Brian Brinegar, Dan May, and John Groth are all friends who plan to play a 55 hour marathon of Mario games this weekend. They started playing at 3 p.m. US eastern time. They are playing for Child’s Play which is an organization that gives toys, games, books, and money to sick children across the world.
You can watch the live stream at www.mariomarathon.com. At the time of this writing they have raised over $2,000 and they still have all weekend to go. Here are some quotes from the FAQ section of their site that explains more.
- “Who are you?
- My name is Brian Brinegar, I’m a 29 year old web developer located in Lafayette, Indiana. I love video games, and have been a Super Mario fan since the release of Super Mario Bros for the NES. Along side me will be Dan May and John Groth, avid gamers and my former college roommates.
- Why are you doing this?
- The concept was borrowed (with permission) from a guy named Cameron Banga and some of his friends, who attempted to complete Four 3D Zelda games in 48 hours. Watching how much fun they had, I couldn’t help but want to attempt something similar. It started out with me asking a couple of my friends if they’d be down for a weekend of non-stop gaming, that turned into us deciding that we might as well make it official and document the whole thing online and see if we can raise some money for charity.
- How will my donations get to Child’s Play?
- We are using a service called ChipIn to track donations which are sent directly to Child’s Play. You will receive a PayPal receipt which can be used for tax purposes.
- Are you good at these games?
- We’ve beaten all of these games, except Sunshine, several times. I wouldn’t say we’re especially good at them. Don’t look for any amazing speed runs.
- What versions of these games will be played?
- We intend to play all of the games on the Nintendo Wii via the Virtual Console, Gamecube, and Wii discs.
- Is warping allowed?
- Yes. We will play every game from the beginning screen through to the ending, but we do not plan to play every level, only those required to beat the game.
- Are continues allowed?
- Continuing is allowed as long as it’s within the limits of the game. For example, Super Mario Bros. 1 and 2, have a limited number of continues, where others have unlimited. So, if we were to run out of continues on Super Mario Bros. 2, we would start again from the beginning.
- Why aren’t you playing XYZ?
- What? Seven games isn’t enough for you? Fine, run your own marathon! We choose what we consider the main lineage of US Super Mario console games.
- What order will you play through the games?
- We plan to play through all of the games in order, starting with Super Mario Bros on Friday and completing Super Mario Galaxy a few days later. If a game becomes extremely frustrating we may opt to complete the games in a different order or return to a game at a later time.
- How do you plan to stay awake?
- The pure excitement of Mario saving all those princesses should keep us going.
- Do you think this is doable?
- Sure, I’ve done the math, and I am over thirty percent confident that we can do it!
- Is there anything I can do to help?
- At this point we’re just trying to get the word out. Do what you can to promote the event.
- If this works out would you attempt any other marathons?
- I can’t say for sure, but I’d really like to play through all of the Metal Gear Solid games or perhaps all of the Mega Man games.
- How do you plan to webcast the video?
- Ustream.tv is being used to host our video stream. Equipment wise, we’ve got a Logitech Quickcam, a Dell PC running Windows XP, webcammax, a PVR 250 video capture card, and some USB microphones.
- Won’t your Wii overheat?
- We’ve got three Wiis (Plural Wii? Woo?) which we can swap in and out.”
- There you have it. It’s for a great cause and you get to watch Mario day and night (for at least 55 hours). Go and check it out. What do you readers think about this? Should they do another marathon; possibly with a few long RPG’s? Let us know.
