1 00:00:09,927 --> 00:00:12,638 [man] When I found out that I could play games for a living, 2 00:00:13,347 --> 00:00:16,558 I was like, "I will do whatever it takes." 3 00:00:17,643 --> 00:00:21,230 I probably would've shaved my mullet if they asked me. 4 00:00:22,439 --> 00:00:25,400 It was, like, 1989, so I had business on the top 5 00:00:25,484 --> 00:00:28,695 and the party in the back, or the neck blanket... 6 00:00:28,779 --> 00:00:30,280 um, skunk tail. 7 00:00:33,533 --> 00:00:36,328 I felt like a rock star most of the time that I worked there. 8 00:00:37,287 --> 00:00:39,539 We had the satin Game Play Counselor jackets. 9 00:00:40,541 --> 00:00:43,460 The counselors would wear them around at lunchtime in the mall 10 00:00:43,543 --> 00:00:45,450 and kids would just be like... 11 00:00:45,128 --> 00:00:47,589 [mimics explosion] ..."Game Play Counselors!" 12 00:00:48,298 --> 00:00:50,884 People would be like, "You have the best job in the world!" 13 00:00:50,968 --> 00:00:52,886 And every time you're like, "You know what? I do! 14 00:00:52,970 --> 00:00:55,639 I have an awesome job! Like, who gets to play games for a living?" 15 00:00:58,350 --> 00:01:00,352 [upbeat electronic music playing] 16 00:01:48,442 --> 00:01:51,862 [video game sound effects] 17 00:01:52,529 --> 00:01:55,407 [ducks quack] 18 00:01:55,490 --> 00:01:58,827 [video game sound effects] 19 00:02:03,540 --> 00:02:06,460 [man in Japanese] Sound is needed for games 20 00:02:06,543 --> 00:02:08,670 because games are modeled after real life. 21 00:02:10,500 --> 00:02:12,382 It's a simple mimicking of life so... 22 00:02:12,466 --> 00:02:14,968 you need these confirmation cues... 23 00:02:15,469 --> 00:02:18,597 in order to feel immersed, you need sound. 24 00:02:23,643 --> 00:02:27,314 Sometimes the inspiration comes to me first thing in the morning. 25 00:02:27,397 --> 00:02:33,153 Sometimes I'll just hear a tune when I'm walking down the street. 26 00:02:33,653 --> 00:02:39,760 It's important to think that I'm always on the job, always creating. 27 00:02:41,787 --> 00:02:43,205 I'm Hirokazu Tanaka. 28 00:02:43,288 --> 00:02:48,418 I worked at Nintendo for 20 years since 1980. 29 00:02:50,754 --> 00:02:53,924 My job was to create sound effects. 30 00:02:54,591 --> 00:02:56,551 I really did have a lot of fun. 31 00:02:59,596 --> 00:03:01,973 [electronic music playing] 32 00:03:05,519 --> 00:03:07,187 [narrator in English] Hirokazu Tanaka's resume 33 00:03:07,270 --> 00:03:10,399 of composing bleeps and bloops is pretty epic. 34 00:03:11,316 --> 00:03:12,192 Metroid. 35 00:03:12,818 --> 00:03:15,195 Kid Icarus. Duck Hunt. 36 00:03:16,238 --> 00:03:17,364 And who could forget 37 00:03:17,906 --> 00:03:19,574 Hello Kitty World? 38 00:03:21,201 --> 00:03:23,120 [dance music playing] 39 00:03:23,203 --> 00:03:25,706 [Tanaka in Japanese] Nintendo had a very free culture back then. 40 00:03:26,123 --> 00:03:28,750 There were maybe 17 people working in development. 41 00:03:28,834 --> 00:03:30,836 [cheering] 42 00:03:31,962 --> 00:03:36,633 [Tanaka] Nintendo is a big name now, but at the time no one knew it. 43 00:03:37,759 --> 00:03:39,511 [cheering and applause] 44 00:03:48,645 --> 00:03:52,190 [narrator in English] Nintendo's humble beginnings started in 1889, 45 00:03:52,691 --> 00:03:55,152 when a man named Fusajiro Yamauchi 46 00:03:55,235 --> 00:03:58,447 began to produce and sell Japanese playing cards, 47 00:03:58,530 --> 00:04:00,282 called hanafuda. 48 00:04:01,825 --> 00:04:04,744 To stay competitive in a modernizing Japan, 49 00:04:04,828 --> 00:04:08,165 their portfolio expanded to include toys, 50 00:04:08,248 --> 00:04:12,200 mechanical carnival games, and, eventually, into the arcade. 51 00:04:12,878 --> 00:04:16,600 But while Nintendo experienced successes in Japan, 52 00:04:16,890 --> 00:04:18,717 they hadn't cracked the American market. 53 00:04:18,800 --> 00:04:22,637 And Tanaka would play a big role in making that happen. 54 00:04:23,680 --> 00:04:26,433 [Tanaka in Japanese] Space Firebird was my first game. 55 00:04:27,170 --> 00:04:29,478 Next was a game called Radar Scope. 56 00:04:34,816 --> 00:04:39,362 [narrator in English] Nintendo's great American dream was pinned on Radar Scope, 57 00:04:39,446 --> 00:04:42,866 which looked eerily similar to Space Invaders. 58 00:04:44,826 --> 00:04:48,663 Regardless, thousands of cabinets were loaded onto a boat, 59 00:04:49,623 --> 00:04:53,460 delivered to the newly-minted Nintendo of America headquarters 60 00:04:53,543 --> 00:04:57,880 where they collected dust at a warehouse. 61 00:04:57,172 --> 00:05:01,343 Apparently, American players were ready for something different. 62 00:05:01,801 --> 00:05:03,386 So a new plan was made, 63 00:05:04,137 --> 00:05:06,932 to keep the cabinets, but replace the circuitry 64 00:05:07,150 --> 00:05:08,850 with a brand new game. 65 00:05:08,934 --> 00:05:12,312 And that game was called Donkey Kong. 66 00:05:14,356 --> 00:05:16,316 Instead of lasers and guns, 67 00:05:16,399 --> 00:05:19,361 you were armed with comical hammers, your wits, 68 00:05:19,444 --> 00:05:22,364 and some kicks that granted some serious hang time. 69 00:05:24,320 --> 00:05:27,350 It was fun to play, but it was up to Tanaka 70 00:05:27,118 --> 00:05:29,120 to make it fun to hear. 71 00:05:31,748 --> 00:05:34,626 [electronic music playing] 72 00:05:38,255 --> 00:05:41,633 [Tanaka in Japanese] I made the sound of Donkey Kong 73 00:05:41,716 --> 00:05:43,385 in my second year at the company. 74 00:05:46,429 --> 00:05:50,725 I had no idea how I could make certain sounds back then. 75 00:05:52,143 --> 00:05:56,189 [narrator in English] Tanaka didn't have the fancy computer tools we have today. 76 00:05:56,273 --> 00:05:59,693 Things in the '80s were a bit more analog. 77 00:06:00,318 --> 00:06:04,531 [in Japanese] So the sounds of Donkey Kong walking or Mario walking 78 00:06:04,614 --> 00:06:06,741 would be produced around here. 79 00:06:08,493 --> 00:06:10,287 [electronic bleeps] 80 00:06:10,370 --> 00:06:11,913 The sound of Mario's footsteps 81 00:06:11,997 --> 00:06:14,833 actually worked out differently than I'd intended. 82 00:06:14,916 --> 00:06:18,545 Every time he takes a step, the sound changes slightly. 83 00:06:18,628 --> 00:06:22,340 I didn't intend to make it sound so cute. 84 00:06:22,424 --> 00:06:26,219 It's just the circuit ended up sounding that way by accident. 85 00:06:29,550 --> 00:06:34,519 Even if it's just a beep, sound is important in games. 86 00:06:36,146 --> 00:06:38,690 You need sound to confirm actions. 