We are a group of guys in our thirties who love video games and
wanted to use this love to give back. The four players who have
participated in our events are:
Brian "Shirt Guy" Brinegar
John "Couch Guy" Groth
Chris "Slouch Guy" Deckard
Dan "Chair Guy" May
Throughout the event we are joined by our friends and family who
have all shown great support of the event.
Where are you guys located?
During the event we play Mario games from a living room in
Lafayette, Indiana.
Are you affiliated with Nintendo?
No, the Mario Marathon is an independent fan run event.
We are in no way affiliated with any corporate
entity. We do want to thank Nintendo for creating these great games!
Are you affiliated with Child's Play?
No, we have no formal connection to Child's Play Charity. The event is,
however, recognized as a Platinum
Sponsor of Child's Play for the past two years.
Who is invited to this event?
Nintendo says that, "Wii is for everyone." We've taken this to
the extreme by inviting everyone in the world to share our
experience by watching online as we play Mario on the Wii.
Are you taking a cut of the donations?
No, we are not even collecting the donations. Donations
made through our web site go directly
to Child's Play. Our goal is only to raise awareness
of Child's Play and prove that, "When gamers give back,
it makes a difference!"
Are you planning anything different for this year?
Yes! First, we're adding New Super Mario Bros. Wii. To accommodate we are
setting a donation goal for each and every one of the nearly 700 stars/levels
in the eight games on our list.
Where did this idea come from?
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?
Donations are made directly to Child's Play via PayPal. We are using
a PayPal service called Instant Payment Notification to track the
donations made during our event. Be sure to use the
Donate Now! button on our web site to
ensure that your donation is attributed to the Mario Marathon.
Why aren't you using Chipin this year?
In previous years we've used a service called ChipIn to track
donations made during our event. This year we have built our
own equivalent to ChipIn. This allows us to better track the
donations we receive and be sure that all of our viewers are
seeing the most up to date donation totals.
Are you good at these games?
No! Last year we spent 96 hours completing seven games.
If things go as planned we'll be playing even longer this year.
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. We may opt
to play some portion of the 2D mario games on an SNES using
the Super Mario Allstars cartridge.
Is warping allowed?
Yes. The levels within a game will be divided into logical groups, those groups
will be completed in a predefined order. For example, Super Mario Galaxy
will be played once to completion, again to complete all regular levels,
and a third group of levels to complete all comet goals. Warping may
be used during some level groups to bypass levels not included in that group.
How do you benefit from this event?
Other than 15 minutes of Internet fame we see no direct benefit.
In fact, the Mario Marathon team spends a lot of our own money
making donations, buying prizes, mailing press releases, etc.
The event is a hobby and a way to create a bigger charitable impact
than we could afford ourselves.
Why aren't you playing XYZ?
Who knows, maybe we will play XYZ this year. We'll see.
How do you plan to stay awake?
The pure excitement of Mario saving all those princesses should keep us
going.
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.
How can I submit Fan Art for the web site?
This year we've setup a fanart submission process to assist us in
getting the art up and to make it easier for everyone to browse the
artwork. Use the Fan Art Submission Form to
get started.
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 Dazzle Video Capture device,
two omni-directional microphones, and a sound mixer hooked up to a
Dell PC running Windows XP and webcammax.
Won't your Wii overheat?
We've got three Wiis (Plural Wii? Woo?) which we can swap
in and out.
I want to run my own gaming marathon, any suggestions?
