Nintendo: "IT IS EXTREMELY IMPORTANT THAT YOU SEND THESE MATERIALS TO NINTENDO AS SOON AS POSSIBLE AFTER THE CONCLUSION OF THE COMPETITION" Employee: "Welp, this regular Starfox cartridge looks close enough..."
i'm surprised there were no medium shirts given out! i guess more baggy clothing was the style, but nowadays most average guys are wearing medium shirts xD
Probably because the unit is normally used for game demos which you probably wouldn't want as loud since it's just constantly going in the background, but for an official competition like this you'd want to have the volume louder to be able to hear the game better, especially with a crowd of people watching
I still have the pin and my Star Fox Competition jacket from winning at my location. Still remember competing, it was fun. I remember going to 3 different stores to complete, came in 2nd at another.
I actually have this cartridge! Back in the mid 2000s, I went to GameStop looking through their SNES games for the original Star Fox and found this game labeled and priced as a normal Star Fox game . I thought it was very weird and my brother convinced me to get it. We didn't find out what it was until later that day. And that is how I got a game now worth over $2500 for like $8
Great find :) I have it too although it is the European version. I picked it up for £5 (so similar to your $8 find) back in the late 90’s from a local market stall. The video I made of it was one of the very first I made for my channel. Crazy the price of retro game items these days!
@@EngineerOfChaos True - mine was a similar experience - chucked in with the usual suspects - Mario, Starfox (Starwing over here), common sports titles, the odd puzzle or platform game etc. It was the same market I picked up my SNES multicarts back in the day. Wish those 2 stalls were still there!
It's kind of nuts to think they expected one person to essentially run the event, I feel like that would be a disaster today. Great to see this preserved nonetheless!
When I played at the Pokemon TCG League at Books a Million they only had one employee having to manage the event and give out promo cards and badges to players if they won enough matches.
See the thing is, it was only one employee, because back then, people used to work hard, and they were responsible, and effective. Now everyone is on drugs and lazy and distracted with having sex with everyone, so it takes like 100 modern employees, to equal just one good employee from the 90’s. Plus now the 100 employees would just be doing drugs and having sex during the event, so you can’t have store events anymore
This is the type of #LostMedia that needs preserved because so few know of its existence. Such a cool piece of Super Nintendo History. Especially for those of us that remember when the competition was taking place but weren’t lucky enough to have our parents take us to a store hosting the competition. I would always read about them in the magazines afterwards and was so jealous of everyone that got to partake in these competitions.
@@Code7Unltd That has absolutely nothing to do with the preservation of the VHS tape itself & its content which is what I was talking about originally in my post. 🤦♂️🤦♂️🤦♂️🤦♂️
@@EvaFull It DOES have something to do with the VHS tape itself. It's about giving us context for that rare competition cartridge that was dumped a while ago. As much as one might want to think of them as separate entities, they're both connected to each other & you can't say otherwise.
@@ExtremeWreck Re-read my comments 😂 😂 That’s exactly what I was saying. I just related to a personal story which others can’t seam to be able to separate when reading my comments. 🤦♂️🤦♂️🤦♂️
It's crazy to see how clear VHS can be because most people just assume it's not clear, but that's because it's a degraded tape being played multiple times
I think he remasters the footage which helps with the high definition. Helps remove it of any noise and grain while shifting the color balance more vibrantly
@@damian9303yeah I doubt the colors are this vivid on the original. Even Disney films have a noticeable color issue on VHS compared to DVD, they’re absolutely less vibrant or saturated or something. And a kid playing a vhs over and over sure doesn’t help haha
@@Code7UnltdI imagine the only degradation on these tapes (judging by how nice they looked) is minimal UV radiation but beyond that are fairly pristine
Actually, yes it's that clear. If you record the tape on modern 6-head machine and play it back after it was made, it will be as crisp as master copy. If you record on old 4-head recorder, quality loss will be much more significant, even freshly after recording.
Makes me sad to see Nintendo put this much effort into Star fox back then but its basically dead now. Also this vid brought back some memories, i still have my shirt from the Toys R Us event
I mean there was no Wii Starfox either...but Starfox was in that one other game on Switch, so I don't think the series is dead. Plus they released SF2 on SNES Classic and Switch Online.
@@brandogg if the last game release was a game from the mid 90s, the one before that was a cameo DLC in a mediocre multi platform toy game, and the one before that was a gimmick on a dead system.... the series is dead.
I haven't heard that opening tape promo in decades, yet i remembered the ending of it word for word. "because it's not just the universe at stake, it's your reputation!"