87 00:06:38,773 --> 00:06:40,609 Otherwise you wouldn't know what you were doing. 88 00:06:46,615 --> 00:06:52,704 At the time, I had no idea Donkey Kong would become so popular. 89 00:06:53,580 --> 00:06:57,375 I never had the sense that people all over the world enjoyed the games. 90 00:07:01,870 --> 00:07:05,216 [narrator in English] Donkey Kong was big. Like, really big. 91 00:07:05,884 --> 00:07:08,762 Like, Saturday morning cartoon big. 92 00:07:09,596 --> 00:07:11,264 In its first two years of release, 93 00:07:11,348 --> 00:07:15,310 the arcade game raked in over 280 million US dollars. 94 00:07:15,894 --> 00:07:18,772 But while Nintendo had a high score in arcades, 95 00:07:18,855 --> 00:07:21,399 there was a problem in American living rooms. 96 00:07:22,192 --> 00:07:25,403 The home console market, once dominated by Atari, 97 00:07:25,487 --> 00:07:28,740 had experienced an epic crash in 1983. 98 00:07:29,950 --> 00:07:34,621 So could a foreign-born company like Nintendo really turn it all around? 99 00:07:47,920 --> 00:07:50,679 [woman] I started at Nintendo in the summer of 1983. 100 00:07:52,130 --> 00:07:53,515 Nintendo was most known as Donkey Kong. 101 00:07:53,598 --> 00:07:56,393 I don't even know if anyone knew what Nintendo was. 102 00:07:56,476 --> 00:07:58,937 They just knew what Donkey Kong was. 103 00:07:59,521 --> 00:08:01,523 [narrator] Gail Tilden would know. 104 00:08:01,606 --> 00:08:04,250 Before she became a wine producer and marketer, 105 00:08:04,109 --> 00:08:07,570 she was brought into Nintendo as an advertising manager, 106 00:08:07,654 --> 00:08:10,907 and rose in the ranks to VP of brand management. 107 00:08:11,574 --> 00:08:13,493 Basically, she's a big deal. 108 00:08:14,350 --> 00:08:19,165 We were focused on how we could bring Nintendo's products out in the US, 109 00:08:19,249 --> 00:08:21,918 despite what was going on in the markets. 110 00:08:24,546 --> 00:08:28,967 In Japan they hadn't seemed to have the crash of the industry. 111 00:08:29,500 --> 00:08:32,595 So, Nintendo came out with their home console system, 112 00:08:32,679 --> 00:08:34,431 in around 1982. 113 00:08:35,306 --> 00:08:39,978 They called it the Famicom. The family computer system. 114 00:08:43,898 --> 00:08:47,318 [announcer] Family Computer no. Hiroshi kaze yo ta no... 115 00:08:47,819 --> 00:08:50,905 [Gail] It was a cartridge-based system that hooked to the TV 116 00:08:50,989 --> 00:08:54,340 and it did extremely well in Japan. 117 00:08:55,118 --> 00:08:57,780 Not only were the graphics great, 118 00:08:57,162 --> 00:08:59,998 but the way the characters were moving on the screen 119 00:09:00,457 --> 00:09:03,543 felt more like the experience you'd had with the arcades 120 00:09:03,626 --> 00:09:07,505 when compared to what the other systems had done. 121 00:09:10,884 --> 00:09:15,305 There was pressure to figure out how to bring the product over 122 00:09:15,388 --> 00:09:18,433 and to what level did it need to be Americanized 123 00:09:18,516 --> 00:09:22,520 or address where the market was in terms of negativity about video games. 124 00:09:23,521 --> 00:09:25,857 That really was the big challenge. 125 00:09:30,403 --> 00:09:34,574 [narrator] But the Famicom wasn't exactly a high-end bottle of wine. 126 00:09:35,116 --> 00:09:37,243 If Americans were going to buy it, 127 00:09:37,327 --> 00:09:40,622 Gail knew it needed a serious re-brand. 128 00:09:44,751 --> 00:09:48,880 [Tilden] It had a kind of an off-white color and burgundy and red. 129 00:09:49,339 --> 00:09:54,969 Really not colors that would normally seem like either electronic or kid-like. 130 00:09:56,346 --> 00:09:58,765 [narrator] It had to be sleek and sexy. 131 00:09:58,848 --> 00:10:01,184 Less family station wagon, 132 00:10:01,267 --> 00:10:03,603 and more DeLorean. 133 00:10:05,563 --> 00:10:08,900 [Tilden] So, the designers at Nintendo of America 134 00:10:08,983 --> 00:10:13,196 created the advanced video system that was sleek and silver. 135 00:10:13,279 --> 00:10:15,949 Low profile. And it was very beautiful. 136 00:10:16,320 --> 00:10:18,368 It also would have been very expensive 137 00:10:18,451 --> 00:10:21,579 and put the product at a much higher price point. 138 00:10:23,915 --> 00:10:26,543 Japan came back with the design 139 00:10:26,626 --> 00:10:29,295 and we kind of called it the lunch box for a while 140 00:10:29,379 --> 00:10:33,716 because we thought that it was not sleek, and boxy. 141 00:10:35,260 --> 00:10:39,764 The combination of the Nintendo of America industrial design team 142 00:10:39,848 --> 00:10:44,185 working with them ended up with the gray and red product. 143 00:10:46,229 --> 00:10:49,399 [narrator] And, with that, the Nintendo Entertainment System, 144 00:10:49,482 --> 00:10:51,943 nicknamed the NES, had been born. 145 00:10:52,485 --> 00:10:55,405 [announcer] Will you be the one to raise the incredibly accurate Zapper 146 00:10:55,488 --> 00:10:57,490 and play games like Duck Hunt? 147 00:10:57,574 --> 00:11:01,911 Will you be the one to experience the Nintendo Entertainment System? 148 00:11:01,995 --> 00:11:04,372 Comes with ROB, Zapper, Control Deck, 149 00:11:04,455 --> 00:11:06,875 two controllers, Gyro Mite and Duck Hunt. 150 00:11:10,420 --> 00:11:13,890 [narrator] The system was released in a single test market, 151 00:11:13,798 --> 00:11:17,427 New York City, during the 1985 holiday season. 152 00:11:18,511 --> 00:11:20,555 The strategy was simple. 153 00:11:20,638 --> 00:11:22,599 If you can make it in the Big Apple, 154 00:11:22,682 --> 00:11:24,893 you can make it anywhere. 155 00:11:25,643 --> 00:11:29,630 But while the NES didn't score super high on the sales charts, 156 00:11:29,856 --> 00:11:32,859 it did well enough for a nationwide release. 157 00:11:33,735 --> 00:11:36,946 [announcer] This is the world of the Super Mario Brothers. 158 00:11:37,300 --> 00:11:39,949 Put it on the screen and where there was one kid, 159 00:11:40,330 --> 00:11:43,745 you'll soon find two or three or more. 160 00:11:44,454 --> 00:11:49,125 [narrator] Word of mouth was getting out and a shift in conversation was beginning. 161 00:11:49,626 --> 00:11:53,838 People no longer played video games, they played Nintendo. 162 00:11:54,464 --> 00:11:59,385 We were really relying on TV and a little bit of grassroots 163 00:11:59,802 --> 00:12:02,550 and a lot of placement of displays, 164 00:12:02,138 --> 00:12:03,723 where the consumer could play. 165 00:12:04,766 --> 00:12:08,728 And among those new consumers was a 10-year-old Jeff Hansen, 166 00:12:09,437 --> 00:12:14,734 a player and contender for something new Nintendo had up their sleeves. 