Hello there. I've been looking at some of the previous runs and noticed that not a whole lot of people know about some of the strats that some players use when playing on the competition cart. I'm here to just kind of remind players that these strats exist so that future runs can be optimized more.
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The score in Super Mario Bros determines the pattern you get in Tetris. Unlike NES Tetris, Tetris in 1990 NWC isn't random. Let's say you get all 50 coins without getting any extra points from enemies or power ups you'll get a score of 10,000. That score will then correlate to the pattern you'll get in Tetris. Some patterns are better than others. I personally go for the score 10,300 although I've seen players go for 10,400 or 10,500. You can then memorize the pattern and prioritize on speed.
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You can end Rad Racer early by crashing. Normally Rad Racer ends by your car slowly speeding down all the way to 0 KM/H. However if you crash right before you cross the finish line your speed will come to a halt and is much faster compared to finishing normally. You can figure out when to crash by looking at your score. I recommend crashing when your score is 60,060 or higher. Anything lower will result in your car nearly missing the finish.
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You can start 1990 NWC automatically by using a zapper. If you have a zapper laying around you can plug it into controller port 2 and for whatever reason it'll automatically start the game. This is useful if you want to get a ton of runs in without having to press start on the second controller constantly. Alternatively if you're playing on a Famicom you can use the Konami Hypershot controllers and press the Run button on Player 2 to start the game.
Hope this post helps someone out there.