Interesting seeing what appears to be a labeless cartridge in the display tutorial sections with no label with writing saying ether *"Temp"* or *"Test"* (it is really hard to tell cause the resolution) clearly used before they had the final cart seen a few examples later.
Whoa, just imagine how precious all of that stuff shown in the video is nowadays - not only the pins and t-shirts but even the ephemera papers distributed, even any crumpled registration form that might have escaped the trash bin and survived through time!... 🤩 I'm really looking forward to see more comments popping up here and revealing the whereabouts of some of those things!
My favourite bit was when he pretended to look for a Cindy Milter and she was right in front of him (I'm surprised she didn't punch him in the throat when he denied her a t-shirt). Oh, and when Greg Richardson was late. Silly Greg.
Some preface. I don't have social media and this is a relatively new account (compared to my previous/original account). I got nostalgic the other day and remembered this channel existed and that back in the day how much I looked forward to the uploads. I say all that to say, or rather, shout into the void of the comment section- I sure am glad you guys are still around. I'm almost 30 now but this channel really got me into learning about the people behind video games when I was a kid. I've resubbed on this account and i look forward to future content from good ole H4G. I guess what I'm trying to say, is, thanks for inspiring me and sticking with it. It means a lot, wierdly enough.
@@stephenfiler3204 oh I'm talking about the game itself not the real cart, I've been playing on an SD2SNES maybe one day I'll own a cartridge but I am in no rush
Man, I'd love to own one of those Super NES interactive display units. They must be worth a fortune now. As for the Starfox Competition Cartridges, it's no wonder why they're incredibly rare, valuable, and sought after by Super NES collectors. Nintendo requested that the stores return the cartridges, so very few of them made it into the wild. It would've been cool if the top scorer at each store was awarded the cartridge, or in the event of a tie, have the top two scorers compete in a tiebreaker, and the winner was awarded the cartridge.
Oh wow, my mom has a picture of me wearing that lenticular "ask me about Star Fox" pin when I was a kid. She worked at Kmart around the release of Star Fox and I've always wondered about the promotional origin. If they weren't so wildly overpriced I'd get one for nostalgia's sake.
This was an awesome video - this answered a lot of questions about those SNES store displays that I wondered about as a kid. Were retail stores paid by Nintendo to run these competitions? Having worked retail a fair amount in the early/mid 2000s, there's a lot of things this video *tells the store they will do* that many modern managers would balk at.
I'm guessing these weren't just any retail stores but Nintendo certified retailers, they signed a contract and were obligated to run anything Nintendo threw at them
I know of someone who ran the event in a toystore in Europe and he told me he has a bunch of t-shirts and a baseball cap with Starwing on it.. I really need to get convince him into selling whatever he still has to me
Odd as I got a certificate from my local event (Which I still have). I was pretty young then as I do not remember being given any other prizes despite coming 2nd locally apart from a sticker sheet (That I stupidly stuck all over my wardrobe).
@@Andysan87 It really does sound like him! The Smash announcer (Xander Mobus) was less than a year old at the time, though, so I suspect it might not have been him. :P
I am amazed about the production value of the VHS. One thing I'm wondering, at 3:26 you can see the game running at a higher fps, and it looks cleaner, is this a beta version of the game?
Remember when Nintendo liked and encouraged competition? It sucks how they do everything in their power to stop their fans from being competitive with their games nowadays.
That isn't even just Nintendo, everyone is a winner, nowadays. Halo basically made MLG what it was, and nowadays with 343 handling Halo MCC, everyone's a winner. You make more money not catering to competition, but amorphous blobs of entertainment delivery.
Nintendo: "IT IS EXTREMELY IMPORTANT THAT YOU SEND THESE MATERIALS TO NINTENDO AS SOON AS POSSIBLE AFTER THE CONCLUSION OF THE COMPETITION"
Employee: "Welp, this regular Starfox cartridge looks close enough..."
"20 tee shirts. 10 large, and 10 extra large." For those extra fluffy foxes.
i'm surprised there were no medium shirts given out! i guess more baggy clothing was the style, but nowadays most average guys are wearing medium shirts xD
@@beardalaxy In the 90s every kid wore tshirts that were a size larger! It was definitely the fashion.
@@kaneda010 i definitely do that these days xD
Never tought it was so important to set the volume of the unit
Probably because the unit is normally used for game demos which you probably wouldn't want as loud since it's just constantly going in the background, but for an official competition like this you'd want to have the volume louder to be able to hear the game better, especially with a crowd of people watching
I still have the pin and my Star Fox Competition jacket from winning at my location. Still remember competing, it was fun. I remember going to 3 different stores to complete, came in 2nd at another.
how lucky! i wasn't even born by then. what a super cool thing to be a part of.
