Nintendo Super Tour '92
The Nintendo Super Tour '92 (also simply known as the Nintendo Super Tour) was a tour in France and north Spain that ran from 1992 to early 1993. It was organized by Nintendo France, and the second part was sponsored by Player One, Nintendo Player, and NRJ. The goal of the tour was to promote the release of the Super Nintendo Entertainment System and to show its capabilities for families and children without being overwhelmed by advertising.[1] This event is mostly inspired from the United States model[2] and was in direct competition with Sega, who organized the Sega Euro Challenge 92.[3]
During the event, there was an open competition called Open Nintendo, with the first-place award being a two-week trip in Las Vegas.[4][5]
This was the largest video game championship in Europe in 1992, with over 800,000 attendees.[6][3]
Organization[edit]
The Nintendo Super Tour was divided into two parts. The first took place from winter to spring in several cities, and the second was in summer by coastlines. In total, the tour had 107 stops.[6]
The tour was run in trucks that unfolded to reveal gaming stations and used 65 metric tons of material.[6] The trucks were chosen, organized, and driven by Gilles Barthélémy and Stephan Brissaud, who chose the trucks as they allowed them to cross several cities in a short time.[3]
Trucks featured stations equipped with the then-recent consoles: the SNES and Game Boy. There were 80 stations during the first part of the event[6] and 72 during the second, with a 15-minute rotation per person.[7] At these stations, players could play titles like Super Mario Bros. 3 or The Legend of Zelda, and demos of 15 new titles were presented during this event.
The inauguration of the Nintendo Super Tour took place in Champ de Mars[3] before spreading out from March to June and from July to August.
For Open Nintendo, registration could be done on-site, but places could be reserved using a cut-out coupon from a Club Nintendo issue. For the tournament itself, it took place on a special stand in groups of 10:
- The first one was a sequence of three games with three different goals in seven minutes (when a goal was completed, the programmed cartridge automatically moved on to the next game): Super Mario Bros. 3, where players must collect 50 coins, Pin Bot, where they must obtain 250,000 points, and Dr. Mario, where they must earn the highest score before time runs out.[5]
- The summer tournament was focused on F-Zero: Players needed to get the best time in Mute City in the Knight League with the Fire Stingray.
The finals of the tournament took place in Villepinte in the Paris suburbs during the international Toy Fair of Paris[8][9] on January 31, 1993[3][10] with a total of 60 qualifiers.
Every participant of the championship won at least a T-shirt and a pin; other prizes included a frisbee, cap, and battery-operated radio.[3] The winner of the stop won a SNES and a place for the finals. In the finals, the participant in first place won a SNES with a dozen games, a balloon offered by the Paris Saint-Germain FC's 1993 team, a gold medal, a cup of the tour, a cap, a TV, and a trip to Las Vegas for two people.[5] The participants in second and third place won the same prizes except for the trip,[11] and the rest of the entrants received gifts.[4] The gold medal was also given to organizers.[3]
Stops[edit]
| City | Date | City | Date |
|---|---|---|---|
| Winter and spring tour[4][12] | Summer tour[13] | ||
| Parly IIa | March 11 | Nice | July 6/7 |
| Éragny | March 14/15 | Villefranche-sur-Mer | July 8/9 |
| Paris | March 18 | Menton | July 10/11 |
| Orgeval | March 21/22 | Mandelieu | July 12-14 |
| Villiers-en-Bière | March 25 | Sète | July 16/17 |
| La ville-du-Bois | March 27/28 | Canet | July 18/19 |
| Orléans | April 1 | La Grande-Motte | July 20/21 |
| Troyes | April 3-5 | Palavas-les-Flots | July 22/23 |
| Foire de Parisb | May 1-10 | Tréport | July 27/28 |
| Strasbourg | May 15/16 | Fort-Mahon | July 29/30 |
| Hagueneau | May 20 | Dieppe | July 31-August 1 |
| Nancy | March 11 | Cabourg | August 2/3 |
| Éragny | May 22 | Biscarosse | August 9/7 |
| Thionville | May 26/27 | Cap-Ferret | August 8/9 |
| Metz | May 29-31 | Andernos-les-Bains | August 10-12 |
| Eparney | June 3 | Anglet | August 15 |
| Soissons | June 6/7 | Arcachon | August 17/18 |
| Bethune | June 10 | Lacanau | August 19/20 |
| Noyelles-Godault | June 12 | Saint-Brevin-les-Pins | August 22/23 |
| Lille | June 13/14 | Brest | August 25/26 |
| Villeneuve | June 16 | ||
| Englos | June 17 | ||
| Wasquehal | June 19 | ||
| Saint-Omer | June 20/21 | ||
| Boulogne-sur-Mer | June 23 | ||
| Dunkerque | June 24 | ||
| Bruxelles | June 27/28 | ||
Gallery[edit]
Mario's artwork on a truck
The two trucks and van
The main truck when the tour is set up
Finals of Open Nintendo
Winners of Open Nintendo
Gold medal (front)
Gold medal (back)
Pin
Notes[edit]
a - Parly II is a urban developer with a mall in Le Chesnay-Rocquencourt.
b - Foire de Paris is an annual major retail event in Paris.
References[edit]
- ^ "Cette manifestation a pour but principal de présenter la Super Nintendo et d'en montrer les possibilités" (Translation: "The main goal of this event is to introduce the Super Nintendo and showcase its capabilities.") - Gilles Barthélémy, in the 23rd issue of Player One magazine, page 11.
- ^ Nintendo Super Tour à Dijon. TV News showing the Super Tour passing through Dijon. INA.
- ^ a b c d e f g Interview of Alain Milly, one of the on-site organizers for the Super Nintendo Tour '92. YouTube, Florent Gorges (Playhistoire)
- ^ a b c Nintendo part en campagne - Player One. Issue 18, page 18.
- ^ a b c Interview with Vincent Noiret, the winner of Open Nintendo. YouTube, Florent Gorges (Playhistoire)
- ^ a b c d Nintendo Super Tour '92's advertisement. YouTube, Gilles Barthélemy
- ^ Player one et le Nintendo Super Tour 92 - Player One. Issue 22, page 12
- ^ Bernard Prat PDG de Bandai France annonce la Super Nintendo et ses cassettes (Micro Kid's 1992). YouTube, Oli (Jeux vidéo et des bas)
- ^ Salon du jouet. TV News showing much of the toy show with Nintendo Super Tour. INA.
- ^ Medal earned from the finals
- ^ Winners of Open Nintendo of the Open Nintendo
- ^ Voici les dates du Super Tour 92 pour les mois de mai et juin - Nintendo Player. Issue 4, page 12.
- ^ Dates de la tournée d'été - Nintendo Player. Issue 5, page 13.
