I could ever say to people that would just like blow their mind. It was a thing that happened. Yeah. I was in the 1990 Nintendo world. You know, you say something like that. People just like, what? You were what? And what? It just, it's a conversation starter.

[00:28:27] I, it's for sure. It's like, like, um, like a major one, one, one that I wouldn't even like really think, but it's like, it really does something that is special. And, um, anyway, I always hold on, hold on to that letter. And so big part of my story that I always remember, and it may not really be again, either here nor there, but what I remember is that I was competing against the older kids, the actual ones in the 12 to 17 bracket. Not that I was staying with the 11 and under.

[00:28:56] I, I, I don't know that that really necessarily made a difference because, uh, but that's kind of just what I remember. And I'd say that, uh, because when it was 6 PM, I, as try as I might, I was pretty tired by that point. And I sure probably as an 11 year old had taken myself to a limit. And then also with this idea, if I really was competing against the older, you know, 12, 13, 14 year olds, or that was taking a toll on me.

[00:29:24] And even if it wasn't, even if it was, I don't know, they were still like, I obviously want to be as factually accurate as I can. And I, I, I, I believe that day they were telling me that it's 11 to 17 and what, but you know, it's the bottom line is this. When that round started, I, uh, I just had a bad round. I, I, I was, I, I was spent. So I, um, made a bad move, I think in Tetris. And then I was just closed. So I, I, I knocked myself out.

[00:29:54] I just, the nerves, right. The nerves got to me in tournament again, tournament gaming. A lot of it, I think is trying to control your, uh, your, your nerves. Sure. Whether you're 11 or 47 or 40, you know? Yeah. Yeah. Yep. So, yeah. That's interesting. So you made sense to make it to that evening session. Yeah. You get on the stage and, or this is the pods again, probably. It was, it was a stage. It was a stage. It was intense.

[00:30:19] I remember it being, uh, feeling like a big deal that I was back on the stage and it was, I was, but I was a little nervous this time. Sure. And I, uh, was overthinking it and, and I, whatever. And, but I remember when I, you know, lost that round, I was pretty frustrated. Oh yeah. And that feeling was genuine. And it was a, it was an interesting kind of, I'm not even sure the right word to say,

[00:30:44] but just to, to be defeated or to, to get so far in a, in a competition that you're really passionate about, I, either that we today call e-sports, right? This really is a sport. And, and those of us that do it are truly, you know, passionate about it. And I, I, I say that almost, I, I'm not yet, I just started, uh, you know, at the age I'm at now, uh, attempting to enter the kind of the professional ranks of this.

[00:31:13] And I, I guess we can, you know, maybe. We'll definitely talk about that. But the feeling I got from that, yeah. The feeling I got that from that day in 1990 was basically the, the taste I needed of what I would say was the foundation of what I'm actually living now, which is entering a space of, of becoming a pro gamer in, in the retro space. I mean, back then we wouldn't have said retro, but the games I want to focus on and, and, and hone my skills on are very much the same ones I grew up with.

[00:31:41] Um, and I'm very interested in that, that part of our community. Was there an, was there an audience for, for a lot of this? Yes. There were people, every time I was on that stage, I, I was kind of broken into this that early that morning with people cheering, you know, talk about the similarities to like the movie, the wizard. Yeah. It was wild to just be a regular kid. And all of a sudden you're on a stage and you feel like you're part of like a rock concert or a rock band or something because you're doing things that are causing people to have

[00:32:09] a reaction and you feel that connection and felt it up there. And I was like, this is, this is cool. It was, it's, it was, it was intense. Yeah. And I had to adjust to it rapidly, but I loved it. I loved it. I loved every minute of that day. And that's what I mean to say that even though I was, that was frustrated at the end of the day, it was, I was so alive. And I, I, I can't believe that in a way I get to kind of step back into that world because

[00:32:38] I've been connected now with the community that, that carries forward from that. Uh, many of the same folks that participated in it, which is just also blowing my mind. So, yeah. That's great, man. Um, so you, well, let's move into some of the stuff you're doing now because you're, you're moving into that world of retro, uh, professional retro video game playing. Uh, what games are you playing? Have you entered into the tournaments yet? Like, how is that going for you? Yeah, no, I appreciate that.