@@beardalaxy yeah, getting old sucks, I was there for the NWC in 90 too.
"Why go to the next level when you can go lightyears beyond?"
Subtle little bit of shade thrown at Sega, lol.
I don't think I have ever seen a vhs tape look this good before
Yes, they gave it the conversion it needed.
I actually have this cartridge! Back in the mid 2000s, I went to GameStop looking through their SNES games for the original Star Fox and found this game labeled and priced as a normal Star Fox game . I thought it was very weird and my brother convinced me to get it. We didn't find out what it was until later that day. And that is how I got a game now worth over $2500 for like $8
Great find :)
I have it too although it is the European version.
I picked it up for £5 (so similar to your $8 find) back in the late 90’s from a local market stall.
The video I made of it was one of the very first I made for my channel.
Crazy the price of retro game items these days!
@@greyfox1127 I am certain like no one knew the value or rarity. They just saw Star Fox on SNES and priced it as such
@@EngineerOfChaos True - mine was a similar experience - chucked in with the usual suspects - Mario, Starfox (Starwing over here), common sports titles, the odd puzzle or platform game etc.
It was the same market I picked up my SNES multicarts back in the day. Wish those 2 stalls were still there!
I too have one, from my mother buying it for me from Nintendo Power. Very cool find!
It's kind of nuts to think they expected one person to essentially run the event, I feel like that would be a disaster today. Great to see this preserved nonetheless!
Today there would only be one employee for the entire store
When I played at the Pokemon TCG League at Books a Million they only had one employee having to manage the event and give out promo cards and badges to players if they won enough matches.
Having another person work would require another 25 cent apron. Nintendo is not made of money!
Back in the day not many people would go for the competition I imagine plus it was running in 2K stores
See the thing is, it was only one employee, because back then, people used to work hard, and they were responsible, and effective. Now everyone is on drugs and lazy and distracted with having sex with everyone, so it takes like 100 modern employees, to equal just one good employee from the 90’s. Plus now the 100 employees would just be doing drugs and having sex during the event, so you can’t have store events anymore
That was a badass training tape! Its almost like youre training to be an astronaut or something
Read IT... Learn IT... Live IT... XD
Nothing says 1993 like "we sent you 20 t-shirts, 10 L and 10 XL."
Man, I WANT THAT FLIGHT JACKET.
AND THE HAT.
This is the type of #LostMedia that needs preserved because so few know of its existence. Such a cool piece of Super Nintendo History. Especially for those of us that remember when the competition was taking place but weren’t lucky enough to have our parents take us to a store hosting the competition. I would always read about them in the magazines afterwards and was so jealous of everyone that got to partake in these competitions.
Well, most romsets have the competitive version of Starfox. Now most who emulated it know what this was for.
@@Code7Unltd That has absolutely nothing to do with the preservation of the VHS tape itself & its content which is what I was talking about originally in my post.
🤦♂️🤦♂️🤦♂️🤦♂️
@@EvaFull It DOES have something to do with the VHS tape itself. It's about giving us context for that rare competition cartridge that was dumped a while ago. As much as one might want to think of them as separate entities, they're both connected to each other & you can't say otherwise.
@@ExtremeWreck Re-read my comments 😂 😂
That’s exactly what I was saying. I just related to a personal story which others can’t seam to be able to separate when reading my comments.
🤦♂️🤦♂️🤦♂️
It's crazy to see how clear VHS can be because most people just assume it's not clear, but that's because it's a degraded tape being played multiple times
Tapes can wear out. Degradation from play looks different than generational wear.
I think he remasters the footage which helps with the high definition. Helps remove it of any noise and grain while shifting the color balance more vibrantly
@@damian9303yeah I doubt the colors are this vivid on the original. Even Disney films have a noticeable color issue on VHS compared to DVD, they’re absolutely less vibrant or saturated or something. And a kid playing a vhs over and over sure doesn’t help haha
@@Code7UnltdI imagine the only degradation on these tapes (judging by how nice they looked) is minimal UV radiation but beyond that are fairly pristine
Actually, yes it's that clear. If you record the tape on modern 6-head machine and play it back after it was made, it will be as crisp as master copy.
If you record on old 4-head recorder, quality loss will be much more significant, even freshly after recording.
I love how they went out of their way to make even a training video badass.
3:20 the massive close up of an eyeball - a classic 90s advertising gimmick!
Makes me sad to see Nintendo put this much effort into Star fox back then but its basically dead now. Also this vid brought back some memories, i still have my shirt from the Toys R Us event
Well it was new at the time and the whole FX chip stuff made it seem top of the line
Holy a wild competitor has appeared, what was your score?