167 00:12:21,115 --> 00:12:22,659 [man] I love playing video games. 168 00:12:22,742 --> 00:12:25,828 I would ask for a video game every time it was my birthday. 169 00:12:29,916 --> 00:12:31,626 Growing up, for whatever reason, 170 00:12:31,709 --> 00:12:33,795 everybody came to our house to play video games. 171 00:12:34,796 --> 00:12:37,590 Master Blaster, Mario Brothers, Kid Niki... 172 00:12:38,299 --> 00:12:41,678 Games that just bring back immediate memories to me. 173 00:12:45,515 --> 00:12:48,101 I don't know that I ever saw myself 174 00:12:48,184 --> 00:12:50,186 as somebody who excelled at video games. 175 00:12:51,200 --> 00:12:54,983 We really didn't know that I was anything out of the ordinary 176 00:12:55,660 --> 00:12:58,690 until I actually started playing in the Nintendo competition. 177 00:13:01,781 --> 00:13:04,867 [announcer] King Kong. He's big. He's ugly. 178 00:13:04,951 --> 00:13:07,245 And he's no good at Nintendo. 179 00:13:07,328 --> 00:13:08,871 But you are. 180 00:13:08,955 --> 00:13:12,625 [narrator] By 1990, Nintendo was on a rocket to the moon. 181 00:13:13,209 --> 00:13:17,255 To keep the momentum going, they launched the PowerFest tour. 182 00:13:17,338 --> 00:13:19,674 [announcer] Only at Universal Studios Hollywood… 183 00:13:21,300 --> 00:13:25,304 [narrator] It was a multi-city tour across America with two goals: 184 00:13:25,388 --> 00:13:28,891 to showcase hot new games for people to try and buy 185 00:13:29,559 --> 00:13:34,230 and to hold a competition to find the greatest Nintendo players alive. 186 00:13:34,313 --> 00:13:38,151 [Hansen] I was very excited. Told my parents about it immediately. 187 00:13:38,985 --> 00:13:41,696 My dad, was-- I don't know if it was hesitant or not, but... 188 00:13:41,779 --> 00:13:46,117 [laughs] ...he agreed to come with me to the PowerFest for Salt Lake City 189 00:13:46,200 --> 00:13:47,243 and it was awesome. 190 00:13:51,122 --> 00:13:54,250 They called it the Nintendo World Championships 1990. 191 00:13:55,460 --> 00:13:58,755 The prizes for winning was a $10,000 savings bond, 192 00:13:58,838 --> 00:14:02,467 a Geo Metro convertible car, and a big screen TV. 193 00:14:02,550 --> 00:14:05,511 And then obviously, the trip to Universal Studios Hollywood. 194 00:14:06,137 --> 00:14:07,513 I mean, obviously I was excited. 195 00:14:07,597 --> 00:14:10,767 But it was all about, like, the prizes honestly. 196 00:14:10,850 --> 00:14:12,180 [laughs] 197 00:14:16,814 --> 00:14:19,776 The competition was made up of this cartridge. 198 00:14:20,318 --> 00:14:22,528 They had a whole bunch of them set up there 199 00:14:22,612 --> 00:14:25,310 And the cartridge had Super Mario Brothers, 200 00:14:25,114 --> 00:14:26,574 Rad Racer, and Tetris. 201 00:14:27,575 --> 00:14:29,786 [narrator] If the player could master those games 202 00:14:29,869 --> 00:14:32,205 and win in a participating city, 203 00:14:32,288 --> 00:14:35,830 they would be flown to Universal Studios Hollywood 204 00:14:35,166 --> 00:14:37,627 to compete in the final competition. 205 00:14:38,628 --> 00:14:41,255 [Hansen] I had played Super Mario Brothers a ton. 206 00:14:41,339 --> 00:14:44,300 And Rad Racer, I had also played quite a bit. 207 00:14:44,759 --> 00:14:47,970 Uh, but Tetris was the one that I hadn't really played much. 208 00:14:52,391 --> 00:14:56,687 I was only ten years old, but we entered in the competition... 209 00:14:57,271 --> 00:14:59,565 [MC] First round of competition now underway... 210 00:14:59,649 --> 00:15:01,776 ...even though I hadn't played Tetris much at all. 211 00:15:01,859 --> 00:15:05,113 [MC] Forty-two hundred from Jeff Hansen. Unbelievably close. 212 00:15:05,196 --> 00:15:07,824 [Hansen] My scores were high and everybody was really excited. 213 00:15:08,366 --> 00:15:10,159 [MC] Ninety-seven hundred for Jeff Hansen. 214 00:15:10,576 --> 00:15:11,619 [man] Yay! 215 00:15:12,411 --> 00:15:14,413 Really it was, kind of, a roller coaster ride. 216 00:15:14,497 --> 00:15:16,749 [cheering] 217 00:15:18,126 --> 00:15:20,211 [applause] 218 00:15:20,753 --> 00:15:23,589 [Jeff] I got third place for Salt Lake City. 219 00:15:24,632 --> 00:15:26,717 You know, it wasn't good enough to win the city, 220 00:15:26,801 --> 00:15:28,344 but that won me a Gameboy, 221 00:15:28,428 --> 00:15:30,120 which also came with Tetris. 222 00:15:30,888 --> 00:15:32,682 [announcer] Introducing Gameboy. 223 00:15:32,765 --> 00:15:35,351 It's portable, and its games are interchangeable. 224 00:15:35,434 --> 00:15:38,729 Plus Gameboy comes with the outrageous new game Tetris. 225 00:15:39,147 --> 00:15:41,440 [Hansen] That's when I kind of fell in love with Tetris. 226 00:15:46,237 --> 00:15:50,158 I would play Tetris all day long and played it over and over and over. 227 00:15:51,701 --> 00:15:52,827 When you do that, 228 00:15:52,910 --> 00:15:55,955 those pieces are just moving through your mind all the time. 229 00:15:58,749 --> 00:16:01,878 Even when I'm sleeping, I'm dreaming about Tetris pieces. 230 00:16:03,546 --> 00:16:06,215 I'm trying to figure out how can I put it all together 231 00:16:06,299 --> 00:16:08,509 to solve the puzzles in my mind. 232 00:16:09,468 --> 00:16:12,555 [narrator] But Jeff wasn't the only one dedicating all of his free time 233 00:16:12,638 --> 00:16:14,765 to smashing A and B buttons. 234 00:16:16,350 --> 00:16:18,769 [reporter] Parents, there appears to be no escape. 235 00:16:18,853 --> 00:16:21,230 Video games are back with a vengeance. 236 00:16:21,314 --> 00:16:24,650 Nintendo of America, based in a suburb of Seattle, 237 00:16:24,734 --> 00:16:28,905 has cornered about 75% of a market worth, in 1989, 238 00:16:28,988 --> 00:16:31,908 an estimated 3.4 billion dollars. 239 00:16:31,991 --> 00:16:35,578 Nintendo's success has created a demand for a lot of jobs 240 00:16:35,661 --> 00:16:38,748 playing video games and talking on the phone. 241 00:16:38,831 --> 00:16:42,100 Not a bad gig for the 80 or so men and women 242 00:16:42,840 --> 00:16:45,463 who work eight hours shifts as Nintendo Game Counselors. 243 00:16:46,214 --> 00:16:48,841 [narrator] Sounds like a job too good to be true, right? 244 00:16:48,925 --> 00:16:54,347 A 17-year-old named Shaun Bloom was thinking the same thing. 245 00:16:57,580 --> 00:17:00,144 [Bloom] So I was in high school. It was the end of the school year. 246 00:17:00,228 --> 00:17:02,230 I needed a job really bad 247 00:17:02,313 --> 00:17:04,148 and one of my buddies' girlfriend 248 00:17:04,232 --> 00:17:06,651 said she was gonna go and get a job at Nintendo for the summer. 