[00:33:07] So basically my plans are in January, I'm going to Phoenix. Uh, I'm going to debut at the 2027 Game On Expo. They have a retro championships there, which is basically the mother load of all the Nintendo World Championship carts. Uh, we're starting out with the PowerFest 94. That's the qualifier. Okay. And then if, you know, if you get past that, then we have to get through the 1990 cart, then the 91, the 92 Campus Challenge. Yep.

[00:33:35] The, uh, 93 Star Fox, uh, the 94, uh, PowerFest cartridge, um, which, you know, has Ken Griffey and, and, uh, what is it? Um, Mario, uh, Super Mario Brothers Lost Levels, uh, 1-1. And anyway, and then, uh, Donkey Kong, the, uh, Donkey Kong competition, Donkey Kong Country competition card, I believe is the, uh, the grand finale, if I have that correct. Nice.

[00:34:02] Um, so that's going on Game On Expo, uh, Phoenix. Um, that's, that's going to be my first major tournament entry into the professional world. Outside of that, I am appearing at the 2027 Augusta Video Game Expo. Um, I was con, after I had shared my story about the Nintendo World Championships, I was, uh, I was, I was, uh, contacted by the event organizer, David Bryant. And so he's, he's inviting me to, to go out there.

[00:34:32] So I really look forward to that. I'm going to, um, share more of the story and kind of go, go deeper into it. So I look forward to that. Yeah. Let's see. Um, Twin Galaxies, right? I'm, uh, Twin Galaxies, the record keeper of so, so many of, uh, our accolades and what we try to do in this field, right? Uh, dating all the way back to the Atari days and the U.S. National Video Game Team, which, uh, I revere very much. Um, Twin Galaxies. So right now, in addition to preparing for Game On Expo with those tournament cards, I,

[00:35:01] just to get back, literally back in the game, I, uh, I brought out probably the, the final two games that I think I was really sharp at before I like stopped playing games when I was a kid. And this, and this is Sega Genesis and I'm talking about Pit Fighter and Golden Axe. Wow. I know that Pit Fighter is not really a fan favorite. Golden Axe is, is, is a classic. Everybody loves Golden Axe. Yeah.

[00:35:27] When I say Pit Fighter, some people get angry, some people get upset. And then when I talk to folks, I tend to find out that their experience was with the Super Nintendo Pit Fighter. Yes. Okay. That was mine. Yeah. I rented it as a kid. I rented it and I did not like it. And I understand it. I'm sorry. And I'm sorry on behalf of Pit Fighter and Atari or whoever originally made it, the S,

[00:35:54] the Super Nintendo port on the, I'm, I apologize for the Super Nintendo port of Pit Fighter because that seems to be the one that just sunk the, uh, the, to me, Pit Fighter should almost be. Okay. It's all right. It's not Street Fighter 2 and it's not Mortal Kombat, but it is, it is Pit Fighter. It's, it's getting closer. It's, it's getting in there. Yeah. You know, the digital photos and it's, it's, it's gritty and it's, it definitely had that like, we're in the nineties now, like it's getting, things are getting a little more

[00:36:24] hardcore. A little edgy. A little edgy. A little edgy. Um, anyway, Pit Fighter was just a chaotic wild game that I just grooved with when I was 13, 14. So right now at 47, trying to rapidly get myself back up into shape. It just, it felt good to pop in a game that, um, that I just really have a lot of fun with. And because I, I am pushing myself to like train. I'm taking this seriously. I love it. I love that.

[00:36:54] I view East. Yeah. This is my dream. And like, I, I, I, I want to be competitive. I want to, I, this, these guys are so cool that I'm meeting everybody I'm meeting is so awesome. And it's like brothers or friends that, that, that are long lost that like the second I talked to anyone, I'm like, how are we just meeting right now? Like, how have I not already, how have I, how have I not known you for the past 35? But a lot of us do have shared memories and we like this, a lot of the same things. And it's very fascinating.

