Posting here instead of an existing thread where we have been discussing an auction for NWC 348 and the topic of number of NWCs that may have been produced -
http://vintage.nintendoage.com/fo...
I hope one day we can confirm the actual number of these carts made. From the numbers we have seen surface, it seems totally possible that around 350 existed at some point (#348 is the highest number to surface).
In an article I read that has some scans of original NWC docs there is language that says "The Competition Arena features 102 game stations in two 'pods' capable of processing 8,500 actual competitors over a 24-hour NWC weekend event". This would seem to indicate that there would need to be at least 102 working NWC carts available at all times. And, as has been mentioned before there would need to be backups available in case one malfunctioned or was lost. Seeing that there have been numbers as high as 348 found, it seems plausible that around that many copies would have been needed to complete the tour to have 102 working copies on hand at all times, the 90 to give to finalists, 26 left over to be gutted to produce the NWC golds, the others that got out that were not intended to, as well as the ones that were ultimately destroyed, broken during the tour, or repurposed for their chips. Howard Phillips' estimate of 150 that made it out to the public seems reasonable based on the the numbers above.
Full article/page referenced above -
http://www.nintendoplayer.com/fea...
Section/scan mentioned above -
http://www.nintendoplayer.com/fea...
An NA member (Romarquable) posted on the first page of this thread a response he received from a seller who appears to have worked on the tour and when asked about the number of carts produced one part he shared was:
"I witnessed some of the carts being made and I made similar "rom" carts myself. It is kind of like burning a CD, you had to burn the chips individually and often they just didn't work. My theory is that they made around 350 (that is why you see high numbered carts like mine) of them total (including the gold ones which were cannibalized grey carts) and only about 135 or so made it out of the building. We used a fair amount of them on the tour and they often got broken with all of the loading in and out."
This doesn't prove anything but does support the ideas I presented above that original production numbers may have needed to be around the number we have seen surfaced.
In the auction thread I referenced at the start of this post I wanted to reply to a couple comments made by JosephLeo and Myblackamex.
JosephLeo this 350ish number is in line with your thinking of 350-400 and what I have seen others post. Myblackamex, you shared that the number of carts produced likely matches the numbers we have seen surface, so again, 350 seems reasonable. Plus you mentioned the likelihood that all the numbers were sequenced. Given that there are plenty of known copies in direct sequence and/or within a couple numbers of one another and there are still many to be found I think the carts were sequentially numbered and not random or in intervals greater than 1.
Related to numbering, the one thing that leaves a question in my mind is why the carts are numbered using four digits. We have yet to see a cart numbered above 348, which is technically copy number 0348. The current one for auction is 0020. So there is a four digit numbering system. This was either intentional or a mistake like how it has been found that the Myriads are numbered with extra zeros.
The only source of information that seems to address this was in the same article I referenced above, where it is mentioned by Rich Ambler, a 1990 Nintendo World Championship Tampa Bay Finalist in the 12-17 age group and Runner-Up Hollywood in the 12-17 age group: ..."The original pool of competition carts numbered at 1,200 to accommodate the need for more tournament stations for larger cities such as Dallas, etc. The remaining pool of carts was recycled/reprogrammed for use in the Campus Challenge after which most of (but not all) were stored or destroyed by Nintendo of America. So, in reflection, it is possible to see a cart numbered at 0076 and another at 227 or more".
Just wanted to share that info above as part of the discussion. However, I'm not really sure that it is true since we haven't seen any NWCs above 348, and that the scanned original documentation in the article said that only 102 game stations were set up at a time (which could accommodate 8,500 competitors over a weekend). Not thinking Dallas would require more game stations and thus more carts, or that Nintendo would have produced more stations to accommodate.
Really didn't mean for this post to be this long but wanted to share this information and further the conversation. As I stated in the first lines of my response, I really hope one day we can confirm the actual number of carts that were produced, how many were destroyed or repurposed, and get an idea of how many are actually still out there. If you have info or can dig anything up please share it here.