249 00:17:06,734 --> 00:17:09,612 And I'm like, "Wait, how do you-- Is Nintendo here?" 250 00:17:13,449 --> 00:17:14,992 I stopped by the front desk. 251 00:17:15,760 --> 00:17:18,370 And they said, "Here's the application. Just fill this out. 252 00:17:18,120 --> 00:17:20,164 And then you're going to need to take a test." 253 00:17:20,248 --> 00:17:22,124 I thought the job was working in the warehouse. 254 00:17:22,208 --> 00:17:24,502 "What kind of test would you take to work in a warehouse?" 255 00:17:28,464 --> 00:17:30,490 And I said, "Well, what is the test for?" 256 00:17:30,132 --> 00:17:32,677 He said, "We've got to make sure you know how to play these games." 257 00:17:32,760 --> 00:17:34,345 And I said, "Wait, what am I doing?" 258 00:17:34,428 --> 00:17:36,597 And he said, "You're going to be a Game Play Counselor." 259 00:17:37,807 --> 00:17:39,892 They gave me a lot of information to memorize and said, 260 00:17:39,976 --> 00:17:41,727 "This is what you need to know. 261 00:17:41,811 --> 00:17:43,729 And when you're ready just come back and take it." 262 00:17:45,439 --> 00:17:48,359 [narrator] It's no secret, games can be tough. 263 00:17:49,986 --> 00:17:53,197 Today, if you're stuck, YouTube is there to bail you out. 264 00:17:53,948 --> 00:17:56,742 But that wasn't the case in the era of the mullet. 265 00:17:57,243 --> 00:17:59,360 Nintendo Game Play, this is Linda speaking. 266 00:17:59,120 --> 00:18:01,455 Nintendo Game Play, this is Jenny. How may I help you? 267 00:18:01,956 --> 00:18:06,294 [narrator] Nintendo saw a need and created an army of Game Play Counselors 268 00:18:06,711 --> 00:18:07,878 that had a single goal: 269 00:18:07,962 --> 00:18:11,700 for every 8-year-old Timmy stuck on Contra, 270 00:18:11,900 --> 00:18:14,343 for every 13-year-old Maria missing several heart containers, 271 00:18:14,427 --> 00:18:16,554 Game Counselors would be there, 272 00:18:16,637 --> 00:18:20,933 armed with enough tips and tricks to overcome any obstacle. 273 00:18:21,170 --> 00:18:23,102 It was a great strategy for Nintendo: 274 00:18:23,519 --> 00:18:27,773 beat the game, which means Mom and Dad will have to get you more. 275 00:18:27,857 --> 00:18:32,278 But the test to become one of the gaming's elite wasn’t easy. 276 00:18:32,862 --> 00:18:35,698 So Shaun came up with his own little cheat code. 277 00:18:35,781 --> 00:18:37,575 [chuckles] I'm like, "Oh, my God, 278 00:18:37,658 --> 00:18:39,744 how am I going to remember all this stuff?" 279 00:18:39,827 --> 00:18:43,622 Like, all the sword power-ups, the triforce pieces, everything. 280 00:18:46,334 --> 00:18:51,922 So, I took my awesome Body Glove rubber, flexible sunglasses. 281 00:18:52,600 --> 00:18:53,883 And I cut out pieces of paper 282 00:18:53,966 --> 00:18:57,530 that fit behind the sunglass lenses just perfect. 283 00:18:59,130 --> 00:19:02,580 And then with my smallest handwriting possible, 284 00:19:02,141 --> 00:19:04,685 I wrote every heart place, 285 00:19:04,769 --> 00:19:09,398 everything you could possibly think of, was all in two little tiny shades. 286 00:19:11,525 --> 00:19:13,569 They put me in this little room, and... 287 00:19:13,652 --> 00:19:16,300 I just set my shades down on the table, and... 288 00:19:16,614 --> 00:19:18,157 filled out my test. 289 00:19:18,240 --> 00:19:20,242 I passed, like 100 percent, too. 290 00:19:20,326 --> 00:19:21,535 [laughs] 291 00:19:21,619 --> 00:19:22,661 Go figure! 292 00:19:34,131 --> 00:19:35,257 Oh, hi there. 293 00:19:36,800 --> 00:19:39,970 Welcome to Nintendo, and congratulations on passing the Game Counselors test. 294 00:19:40,540 --> 00:19:44,350 Now, you might think it's all about playing games from sun up to sun down. 295 00:19:44,433 --> 00:19:46,102 And, yeah, that's part of it, 296 00:19:46,185 --> 00:19:48,729 but there's a whole lot more to it than just that. 297 00:19:54,652 --> 00:19:58,656 [Bloom] Four weeks of intensive training, eight hours a day, five days a week. 298 00:19:59,730 --> 00:20:01,659 And it was awesome. Like, every day I’m like, 299 00:20:02,243 --> 00:20:05,663 "Gonna go to work and make some money playing games. Oh, darn." 300 00:20:07,998 --> 00:20:11,100 I had the fortune of training under a trainer called Tom. 301 00:20:11,752 --> 00:20:14,422 He was the very first Game Play Counselor. 302 00:20:15,673 --> 00:20:18,717 He's this older guy with gray hair, like a grandpa-type guy. 303 00:20:19,635 --> 00:20:21,429 He was a super nice guy... 304 00:20:21,512 --> 00:20:24,140 but then he would go, "Everyone turn around to the table." 305 00:20:25,474 --> 00:20:26,559 And then he would just go... 306 00:20:26,976 --> 00:20:28,811 [yelling] 307 00:20:29,437 --> 00:20:30,729 "First heart container Zelda. 308 00:20:30,813 --> 00:20:32,731 Second! Fifth! Third!" 309 00:20:32,815 --> 00:20:36,277 And you'd just, you know, and he was just, "Now!" 310 00:20:36,360 --> 00:20:37,361 [clicking fingers] 311 00:20:37,445 --> 00:20:39,822 So it was, it was, like, just demanding of you. 312 00:20:39,905 --> 00:20:41,407 And then it also made you wonder, like, 313 00:20:41,490 --> 00:20:44,160 "Oh, my God, what is it gonna be like on the phones?" 314 00:20:44,243 --> 00:20:47,788 Like, am I going to get chewed up and spit out and go home crying? 315 00:20:48,330 --> 00:20:49,874 You didn't know at that point. 316 00:20:55,254 --> 00:20:59,910 [narrator] The list of games Shaun would have to master was only getting longer. 317 00:20:59,175 --> 00:21:03,220 And legions of eager players were consumed by one mission: 318 00:21:03,763 --> 00:21:06,557 finish the game and get more! 319 00:21:06,640 --> 00:21:10,478 There's more action. Very exciting and challenging. 320 00:21:10,561 --> 00:21:14,899 [boy] I like adventure games where you're set out to do something 321 00:21:14,982 --> 00:21:17,401 and you have to complete your mission. 322 00:21:19,690 --> 00:21:21,322 [narrator] All that success was thanks in part 323 00:21:21,405 --> 00:21:24,200 to the man who would become the face of Nintendo. 324 00:21:24,742 --> 00:21:26,452 Well, yes, that would be Mario. 325 00:21:26,535 --> 00:21:28,913 But the creator behind the mustache... 326 00:21:29,955 --> 00:21:31,540 is Shigeru Miyamoto. 327 00:21:32,625 --> 00:21:34,752 -[Hansen] Mr. Miyamoto. -Hi. 328 00:21:34,835 --> 00:21:37,713 -[man] Miyamoto. -[Hansen] Miyamoto. 329 00:21:39,882 --> 00:21:45,221 Mr. Miyamoto is Nintendo's legendary game designer 330 00:21:45,304 --> 00:21:47,556 because he created Mario. 