In 1990, a mere 90 people got the chance we all dreamed of as kids: to cart their downs syndrome little brother to CALA-FOR-NYA for a chance to play NES games on giant screens in front of screaming crowds. Except, without the little brother. And.. it was in Orlando instead of California. Well actually, it was supposed to be Orlando, then they changed it... Look, there were NES games and big screens, and that's what's important.

Appearing in Volume 18 of Nintendo Power, the following are just a few of the contestants from around the country who made it to the Nintendo PowerFest 1990 finals.

God, I wish I could find tapes of these Oprah and Regis appearances. Anyway, we'll just skip a head a few issues and find out who won. Uh.. Hello? Winners?

Oh there they are, stuffed into one corner of Nintendo Power's letters section. And previously profiled Thor Aackerlund is the biggest winner, with a score 500,000 points higher than his previous best. I've heard it suggested that Nintendo wasn't very happy with Thor's deal with Camerica Games to sponsor their crap (see the bottom two ads here), and maybe that's why they uncerimoniously threw in the winners list here rather than making it a feature. Or maybe they realized no one cared.

You can actually find quite a bit of reading material just by searching for Thor Aackerlund's name -- it's one of those dream names for Internet researchers, one you can type into Google and not possibly find anything other than the guy you're looking for. There's a letter from a 26 year old Thor here, featuring a photo of him, apparently taken in a hardware store, alongside his girlfriend/wife and his frightening eyebrows. There's an interview with Adam Misosky, one of the other finalists, here, in which he talks about his experience at the event and mentions the last-minute change of venue from Orlando to Hollywood. There's also a lengthy description of the 1994 PowerFest with a number of (admittedly small) photos here.

And it just goes on like this. Mobygames has the cover art for Bee 52, another awful Camerica title little Thor was contractually obligated to praise. The best part is the "For the 8-bit game deck from Nintendo of America, Inc" note. They were so unlicensed they didn't even dare call the system by name. You can also read more about the history of Camerica here. And I think that's enough of that for one day.