I mean there was no Wii Starfox either...but Starfox was in that one other game on Switch, so I don't think the series is dead. Plus they released SF2 on SNES Classic and Switch Online.
@@brandogg if the last game release was a game from the mid 90s, the one before that was a cameo DLC in a mediocre multi platform toy game, and the one before that was a gimmick on a dead system.... the series is dead.
@@beardalaxy there was starfox zero and starfox guard on wii u
I haven't heard that opening tape promo in decades, yet i remembered the ending of it word for word. "because it's not just the universe at stake, it's your reputation!"
I have done my training and I am ready to host th-
oh wait
I know, I know... We're _decades_ late and that's _just too sad._ :')
Amazing watching it. It feels I'm back in the 90s
The pen knife is incase the competitors get too rowdy
What a wonderful look into our past. What's most impressive is that Hard4Games was able to locate this and show the world. Thank you very much.
Interesting seeing what appears to be a labeless cartridge in the display tutorial sections with no label with writing saying ether *"Temp"* or *"Test"* (it is really hard to tell cause the resolution) clearly used before they had the final cart seen a few examples later.
Whoa, just imagine how precious all of that stuff shown in the video is nowadays - not only the pins and t-shirts but even the ephemera papers distributed, even any crumpled registration form that might have escaped the trash bin and survived through time!... 🤩
I'm really looking forward to see more comments popping up here and revealing the whereabouts of some of those things!
These tapes are incredible. The relics you find are out of this world.
My favourite bit was when he pretended to look for a Cindy Milter and she was right in front of him (I'm surprised she didn't punch him in the throat when he denied her a t-shirt). Oh, and when Greg Richardson was late. Silly Greg.
21:22 smash announcer moment
It's amazing that Xander Mobus already had his announcer voice back then, even as a newborn baby!
Some preface. I don't have social media and this is a relatively new account (compared to my previous/original account).
I got nostalgic the other day and remembered this channel existed and that back in the day how much I looked forward to the uploads.
I say all that to say, or rather, shout into the void of the comment section- I sure am glad you guys are still around. I'm almost 30 now but this channel really got me into learning about the people behind video games when I was a kid. I've resubbed on this account and i look forward to future content from good ole H4G.
I guess what I'm trying to say, is, thanks for inspiring me and sticking with it. It means a lot, wierdly enough.
I was 3 when that Star Fox Competition happened. What about you, pal?
Also I just realized, bro basically uploaded an instructional video and we all watched it and didn’t complain a bit lol. Man’s a genius lol
perfect timing here considering I've been actively playing this competition cartridge for a game expo coming up next month
How did you get yours?
@@stephenfiler3204 oh I'm talking about the game itself not the real cart, I've been playing on an SD2SNES
maybe one day I'll own a cartridge but I am in no rush
" know how to get help!" i think no one knows how to do that nowadays , or more importantly , when ...
What an amazing blast from the past!
Ah yes, the four major cities:
London,
Paris,
Japan,
Australia
Man, I'd love to own one of those Super NES interactive display units. They must be worth a fortune now. As for the Starfox Competition Cartridges, it's no wonder why they're incredibly rare, valuable, and sought after by Super NES collectors. Nintendo requested that the stores return the cartridges, so very few of them made it into the wild. It would've been cool if the top scorer at each store was awarded the cartridge, or in the event of a tie, have the top two scorers compete in a tiebreaker, and the winner was awarded the cartridge.
the cartridge is worth more than the display units
I own two of them shown in this video, as well as the competition cartridge (and the DKC one,) they are worth a lot of cash.
I had high score at my local store for about 3 hours for this, only thing I took away was a boat-load of posters and a certificate lol
I wish more corporate training videos had Star Fox music.
90s nostalgia overload
Agreed I believe I've played on each of those kiosk units
21:23 The Smash announcer's voice?
Now we just need scans of both brochures and the rule book. 😕
I'm all ready to run the competition! Lets do this!
Oh wow, my mom has a picture of me wearing that lenticular "ask me about Star Fox" pin when I was a kid. She worked at Kmart around the release of Star Fox and I've always wondered about the promotional origin. If they weren't so wildly overpriced I'd get one for nostalgia's sake.
This was an awesome video - this answered a lot of questions about those SNES store displays that I wondered about as a kid.
Were retail stores paid by Nintendo to run these competitions? Having worked retail a fair amount in the early/mid 2000s, there's a lot of things this video *tells the store they will do* that many modern managers would balk at.
yeah telling the employee how much they are going to work was pretty funny lol. they must have paid the stores.