331 00:21:48,766 --> 00:21:52,853 [narrator] Miyamoto's little hero started off life as Jumpman in Donkey Kong, 332 00:21:53,646 --> 00:21:55,940 a blue collar dude trying to save a girl. 333 00:21:56,649 --> 00:22:01,700 He was charming, relatable, and fun to play. 334 00:22:01,153 --> 00:22:04,406 [Tilden] From there, Miyamoto developed Super Mario Brothers 335 00:22:04,490 --> 00:22:06,575 and the Legend of Zelda 336 00:22:06,659 --> 00:22:10,538 and put his mark on many other characters and franchises. 337 00:22:11,163 --> 00:22:12,456 He really does... 338 00:22:13,400 --> 00:22:15,960 have that Spielberg-type touch. 339 00:22:16,835 --> 00:22:21,715 He really can gauge what's going to make something fun. 340 00:22:23,592 --> 00:22:27,471 [narrator] Miyamoto's creations are still being made into games today. 341 00:22:27,555 --> 00:22:29,139 But despite these successes, 342 00:22:29,223 --> 00:22:32,184 it could've gone down a very different way 343 00:22:32,768 --> 00:22:37,640 when Nintendo's flagship game Donkey Kong got hauled into court. 344 00:22:40,317 --> 00:22:41,652 [man] I am not a gamer. 345 00:22:44,710 --> 00:22:47,241 It was always my ambition to be a lawyer. 346 00:22:48,909 --> 00:22:51,537 I think that people regard me 347 00:22:51,620 --> 00:22:56,458 as a very meticulous and aggressive cross-examiner. 348 00:23:02,590 --> 00:23:07,303 In 1982, John Kirby was hired to represent Nintendo 349 00:23:07,386 --> 00:23:10,598 in a lawsuit filed by Universal City Studios. 350 00:23:11,432 --> 00:23:13,767 Universal alleged that Donkey Kong 351 00:23:13,851 --> 00:23:17,855 was in violation of their trademark in King Kong, 352 00:23:17,938 --> 00:23:21,108 and that Nintendo should pony up for damages. 353 00:23:21,191 --> 00:23:23,319 [Kirby] Climbing the Empire State Building 354 00:23:23,402 --> 00:23:26,697 is certainly different than climbing ramps and ladders. 355 00:23:28,324 --> 00:23:31,535 But there's a lot of similarity, too. 356 00:23:33,120 --> 00:23:38,500 Remember, at this time,  Nintendo of America was a very small company. 357 00:23:39,251 --> 00:23:41,337 If they lost the case, 358 00:23:41,920 --> 00:23:44,298 there would've been no Nintendo of America. 359 00:23:45,591 --> 00:23:47,301 The stakes were enormous. 360 00:23:51,764 --> 00:23:54,141 [narrator] Kirby had his work cut out for him. 361 00:23:54,224 --> 00:23:58,200 So he and his team started to research the case, 362 00:23:58,103 --> 00:24:01,940 which took them 6,000 miles across the globe. 363 00:24:12,618 --> 00:24:13,911 [Kirby] We went to Japan 364 00:24:14,578 --> 00:24:19,830 and spent time interviewing people at Nintendo. 365 00:24:19,958 --> 00:24:23,253 We did research into how King Kong was used. 366 00:24:24,129 --> 00:24:26,799 What emerged was that Kong 367 00:24:26,882 --> 00:24:30,678 had really become a synonym 368 00:24:30,761 --> 00:24:32,846 for a big gorilla. 369 00:24:35,599 --> 00:24:38,310 [narrator] Ultimately, Kirby and his team found 370 00:24:38,394 --> 00:24:40,270 King Kong car washes, 371 00:24:40,354 --> 00:24:41,730 King Kong sandwiches, 372 00:24:42,231 --> 00:24:44,233 even a King Kong wrestler, 373 00:24:44,316 --> 00:24:46,694 but nothing resembling trademark infringement. 374 00:24:47,820 --> 00:24:52,533 [Kirby] We became convinced that Universal had no rights. 375 00:24:53,450 --> 00:24:54,827 Even more significantly, 376 00:24:54,910 --> 00:24:57,496 we became convinced that they knew they had no rights. 377 00:24:59,456 --> 00:25:02,420 [narrator] After months of painstaking research, 378 00:25:02,126 --> 00:25:05,295 John Kirby and his team of lawyers headed to court 379 00:25:05,879 --> 00:25:09,216 and all rose for the Honorable Judge Sweet. 380 00:25:11,218 --> 00:25:14,930 [Kirby] I did actually have the Donkey Kong machine in the courtroom. 381 00:25:15,639 --> 00:25:19,351 Judge Sweet was a tremendously curious person. 382 00:25:20,310 --> 00:25:24,606 He said it was a most enjoyable day in the courtroom. 383 00:25:25,240 --> 00:25:27,276 He said it was only marred by the fact 384 00:25:27,359 --> 00:25:31,290 that there were depositions and affidavits that I had to look at. 385 00:25:33,310 --> 00:25:36,952 Our basic defense was the property they claimed to own 386 00:25:37,350 --> 00:25:40,622 had no confusion with anything that Nintendo did 387 00:25:40,706 --> 00:25:44,376 and that Universal knew that what they were doing was wrong. 388 00:25:45,419 --> 00:25:47,588 Judge Sweet got the point. 389 00:25:48,505 --> 00:25:51,490 And then I knew that we'd won the case. 390 00:25:55,846 --> 00:25:58,348 [narrator] And in case you were wondering, yes, 391 00:25:58,432 --> 00:26:02,728 there is a resemblance between this lovable pink Kirby and this one. 392 00:26:02,811 --> 00:26:05,522 -[laughs] -[narrator] After the case was closed, 393 00:26:05,606 --> 00:26:08,525 Nintendo paid tribute in the best way possible. 394 00:26:08,609 --> 00:26:11,612 Being a humorless lawyer, 395 00:26:11,695 --> 00:26:14,364 I said, "Well, no one asked my permission. 396 00:26:14,448 --> 00:26:16,825 They didn't get a license from me. 397 00:26:16,909 --> 00:26:20,496 I think I'm probably going to have to take some action." 398 00:26:26,710 --> 00:26:31,590 [narrator] Thanks to Kirby and his team, Nintendo had scored a major victory, 399 00:26:33,800 --> 00:26:34,259 and it paved the way 400 00:26:34,343 --> 00:26:39,970 for the Nintendo World Championship 1990 tour across America. 401 00:26:41,642 --> 00:26:44,603 Jeff had lost in his hometown of Salt Lake City, 402 00:26:44,686 --> 00:26:48,650 but a summer draining double-A batteries playing Tetris 403 00:26:48,148 --> 00:26:52,270 had leveled up his skills and his parents noticed. 404 00:26:52,861 --> 00:26:55,720 [Hansen] My mom is very competitive. [laughs] 405 00:26:55,155 --> 00:26:56,448 Really brags about her kids. 406 00:26:57,320 --> 00:26:59,368 She knew that there was something special there. 407 00:26:59,827 --> 00:27:02,496 And so she and my dad, you know, convinced each other 408 00:27:02,579 --> 00:27:05,290 that we were going to just give this one more shot. 409 00:27:07,251 --> 00:27:09,837 [narrator] There was one last city on the PowerFest tour 410 00:27:09,920 --> 00:27:13,900 and one last chance to make it to the finals: 411 00:27:13,173 --> 00:27:17,940 Tampa, Florida, over 2,000 miles away. 412 00:27:17,177 --> 00:27:18,178 [screaming] 413 00:27:18,262 --> 00:27:21,932 [Hansen] I don't think that I really grasped the whole picture 414 00:27:22,150 --> 00:27:25,644 and whether there was really any chance that I could win the whole thing. 