Norman man to auction his vintage Nintendo memorabilia
He was youngest gamer in 1990 championships
More than 30 years after becoming the youngest gamer in the inaugural Nintendo World Championships, a Norman resident is putting memorabilia from the event up for auction.
But only after Nick Membrez-Weiler’s dad found his championship stuff in a storage unit.
“My dad keeps everything,” Membrez-Weiler, 40, said.
In 1990, when he was 71⁄2, MembrezWeiler competed in nine NWC city tournaments across the country.
The first major e-sports event in the United States, the tournament visited a total of 29 cities.
His family discovered the championships during a family visit to Minneapolis.
A young Membrez-Weiler tried to enter the competition but was stymied by international politics.
“We got stuck behind a motorcade for Mikhail Gorbachev at the time,” he said.
His family decided to head to the next city on the tour, Seattle, where Membrez-Weiler won the 11-and-under age group.
Having won the Seattle tournament, Membrez-Weiler was among 90 players invited to the finals at Universal Studios in Hollywood, and the youngest finalist to reach the world championship.
The competition involved a threegame medley of the original Super Mario Brothers, Tetris and a game called Rad Racer.
“It was extremely exciting,” Membrez-Weiler said. “I was ecstatic to win (in Seattle). Funny enough, the first thing that came to mind was a second place prize, which was a power pad. First place was a pair of Reeboks or something.”
His father later won a power pad. “When you would place in the Top 7 of the city, you would get a Gameboy,” Membrez-Weiler said. “We eventually wound up with like 13 Gameboys.”
Other items collected along the way include his Seattle 11-and-under championship trophy, the Nintendo World Championships 1990 game cartridge, which was used throughout the competition, and passes, tickets, stickers and instruction sheets for competitors in the finals.
When he went looking for these items, and others, Membrez-Weiler thought they might have been lost for good.
He contacted old neighborhood pals and asked if they had any of his stuff. When he was younger, Membrez-Weiler loaned gaming items to friends. They had no idea where the items were.
A couple of years ago, his father struck gamer gold while clearing a storage unit.
“We knew we had some collectible stuff, along with the cartridge itself, which is fairly valuable,” MembrezWeiler said. “He had moved houses a couple times from Denver down to Texas where they live now, but he had a couple different storage units, so they were clearing those out and eventually found it.”
Membrez-Weiler contacted retro gamer groups about the value of the items and eventually had them authenticated and graded.
Now, dozens of items are going online for auction through March 14 at ComicConnect.com.
Vincent Zurzolo, president of ComicConnect, estimates the game cartridge alone might net as much as $70,000.
“I love the idea of a 7-year-old kid being part of the first Nintendo World Championships and then having the sense to hold onto all the memorabilia and keepsakes including his trophy, VIP passes, tickets, stickers, baseball caps, and of course the incredibly rare Nintendo World Championship Cartridge,” Zurzolo said in a statement.
Zurzolo said the collection is like a time capsule.
“I know fans, collectors and investors from around the world will want to own a piece of video game competition history,” he said.
“Bidding confidently on authentic items is a must in today’s collectible world. We chose to send the collection to CGC Video Games and their authentication company CAG. They did a great job and the collection is now ready for auction.”
Membrez-Weiler said finding the game cartridge brought back memories and his initial instinct was find a console and play it.
He always proudly displayed his championship trophy wherever he lived. The trophy is the hardest item to part with.
“The emotional connection is to the trophy so I was real hesitant at first,” he said.
“The biggest thing I’ll miss is the trophy, because it’s always been around, but I’m really happy to be in the process of showing this stuff in the first place, and people are really excited to have some of these pieces.”
Membrez-Weiler now teaches sociology at the University of Oklahoma while completing his doctorate from North Carolina State University.
He and his partner, Laura, are ready to buy a house, so the auction will go toward their dream.
Still a gamer who focuses his competitive efforts on World of Warcraft, Membrez-Weiler said he never expected gaming to grow as much as it has in the last three decades.
“It was really the original e-sports event back in 1990,” he said. “Nobody had ever done anything like that before. Now, universities are doing management courses for e-sports. It’s pretty wild how big it’s gotten.”
“I know fans, collectors and investors from around the world will want to own a piece of video game competition history.” Vincent Zurzolo President, ComicConnect