[00:37:22] The retro space is, is one of the few pure things left. I really believe. I think if you just go to a convention or a show, like you're going to be going to in Phoenix and in the other places, the people, and you've been to shows I'm sure since then. And the people that you meet are among some of the most genuine people you'll, you'll, you'll ever meet. And it's, it's remarkable how this space fosters that kind of community. I totally agree.

[00:37:49] Just for that alone, I feel like I'm home and I feel, I feel so honored that I, that I've just being accepted into the community. And I'm just so honored and, and, um, humbled because it's like, I finally acted on something that's been in my heart and soul my whole life. And it feels so good to finally act on it and, and, and find, find out what this thing is. And I've always been like wanting to explore and just never figured out how to do it. And somehow it's just, I'm figuring it out now. I love it.

[00:38:18] I think it's so, I think it's really wonderful that you are in a place now where you can follow this dream. And I think there's a few really interesting themes, not that connect the past to what you're doing now. When you were a kid, you kind of just followed a dream. You said, Hey, I'm going to go, I want to be part of this Nintendo world championship. I'm going to follow this. And now, you know, almost 40 years later, probably 37 years later, you're doing the same thing. How, how does that feel?

[00:38:47] How does that feel to be following a dream? I, it just, it humbles me as a human being to realize we just kind of keep doing the same thing, I guess, until we, uh, either, you know, or maybe that's just it. Like you, you, you, you, you have a certain vibe in your life or you, you have a certain way that you position yourself in a way that you live your life. And maybe for me, that's just kind of what it looks like. I tend to, I was 11. Yeah.

[00:39:15] I was 11 getting into like a 14 year old world. And here I 47, like a 50 year old. I was joking around with Dory and I'm like, are we still going to have age brackets? Can I hang with the 50 year olds? But I think there's something really beautiful about that. I think that's great. I think that's, I think, I think it's great that you're pursuing something that you truly love, that you have a connection, obviously have a connection to, and you're doing it

[00:39:44] at an age where most people would be settling for whatever you're moving forward and you're trying something new that's happens to be old. And I think that's really very cool. Well, thanks Bill. I really appreciate that. And I really hope that for people listening, you know, I, I, I know that everybody has, is we all have dreams and you, I know you hear it on TV from people who are truly famous. I'm not famous. I'm not a celebrity.

[00:40:10] I'm just a guy who's taken one step forward and, and, and, and, but just even still to just do this, um, and, and to, and to enter this space, um, this is like not normal. You know what I'm doing? And, and, and, and people at my work are like, wow, Danny, good for you, man. Like you really are just going for what you, you, you've always wanted to do. And it, I just want to encourage people to, to whatever extent I can, even though I'm only

[00:40:39] one step forward in my own journey here is to truly let your life experience what it feels like when you just let yourself follow your heart and, and, and not try to over plan what the next step is, but just truly cast your net out there or whatever, send your signal, write that post that, that you want to do to express yourself and, and let life happen. Yeah. I think there's really something very sweet about that.

[00:41:06] And I think there's a, there, there's something that's very, very sweet and very, I think almost inspiring and not to be, not to paint too much of a brush on it, but I think it's very inspiring. I think a lot of people need to hear that, that, you know, yes, we are in our, I'm in my, I'm 46 year, you're 47, you know, we're of the same age. We're still striving towards something. And I think that's a very powerful thing that a lot of people need to hear that, that there is opportunities for that.

[00:41:34] So there's a lot of inertia that can maybe cause us to want to slow down or just to slow down or shut down or just maybe we tell ourselves it's, it's comfortable or it's, Oh, I'm not really shutting down. I'm just kind of whatever. But for me anyway, I just had this nagging feeling in my head that I was not doing something that I'm supposed to with whatever time I have on this earth. Right. I needed to, I needed to give it a shot, whatever it was. And I wasn't even sure.

[00:42:01] And I think I stumbled around on it even in, in, in our talking with you this evening, but it's just this year I decided to professionalize my Facebook page. And this, I want to offer this to the audience because this is a, um, I think anyone can do essentially in, in today's world, if you have any type of social media presence, that's like a great equalizer where you don't have to be the best with the technology. Like I'm not like a lot of what I've done for most of the year.