415 00:27:26,144 --> 00:27:29,815 [MC] Three, two, one, here we go! 416 00:27:33,735 --> 00:27:37,865 [Hansen] The competition started, and I put my whole heart and soul into it. 417 00:27:37,948 --> 00:27:39,199 [MC] Yes, Tetris! 418 00:27:40,325 --> 00:27:42,786 [Hansen] There were a lot of people there who wanted to win. 419 00:27:42,870 --> 00:27:44,329 You know, this is your last shot. 420 00:27:45,800 --> 00:27:48,458 [MC] Ladies and gentlemen, just look at those scores! 421 00:27:49,793 --> 00:27:53,880 [Hansen] If you don't make it in this, then you're kind of out. 422 00:27:53,171 --> 00:27:55,966 And who knows if Nintendo's ever going to do this again. 423 00:27:56,717 --> 00:28:00,512 [MC] If anything was any closer than this, I have not yet seen it. 424 00:28:02,306 --> 00:28:05,392 [Hansen] I don't know how I was able to keep my nerves straight. 425 00:28:05,475 --> 00:28:08,645 [MC] Running away now with 3,900 points, Jeff Hansen! 426 00:28:08,729 --> 00:28:09,897 [cheering] 427 00:28:10,814 --> 00:28:13,191 [Hansen] And then, somehow, I was able to win. 428 00:28:14,260 --> 00:28:15,986 [narrator] With a high score in Tampa, 429 00:28:16,690 --> 00:28:19,448 Jeff secured himself a coveted spot in the finals 430 00:28:19,531 --> 00:28:23,410 where he would face off against the top Nintendo players in his age group 431 00:28:23,493 --> 00:28:24,953 from across the country. 432 00:28:25,537 --> 00:28:28,498 There was only a week after I won the Tampa competition, 433 00:28:28,582 --> 00:28:32,502 before the actual final competition in Hollywood at Universal Studios. 434 00:28:32,586 --> 00:28:35,339 I really didn't have a lot of time to practice. 435 00:28:38,842 --> 00:28:41,845 You literally want to get to Tetris as fast as possible. 436 00:28:42,346 --> 00:28:45,849 The cartridge made you go to Super Mario Brothers first, 437 00:28:45,933 --> 00:28:48,769 and you try to get 50 coins just as quickly as you can. 438 00:28:49,478 --> 00:28:52,648 And there were some tricks that I learned throughout the course of the competition 439 00:28:52,731 --> 00:28:54,566 that kind of helped speed things up. 440 00:28:54,650 --> 00:28:56,985 Like, dying at a certain part in Super Mario Brothers 441 00:28:57,690 --> 00:28:58,487 to rack up tons of coins. 442 00:28:59,290 --> 00:29:01,406 The problem is it's kind of tricky to do, right? 443 00:29:02,740 --> 00:29:04,743 But Tetris points were multiplied by so much 444 00:29:04,826 --> 00:29:06,745 that if you didn't get to Tetris, 445 00:29:06,828 --> 00:29:09,915 you basically wouldn't score very high at all. 446 00:29:12,834 --> 00:29:15,254 And that's really what I focused on for that entire week. 447 00:29:15,337 --> 00:29:17,464 Probably played, I don't know... 448 00:29:17,547 --> 00:29:20,467 uh, 60 or 70 hours of Tetris. I have no idea. 449 00:29:20,550 --> 00:29:21,593 [laughs] 450 00:29:22,940 --> 00:29:23,971 Mario! Mario! 451 00:29:24,540 --> 00:29:25,847 -Mario! -Mario! 452 00:29:25,931 --> 00:29:27,641 [chanting] Mario! 453 00:29:31,853 --> 00:29:33,438 [narrator] By the early 1990s, 454 00:29:33,522 --> 00:29:35,649 Nintendo had little competition 455 00:29:35,732 --> 00:29:38,151 and was dominating the home console market. 456 00:29:39,653 --> 00:29:42,864 But not every game was a smash hit like Mario. 457 00:29:42,948 --> 00:29:47,703 So Shaun had to be prepared to walk clueless players through all of them. 458 00:29:49,413 --> 00:29:51,540 You'll be responsible for helping our callers 459 00:29:51,623 --> 00:29:53,208 through some of the toughest of games. 460 00:29:53,291 --> 00:29:56,860 Now, there are tons of Nintendo titles out there, 461 00:29:56,169 --> 00:29:58,839 and you can't possibly be expected to memorize them all. 462 00:29:58,922 --> 00:30:01,842 So these will be invaluable. 463 00:30:06,960 --> 00:30:08,515 We didn't get the games before everyone else did, 464 00:30:08,598 --> 00:30:11,180 so we just had to plow through them as quick as possible 465 00:30:11,101 --> 00:30:13,437 because calls started coming as soon as games were released. 466 00:30:14,813 --> 00:30:16,398 [narrator] Counselors were playing blind 467 00:30:16,481 --> 00:30:18,942 with no strategy guides from game developers. 468 00:30:19,260 --> 00:30:21,278 So they had to get creative. 469 00:30:21,778 --> 00:30:25,320 The game play binders were packed with tips and tricks 470 00:30:25,115 --> 00:30:27,117 that were made entirely by hand. 471 00:30:27,868 --> 00:30:30,954 Maps, locations of secret power ups, 472 00:30:31,538 --> 00:30:32,664 the works. 473 00:30:35,417 --> 00:30:36,960 [Bloom] Legacy of the Wizard, wow. 474 00:30:37,440 --> 00:30:39,629 That was the game that put the fear of God into you. 475 00:30:40,464 --> 00:30:42,215 It had, like, 64 rooms, 476 00:30:42,299 --> 00:30:45,218 and every room literally looks the same. 477 00:30:46,344 --> 00:30:49,556 The caller would give you clues like, "There's gray blocks." 478 00:30:49,639 --> 00:30:52,684 Hmm, there's gray blocks on every spot on this map. 479 00:30:52,768 --> 00:30:55,729 Or "I think I’m in the bottom right hand area." 480 00:30:56,563 --> 00:30:58,857 "Okay, um, I'm going to transfer you." 481 00:30:58,940 --> 00:31:01,193 [laughs] Boop. 482 00:31:01,276 --> 00:31:02,444 Done with that. 483 00:31:07,199 --> 00:31:08,325 Oh, a call. 484 00:31:08,825 --> 00:31:12,204 When you get into a good groove you could take up to 20 calls an hour. 485 00:31:12,287 --> 00:31:15,290 When you're ready, take a deep breath... [inhales] 486 00:31:15,373 --> 00:31:16,917 ...and hit that start button. 487 00:31:17,793 --> 00:31:20,796 Nintendo Game Play, this is Shaun, How can I help you? 488 00:31:21,922 --> 00:31:23,423 Man, that first call, you're just like, 489 00:31:24,257 --> 00:31:26,301 [weakly] "Nintendo Game Play, this is Shaun. 490 00:31:26,384 --> 00:31:29,721 I don't know if I can help you or not." That's what I wanted to say. 491 00:31:31,932 --> 00:31:33,433 [narrator] As a Game Play Counselor, 492 00:31:33,517 --> 00:31:37,813 Shaun could take anywhere from 50 to even 100 calls a day. 493 00:31:41,566 --> 00:31:44,194 [Bloom] It got harder and harder to do the job 494 00:31:44,277 --> 00:31:46,154 because pretty soon it's just like, 495 00:31:46,238 --> 00:31:49,866 "Wow, I could take a call on like 2,000 different games right now." 496 00:31:50,534 --> 00:31:53,328 The phone lines were ringing off the hook at Nintendo. 497 00:31:53,411 --> 00:31:56,810 Well, the final fortress is kind of a magical maze. 498 00:31:56,164 --> 00:31:57,624 But if you couldn't get through, 499 00:31:57,707 --> 00:32:01,503 there was another way to pull back the curtain on your favorite games. 