What Exactly is/was the Summer Carnival?

[greedostick]

I was playing some Summer Carnival Nexzr at my buddies last year and we got to talking about Summer Carnival and what exactly it is/was. Because I said "Summer Carnval, was that a real thing"? He mentioned to me that the Summer Carnival was actually a Japanese Festival where a new game was introduced every year and that it was a giant competition. I also vaguely remember him saying something like people either never got to play the game before the festival and competition, or they only had a few weeks to play it to practice.

After researching online I can't find anything related to this, and he has no sort of proof either. But he is very knowledgeable about SHMUPS and I am thinking some if this may actually be true.

I would love some linky's if there are any that go more in depth about what exactly Summer Carnival is.

[YANDMAN]

All the carnival games were used in tournaments, Ive heard they even had big tour coaches that would move around with all the systems set up inside, Hudson soft were running tournaments with star soldier on the famicom Naxat Soft then came out with Recca to enable them to run their own tournaments.........and so the yearly carnival games began.

[Tatsujin]

there where the naxat summer carnivals (recca, spriggan, nexzr etc.) and the much more famos hudson zenkoku caravan event (star soldier, super star soldier, final soldier, soldier blade, bomberman etc.).

both aimed for the same target, to hold a wide competition in shooting games (2/5min score/time attack) all over the country to chose the country's best player and sure to promote their lates shooting etc. games.

[Opethian]

gunhed special is still my fav

[Necromancer]

Don't forget Konami's one year carnival with score attack mode on the Drac X Special huey.

[ccovell]

both aimed for the same target, to hold a wide competition in shooting games

Except for the one year when Power League was the caravan game... :-D

[SuperPlay]

A couple of vids (Credit to Assembler)



Not Strictly Summer Carnival however still interesting ;-)

[HailingTheThings]

Don't forget Konami's one year carnival with score attack mode on the Drac X Special huey.

Oh my stars....

[esteban]

http://archives.tg-16.com/turbo_play_0004.htm#naxat_summer_carnival

You'll see Hudson Caravan info there, too.

This is where I first learned about the competitions. 

[Tatsujin]

this strange

Hudson Soft began holding video game tournaments in 1985 with the release of the original Star Soldier on Nintendo's Famicom console.

but ..

Hudson Caravan (1985-1992):
 
1985 - Star Force (Famicom)
1986 - Star Soldier (Famicom)

^^"

[jeffhlewis]

I love in that Caravan video how the rows of TVs are propped up on original Famicom cardboard boxes.

[greedostick]

That's exactly what I was hoping to see. Some actual footage. What are the names of those videos posted? I would like to add those to my youtube favorites? I searched youtube before posting and just kept coming up with summer carnival games.

Is there a picture of that Dracula X huey anywhere? I would love to see that.

Those little kids were bad-ass with there Hudson Bandannas and finger-less gloves. They would probably kick my ass! I remember back in the day the best we had around here was crappy Blockbuster Video Tourneys and I won a copy of NBA Jam TE on SNES for getting first place. I bet the prizes were much better back then.

Are any of the winner brackets posted anywhere? It would be cool to see if I could best those 8 year olds.

[Tatsujin]

the names of the videos is just written under each video.

also if you click the youtube button in the lower right corner, it will beam you directly to the actual video on YT.

[greedostick]

the names of the videos is just written under each video.

also if you click the youtube button in the lower right corner, it will beam you directly to the actual video on YT.

Yeah... I knew that all along.

[Tatsujin]

the names of the videos is just written under each video.

also if you click the youtube button in the lower right corner, it will beam you directly to the actual video on YT.

Yeah... I knew that all along.

so why then you ask?

What are the names of those videos posted?