US National Video Game Team? WTF?

[figgler]

Yeah that's right. A national team for our friends in the US. Does anyone know anything about this? Was there some sort of international competition or something? It sounds just way too goofy to be true.

As background, I discoverd this on one of my NES games yesterday. Lee Trevino's Fighting Golf has a big call-out on the label that says "Endorsed by the US National Video Game Team!"

Yippee!

[bowser724]

a team doesn't always mean competition. do you honestly think Sonic Team is a competitive team?

[sku_u]

Yeah that's right.  A national team for our friends in the US.  Does anyone know anything about this?  Was there some sort of international competition or something?  It sounds just way too goofy to be true. 

As background, I discoverd this on one of my NES games yesterday.  Lee Trevino's Fighting Golf has a big call-out on the label that says "Endorsed by the US National Video Game Team!" 

Yippee!

1026405[/snapback]

 

Team probaby means Howard Nester and his fellow game testers who were in charge of playing the NES games prior to release and unlock as many secrets as possible.

[NE146]

Yeah I know EGM used to always show them.. and I think one or two of their review crew was on it. I forget who though.. but they'd always mention that team in the early days. I don't think it had anything to do with Nintendo though..

[pacmanfevr76]

Actually, a new National Video Game Team has been selected in New England by David Nelson. Check out TwinGalaxies for details.

[Student Driver]

There's a history of the original US National Video Game Team in the back of the Twin Galaxies record book; haven't been to the TG site, but they may have more info. It was real in the sense that it existed (circa 1983, continued for a decade or more), and was an attempt by Walter Day to start worldwide competitions (one of their first acts was to issue a challenge to Japan). EGM, as mentioned, used to give lots of coverage to the team's explots, which continued past Walter Day's control. It stands to reason, however, since EGM was founded by one of the original USNVGT members, Steve Harris.

 

Edited to add: the team wasn't just an ad hoc collection of players who decided to form a group- they really happened to be some of the best players of all time. Billy Mitchell, the first (only?) player to get a perfect score in Pac-Man was one of the original members as well; the members all held, at one time or another, the world records on arcade games of the era.

Edited March 1, 2006 by Student Driver

[tmont]

If you want to learn more about the National Video Game Team, consult the most reliable source on the internet: Seanbaby.

Edited March 1, 2006 by HeckYesIDid

[hattg]

If you check there are some more games I think that have the endorsement. The pic shown is the first team, Steve Harris, Billy Mitchell, Donn Nauert, Brent Walker and don't know the other guy. I was on the team in the early 80's when it was myself (Gary Hatt), Steve Harris, Perry Rodgers, Jeff Peters, Donn Nauert and Brent Walker, and Dwayne Richard. There actually was a contest that was held in various places in the country to find new members.

 

Plus Donn and someone else, maybe Brent, I can't remember, put together VHS tapes on how to beat video games. I think they were mostly NES though. They get made fun of a lot because the tapes weren't all that great.

 

When I was on, we used to go to the major game shows (ACOA among them) and work with different manufacturers, Bally/Sente was one, and help endorse their games. Atari and Bally/Sente would fly us up north to see what they were working on. Some of the guys did go to either Japan or England at one point. Never really got as big as Walter wanted, but it was a fun time non the less for us.

 

Anyway, just a little more info in case anyone might be interested.