500 00:32:02,379 --> 00:32:04,506 [announcer] Deep within Nintendo headquarters, 501 00:32:04,589 --> 00:32:07,920 expert game counselors answer your questions. 502 00:32:07,175 --> 00:32:09,428 Their source of information: Nintendo Power. 503 00:32:09,511 --> 00:32:11,138 Your direct connection to the pros... 504 00:32:11,221 --> 00:32:14,570 [narrator] The magazine was named Nintendo Power, 505 00:32:14,141 --> 00:32:18,520 and it would go on to become a staple of the Nintendo diet in America. 506 00:32:20,210 --> 00:32:23,692 But what's the secret to a video game magazine's success? 507 00:32:24,943 --> 00:32:27,988 To no surprise, Japan had the answer. 508 00:32:32,951 --> 00:32:36,580 [Tilden] The Japanese really have a lot of print media. 509 00:32:37,330 --> 00:32:40,125 Everybody knows manga is huge there. 510 00:32:40,625 --> 00:32:42,836 But they also had a lot of video game magazines. 511 00:32:44,588 --> 00:32:49,634 They used the magazine to tell a lot about how to play. 512 00:32:51,344 --> 00:32:53,430 They featured maps... 513 00:32:54,306 --> 00:32:56,516 and tips and tricks 514 00:32:56,600 --> 00:32:59,190 to try to help people get through the games 515 00:32:59,102 --> 00:33:00,812 so that they would be satisfied 516 00:33:00,896 --> 00:33:03,773 and always be happy to buy another brand new game. 517 00:33:05,233 --> 00:33:08,445 The President of Nintendo in the US 518 00:33:08,528 --> 00:33:10,697 saw what was happening in Japan and thought, 519 00:33:10,780 --> 00:33:13,700 "You know what? I think we could make a magazine 520 00:33:13,783 --> 00:33:16,536 similar to the type that they have in Japan." 521 00:33:19,873 --> 00:33:21,791 [narrator] Gail paired up with Howard Phillips, 522 00:33:21,875 --> 00:33:24,461 the resident Game Play expert at Nintendo, 523 00:33:24,544 --> 00:33:26,755 to get the magazine off the ground. 524 00:33:27,589 --> 00:33:29,174 And when they landed in Japan, 525 00:33:29,966 --> 00:33:32,520 culture shock was inevitable. 526 00:33:33,845 --> 00:33:38,308 [Tilden] So being in Japan, meeting with our Japanese co-publishers 527 00:33:38,391 --> 00:33:40,894 and I would say once in a while 528 00:33:40,977 --> 00:33:43,438 the translator may have shed a tear or two 529 00:33:43,521 --> 00:33:47,984 in not wanting to express what I was expressing. 530 00:33:49,527 --> 00:33:52,239 Part of the challenge wasn't just coming up with the content, 531 00:33:52,322 --> 00:33:53,990 but even the look and feel. 532 00:33:54,740 --> 00:33:58,662 In Japan, they have a quite different sensibility about fonts, color. 533 00:33:59,663 --> 00:34:04,334 So not only were you in Japan in some hotel room and it's midnight, 534 00:34:04,417 --> 00:34:07,879 everybody's smoking cigarettes and trying to communicate, 535 00:34:08,421 --> 00:34:12,500 but the product isn't what I thought 536 00:34:12,133 --> 00:34:14,761 the US audience, the North American audience, would like. 537 00:34:15,720 --> 00:34:18,598 I would want to change the font. I would want to change the color scheme. 538 00:34:18,682 --> 00:34:20,976 I wouldn't like what they picked for a callout 539 00:34:21,590 --> 00:34:23,687 and I felt like I wanted what I wanted. 540 00:34:23,770 --> 00:34:26,481 Like, I wanted it to be what I thought was the right thing. 541 00:34:28,525 --> 00:34:31,528 Howard Phillips and I did those first few trips together 542 00:34:31,611 --> 00:34:34,197 and he was trying to smooth things over. 543 00:34:34,281 --> 00:34:37,993 And so he said, "Don't worry, she's just a Dragon Lady." 544 00:34:38,760 --> 00:34:40,287 And that was my reputation. 545 00:34:41,204 --> 00:34:46,626 Ultimately, the art director said he quit. He didn't want to work with me. 546 00:34:46,710 --> 00:34:48,712 But I wanted what I wanted, so... 547 00:34:52,590 --> 00:34:55,100 [narrator] Gail's persistence paid off big time 548 00:34:55,930 --> 00:34:58,540 and Nintendo's top brass liked what they saw. 549 00:34:58,638 --> 00:35:01,850 With features like the Top 30 and Counselor's Corner, 550 00:35:01,933 --> 00:35:03,935 the magazine was nearing completion. 551 00:35:06,646 --> 00:35:10,400 Now all the team needed was a cover that would pop. 552 00:35:10,483 --> 00:35:14,112 Nintendo's rising star, Mario, was helping to push game sales. 553 00:35:14,529 --> 00:35:18,491 Maybe he could come through on the magazine racks. 554 00:35:18,575 --> 00:35:21,328 [Tilden] First issue, Super Mario 2 was on the cover 555 00:35:21,411 --> 00:35:25,832 and it's the big feature with all the maps and all the tips. 556 00:35:26,416 --> 00:35:30,920 We came up with this idea to create something that looked like claymation. 557 00:35:34,716 --> 00:35:38,219 Keep in mind that there was no such thing as 3D Mario at the time. 558 00:35:38,803 --> 00:35:44,434 The only image of Mario that we had was a flat 2D image. 559 00:35:44,517 --> 00:35:47,520 So to represent Mario in that way 560 00:35:47,604 --> 00:35:50,982 was really quite fresh, and it was very exciting. 561 00:35:51,566 --> 00:35:54,944 It was a chance to peek past the pixels of what could be, 562 00:35:55,280 --> 00:35:58,865 and tease the whimsical secrets that were held inside. 563 00:36:01,659 --> 00:36:02,494 [clears throat] 564 00:36:04,496 --> 00:36:06,414 "It all started late one night 565 00:36:06,498 --> 00:36:10,168 when our hero, Mario, had a very strange dream. 566 00:36:18,385 --> 00:36:19,511 In his dream, 567 00:36:19,594 --> 00:36:22,847 he climbed up a long winding stairway leading to a door. 568 00:36:24,933 --> 00:36:26,518 When he opened the door, 569 00:36:26,601 --> 00:36:29,854 he saw a world unlike anything he'd ever seen before. 570 00:36:31,439 --> 00:36:33,983 As he peered into this wondrous world, 571 00:36:34,670 --> 00:36:38,363 he suddenly heard someone say, in a faint and distant voice, 572 00:36:38,446 --> 00:36:40,365 'We've been waiting for you, Mario. 573 00:36:40,448 --> 00:36:43,340 We want you and your friends to fight 574 00:36:43,118 --> 00:36:47,205 and bring peace back to the world of dreams.'" 575 00:36:50,458 --> 00:36:55,880 One of the most important things in the magazine was the maps. 576 00:36:55,839 --> 00:36:58,508 You would be able to just look directly at the game 577 00:36:58,591 --> 00:37:00,802 and then look at this map 578 00:37:00,885 --> 00:37:04,305 and really just navigate through all the levels 579 00:37:04,389 --> 00:37:06,307 and hopefully get to the end. 580 00:37:08,309 --> 00:37:12,188 There's callouts that show where he should pluck a radish 581 00:37:12,272 --> 00:37:14,566 or something that shows where he should be jumping up 582 00:37:14,649 --> 00:37:16,359 and hitting the POW box. 583 00:37:17,193 --> 00:37:19,446 You can see all that on the layout. 