Mario Marathon 3 begins on June 25th at 11:00 AM

Frequently Asked Questions

Who are you?
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?
We've put together some notes which you can read in the article, Notes on Running a Gaming Marathon.
How do I connect to the ustream IRC chat servers?
There are instructions on this ustream forum thread, Connect to ustream chat on IRC.
Got a question we haven't answered?
Send me an e-mail and I'll get you an answer.

Meet the Team