[00:42:29] We haven't really had time or maybe the focus to get into it is I I'm a big classic rock music guy. The Nintendo thing, I kind of swung back into it. Most what I've done for this year to explore my identity and kind of an arts and entertainment space is actually popularized analog media, like eight tracks. Oh, nice. I'm a big fan of like kiss and a certain classic rock bands. Sure. And again, like kiss was, they, they were, they, they kiss and eight tracks really went together. Like they kiss like is the 1970s basically.

[00:42:58] So they, that also kind of dovetails and do a lot of interest that I have in just pop culture and things like that. But that's all to say that I'm a big physical media guy. And I, in trying to find a voice outside of my day-to-day job, my actual career, you know, to try to in a very real way, you know, merge into something that I considered in arts and entertainment. My, my first exploration area was classic rock music and specifically the physical media that I had, I, I really love that stuff.

[00:43:28] And I like to kind of photograph the old eight tracks and then talk about the albums and things like that. And yeah, but whatever it is that, that, that is in someone's heart that you think you enjoy, like start doing it, just start doing it. And don't, don't like think yourself out of it and think, oh, that's a stupid idea. Or no one's going to like that. No, you're, you're, you're going through a creative process and you should be kind to yourself and patient with yourself if you can give yourself the time and space to figure

[00:43:56] out where you have an interest in something. And before you know it, it can lead to something else that you had no idea. Yeah. And I love that. And I think as a, as a, as a kind of like a, as a message, I think that's an important one because, um, you know, when you were, when you were a kid on that stage, you never thought that, you know, 30 something years later, you'd be, you'd be attempting another go around at this, you know, literally my memories from a, almost a random day in 1990.

[00:44:23] However, a very unique air event that I was so honored to be able to take. It's just, I I'm so lucky that I just happened to be able to go. Yeah. No, it's, I, I, it's just, it's amazing. And I, I can't even believe that like 36 years later, as I'm going through things in my attic and just, you know, unpacking things and then occasionally, you know, oh, I mean, I'll post is, you know, kind of a memory thing. That's, that was kind of a theme with my Facebook pages here. Sure. It's kind of just what it was.

[00:44:51] It was like, well, here's an actual personal memory related to Nintendo. Cause I was like doing posts about my old games and stuff that I have in cartridges. Yep. But when I actually shared that letter in my photos, that affected people in a very different way. And that's what this, that's what this entire podcast is all about. It are people's stories and recollections of what it was like to be there during that time more than, oh, this game was fun. You know, there's lots of shows that do that. So that's why I love mining these kinds of memories and going down these, uh, these little

[00:45:21] rabbit holes. This is a fascinating story, man. And I wish you the best of luck in your, uh, what's your, what's your, see having your handle, like any social media information you want to share. I appreciate it. Um, for, uh, first of all, I guess for any serious inquiries, if anyone's interested, uh, anyone who has a podcast or a convention expo, I'm, I'm very interested in partnering, collaborating, appearing, you know, sharing, helping to, uh, share the story of the 1990

[00:45:47] Nintendo world championships kind of as my, I guess, original pedigree into this field. Yeah. But also like not just resting on that, that I am avidly training to compete as well as I can. And I'm just very hungry and interested and curious about our field in every way. Um, so to get ahold of me, uh, the 1979 kid at gmail.com. Again, that's what I'd say for serious inquiries, business inquiries.

[00:46:13] Other than that, my Facebook page is probably the most developed presence I have. So that's at Daniel Sean, D A N I E L S E A N. Um, I'm using the handle, the 1979 kid on just about every other social media. So Instagram, TikTok. So one way or another, if, if you, if you do any kind of a search for the 1979 kid, you'll, you'll find me.

[00:46:40] And that just about does it for this edition of a gamer looks at 40. Many thanks to Danny for taking time out of his busy schedule to chat with me about this really special moment of his childhood. Hope you enjoyed the conversation. Hope you enjoy some new episodes coming sooner than later. If I can ever get myself around to doing that. Thank you so much for your continued support of the show.

[00:47:03] If you want to connect with me, my DMS are always open on Instagram and on TikTok file means reach out to me, say hello. I'd love to chat with you about all things video games until next time. Be kind to yourselves and each other.