I'm guessing these weren't just any retail stores but Nintendo certified retailers, they signed a contract and were obligated to run anything Nintendo threw at them
I cannot express how desperately I want that snapback.
"exotic cities" hahahaha
Just amazing, im glad you have it and preserve it.
10:41 That SNES wall thingy looks cool
Plus the announcer during the first part of the VHS' video makes me want to go eat a deli sandwich.
WHAT WILL YOUUUU DOOOOO???????
Thanks again for your help with these! 🤝
I can't wait for ketchup time!
Omg I want that pen and knife set😍
I know of someone who ran the event in a toystore in Europe and he told me he has a bunch of t-shirts and a baseball cap with Starwing on it.. I really need to get convince him into selling whatever he still has to me
Video Game History Museum needs this!!!
The fact that they opened the COMPETITION TRAINING VIDEO with the End Credits of the SNES game is amazing.
I was just 1 year old when this came out i find the first Star Fox Game very interesting and unique like the first Smash Bros game on Nintendo 64
This is incredible. I love this channel.
You mean the switch to disable the gameplay timer was right there on the outside of the display? Man I wish I knew that when I was a preteen
6:25 the dude drops a starfox pin and DGAF
thanks for another good episode! Hard4Games rules!
Hey where is my training manual? Lol
This is so cool to see thank you for sharing this :)
The typo at the beginning of the tape bothers me: "What type of Super Nintendo Entertainment System Display -your- have in your store."
caught my eye too. I guess they were in a bit of a rush to make the tape
All the work that had to go into this… making videos for all the stores different display types, all that shit- wow
Odd as I got a certificate from my local event (Which I still have). I was pretty young then as I do not remember being given any other prizes despite coming 2nd locally apart from a sticker sheet (That I stupidly stuck all over my wardrobe).
Is “what will you do” the smash melee announcer?
Sounds nore like smash ultimate/smash4 announcer I think 🤔
@@Andysan87 You’re probably right
@@Andysan87 It really does sound like him!
The Smash announcer (Xander Mobus) was less than a year old at the time, though, so I suspect it might not have been him. :P
Thank you
Scott from NOAs hair is a tragedy
Ketchup Time
do a barrel roll
Well that about wraps it up.
14:32 I *have* to get this flight jacket 😎
1:39 isn’t that VA the super famous guy that did all the movie announcements, commercials, etc?
Very good content here, important too.
I could be wrong, but I think this was filmed in the (now gone) Nintendo Store next to the old DigiPen campus.
More content like this
I just realized that there hasn't been a Star Fox game in Forever. The Starlink: Battle for Atlas thing doesn't really count.
I had that VCR... Much tech
This is awesome! Anyone remember the star fox game watch you could get? Such a good game
WHAT
WILL
YOU
DO?
What will you do?!!!!
7:10 8:40 10:33 11:47 13:38
They really treat the employees as idiots on this video
As they should.
And when TH-cam goes down, who is going to preserve this preservation?
Freaking awesome!
you mean to tell me i can get hard for games with hard for games at a hard for game meet n greet?!
Why do they sound like a lower pitched Gaming Historian
His Dad probably
Read IT... Learn IT... Live IT... XD
I am amazed about the production value of the VHS.
One thing I'm wondering, at 3:26 you can see the game running at a higher fps, and it looks cleaner, is this a beta version of the game?
probably speeded up footage to make it look smoother
Am I insane for thinking the music at 2:47 sounds a lot like Ripple Star from Kirby 64? Like, its not the exact same obviously, but its so similar.
It's a shame Nintendo isn't the same as they used to be
Interesting they refer to it as "Super Star Fox"
I love the Sony VHS
Why do I need a knife to run a Star Fox competition
So wait, if they run out of shirts, you don't get one? Couldn't they just mail a shirt to you later?
Apparently not. First come first serve. 🤷♂️
A trip seems like an odd choice for a competition that most likely would have a minor child participate.
8:40 wonder if that number is still in service
Is this Captain Disillusionment doing the voice?
Remember when Nintendo liked and encouraged competition? It sucks how they do everything in their power to stop their fans from being competitive with their games nowadays.
That isn't even just Nintendo, everyone is a winner, nowadays. Halo basically made MLG what it was, and nowadays with 343 handling Halo MCC, everyone's a winner. You make more money not catering to competition, but amorphous blobs of entertainment delivery.
Would it have killed them to have it within 150 miles from here? Each way.
Woah...
Ketchup time 16:46
Dat chest hair tho
So considering the cartridge was supposed to be returned to Nintendo, how is it there are a number of them floating around?