584 00:37:21,156 --> 00:37:26,286 It really was a major media for the industry 585 00:37:26,369 --> 00:37:29,289 and the industry at the time was really the NES. 586 00:37:31,624 --> 00:37:35,300 The first issue is the issue with the largest circulation. 587 00:37:35,860 --> 00:37:39,700 It was around 3.2 million copies that we sent out. 588 00:37:39,507 --> 00:37:41,551 So, you know, if you're trying to eBay that one, 589 00:37:41,968 --> 00:37:43,136 everybody has it. 590 00:37:43,887 --> 00:37:46,306 [MC] Traveling coast to coast across the country. 591 00:37:46,389 --> 00:37:50,143 From Seattle to Miami, New York to Los Angeles. 592 00:37:50,226 --> 00:37:54,230 Searching for the best in the business, the top guns of Nintendo. 593 00:37:54,314 --> 00:37:57,775 [narrator] After a nationwide tour, thousands of screaming kids 594 00:37:57,859 --> 00:38:02,447 and more than a few stressed parents, it was time for the final competition 595 00:38:02,530 --> 00:38:05,575 and the crowning of a Nintendo champion. 596 00:38:06,284 --> 00:38:07,952 [MC] Whoo! Yeah, are you ready? 597 00:38:08,360 --> 00:38:10,622 Whoo! Thank you, I don't get this at home. 598 00:38:11,122 --> 00:38:13,625 Welcome to Universal Studios Hollywood. 599 00:38:13,708 --> 00:38:19,172 This is the unprecedented 1990 Nintendo World Championships. 600 00:38:19,255 --> 00:38:20,632 [cheering] 601 00:38:20,715 --> 00:38:22,258 [man] Yay, Jeff! 602 00:38:22,342 --> 00:38:24,594 [Hansen] The competition in California was pretty intense. 603 00:38:24,677 --> 00:38:26,930 I mean, Nintendo really tried to soup it up. 604 00:38:27,130 --> 00:38:28,556 -[cheering] -[MC] The Champions… 605 00:38:28,640 --> 00:38:30,975 [Hansen] There were lasers and there was smoke. 606 00:38:31,590 --> 00:38:34,437 And they had a DJ from MTV doing all the music. 607 00:38:34,521 --> 00:38:37,440 There was, you know, Mario, Luigi. 608 00:38:37,524 --> 00:38:40,276 I mean, it's just like, you know, a Nintendo kid's dream. 609 00:38:40,360 --> 00:38:42,946 [cheering and applause] 610 00:38:44,113 --> 00:38:46,199 [woman] All right, Jeff! 611 00:38:49,827 --> 00:38:51,996 [narrator] Ten-year-old Jeff entered the ring. 612 00:38:53,540 --> 00:38:55,291 And if he was going to win, 613 00:38:56,420 --> 00:38:59,450 then he couldn't hold back. 614 00:39:01,256 --> 00:39:02,882 [dramatic music playing] 615 00:39:02,966 --> 00:39:06,386 [MC] Ladies and gentlemen, this is it. 616 00:39:06,886 --> 00:39:12,580 The final round of the 1990 Nintendo World Championship. 617 00:39:14,180 --> 00:39:15,436 [cheering] 618 00:39:18,314 --> 00:39:19,941 [Hansen] It was totally intense. 619 00:39:20,775 --> 00:39:23,319 Before the game, my hands turned cold. 620 00:39:25,947 --> 00:39:28,575 You have to make sure that you don't mess up, 621 00:39:28,658 --> 00:39:31,369 don't get distracted in any way from anybody else 622 00:39:31,452 --> 00:39:32,745 or anything else that's going on. 623 00:39:34,664 --> 00:39:39,430 [MC] Five, four, three, two, one... 624 00:39:39,961 --> 00:39:41,588 And then it happens. 625 00:39:43,881 --> 00:39:47,100 [MC] One of these gentlemen will walk away as the World's Champion. 626 00:39:48,177 --> 00:39:50,805 [Hansen] I don't know how I was able to tune out 627 00:39:50,889 --> 00:39:53,182 all the lasers and all the smoke and all the music. 628 00:39:54,809 --> 00:39:56,936 [MC] Here it comes, Tetris! 629 00:39:57,200 --> 00:39:59,188 -Yeah! -[woman screams] 630 00:40:00,481 --> 00:40:01,774 [Hansen] Trying to tune out my mom 631 00:40:01,858 --> 00:40:03,693 because she's cheering at the top of her lungs. 632 00:40:03,776 --> 00:40:05,778 [woman] All right, Jeff, you can do it! 633 00:40:07,363 --> 00:40:11,340 [MC] Jeff Hansen looking for the top two. Here it comes, Tetris! 634 00:40:11,743 --> 00:40:13,911 [Jeff] But somehow I was able to focus. 635 00:40:13,995 --> 00:40:18,541 [MC] Out of the top, he takes it back. 18,000, Jeff Hansen, time ticking away. 636 00:40:20,627 --> 00:40:25,256 Three, two, one. That is time. 637 00:40:25,673 --> 00:40:26,591 Whoo! 638 00:40:28,343 --> 00:40:30,553 Gentlemen, come on up here, every one of you. 639 00:40:30,637 --> 00:40:32,138 Families, come on up here. 640 00:40:33,556 --> 00:40:36,392 I didn't think a score like this was going to take it home tonight. 641 00:40:36,851 --> 00:40:40,688 Two million nine thousand nine hundred and fifty, 642 00:40:40,772 --> 00:40:44,400 you are looking at the best in the world, 643 00:40:44,484 --> 00:40:46,819 Mr. Jeff Hansen! 644 00:40:46,903 --> 00:40:50,990 [fanfare] 645 00:40:51,740 --> 00:40:53,701 [cheering] 646 00:40:56,496 --> 00:40:59,832 [Hansen] My parents were totally supportive. Loved every moment. 647 00:41:00,750 --> 00:41:03,544 For my mom, winning the whole competition reinforced, 648 00:41:03,628 --> 00:41:05,463 in her mind, that I was the best. 649 00:41:05,546 --> 00:41:09,342 She always knew I was the best, but there wasn't really any proof of that. 650 00:41:10,134 --> 00:41:12,110 She wanted to make sure the whole world knew 651 00:41:12,950 --> 00:41:14,970 that I was the Nintendo World Champion. 652 00:41:14,180 --> 00:41:15,181 [laughs] 653 00:41:17,580 --> 00:41:18,685 [narrator] The Nintendo Entertainment System 654 00:41:18,768 --> 00:41:22,210 would go on to sell over 61 million units 655 00:41:22,105 --> 00:41:25,191 before walking off into an 8-bit sunset. 656 00:41:25,274 --> 00:41:29,821 But more valuable than statistics were the memories it left behind. 657 00:41:30,238 --> 00:41:34,200 The anticipation of a magazine waiting in your mailbox every month. 658 00:41:34,617 --> 00:41:39,330 An explosive competition that rivaled the most bombastic band tour. 659 00:41:39,414 --> 00:41:41,541 And, of course, the games. 660 00:41:43,292 --> 00:41:45,169 Countless hours of gameplay, 661 00:41:46,295 --> 00:41:50,490 the feeling of triumph, frustration, and wonder. 662 00:41:50,633 --> 00:41:52,760 Nintendo had cracked the fun code 663 00:41:52,844 --> 00:41:56,472 on playing a character in an imaginary world. 664 00:41:57,223 --> 00:41:59,934 But what if instead of simply controlling a character, 665 00:42:00,351 --> 00:42:02,103 you could become one? 666 00:42:02,186 --> 00:42:08,670 Where reality and fantasy intersect lies the world of the role player.