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Extra Life 2018


Starbuck66

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So I'm not sure how many forum members are planning on participating in Extra Life this year, but I thought I would start a thread so people can share their donation pages and give members an opportunity to donate!

 

In case you're not familiar with Extra Life, gamers volunteer to play for 24 hours in support of Children's Miracle Network Hospitals to raise money to help sick kids in need. This is the first year I'm participating directly in the event, but in the past I've donated to Ferg's EL as well as others and have enjoyed watching their live streams of gaming marathons

 

Marathon weekend is this upcoming weekend, November 3rd. Some players play for 24 hours straight starting November 3rd, however I'm electing to split my 24 hours up into two shifts from 8AM to 8PM Saturday and Sunday, November 3rd and 4th. I also plan on having a live stream, internet connection permitting, but if I can't stream live I'll at least try to record the marathon and post it to Youtube later.

 

My goal for this year is 500 dollars, and I've got a ways to go for my goal, so any amount anyone can spare will help! The link to my donation page is below. Thanks!

 

https://www.extra-life.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=donordrive.participant&participantID=313818

 

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I'm extra-lifing too! I'm going to do some home gaming Friday after work. On Saturday I'll be at Underground Retrocade in West Dundee, IL the entire time it's open (11am - 1am), taking breaks for lupper and visits to the tinkle pit (so I'm estimating gaming for 13 hours), then more home gaming on Sunday. (I just can't do a straight 24 hours - I have to break it up!)

 

Last weekend someone beat my Underground Retrocade house high on Ms. Pac-Man Turbo. My high: 760,000 (foiled by the machine reset bug!)...the guy who beat my score got something like 885,000 and also was a victim of the dreaded reset bug. (He played another one earlier and didn't get the reset bug but did get the upside-down-rendered screen.) The reason my score was relatively low I most likely attribute to missing a lot of monsters. I practiced some grouping strategies, so I'm going to start working on re-claiming my place at the top. :)  I'll also be trying to improve my TG record on Jr. Pac-Man Turbo.

 

At home I'm going to try to re-claim my Atari 7800 Asteroids Deluxe TG record. Somebody beat my record by only a few hundred points!

 

I'll be streaming as much of my gaming as possible at twitch.tv/piefactorysean

 

My hospital of choice: Lurie Children's Hospital in Chicago.

 

My goal, just like with Starbuck66, is $500.

Supernatural, perhaps...baloney, perhaps not.

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Wow. Next time I do this, I really need to re-think my strategy.

 

I got a later than expected start on Friday night, only getting in about three and a half hours. I was gaming at Underground Retrocade for thirteen and a half hours (it was actually open for fifteen hours -- an extra hour in observance of the switch to standard time). That's a total of 17 hours, meaning I had 7 hours left the next day, Sunday.

 

I spent the night in West Dundee, as per my wife's suggestion. She didn't want me driving home for 25-30 miles after staring at video game screens all day until 1am. That was a GREAT idea. I was just...out of it! I started feeling stoned at about 11pm. I went to the front desk to get a drink, and I saw that there was some Baja Blast in the fridge. I figured perfect: 1) it's a Mountain Dew product, meaning lots of caffeine, so it'll give me a little kick; 2) Baja Blast has proven for me to be a headache cure -- I didn't have a headache, but this would ensure I wouldn't get one!, and 3) by the time I'm done, there should be a sugar crash, so I'll sleep easily.

 

Seriously, this was HARD. If you happen to spend hours playing video games because you're having fun and lose track of time, that's one thing. But when you're intentionally doing it because you committed to doing it, it's completely different. it was especially hard for me because usually if I have a huge gaming session at an arcade, I'll take breaks, maybe go for a little stroll around town, etc. But Saturday I took two breaks: one for lunch, and then another one later to unload my stuff in my hotel room and then grab some frozen custard for a yummy snack. And those breaks were still kind of...not laid back at all.

 

But I left the Retrocade at about 1:45am, and when I got to my hotel room, I watched Ferg's stream while getting ready for bed. And sure enough: massive sugar crash, and I'm pretty sure I didn't so much sleep as I was actually temporarily dead for six or seven hours! I woke up, showered, got dressed. I got some breakfast where I had lunch the previous day, but man, they were hugely busy. I got seated right away, but it took awhile for my order. And as a result, I got a late start heading home. I left West Dundee at about 1pm, expecting to get home to Chicago at 2pm. Sure enough, I got home pretty much exactly at 2pm. My wife asked me to re-consider finishing my Extra Life stuff yesterday, though, because assuming I had seven hours left, then that would mean if I went straight to video games as soon as I got in, took no breaks, etc., I'd be gaming until 9pm. Problem: because my wife is a teacher, she has to get up supremely early, (Being a married couple, we share a bed, so when one of us gets in or out, the other can feel it and ergo would be awoken.) So she suggested doing a few hours yesterday, and a few hours Tuesday night since she won't be home until late. (Those of you who think a teacher's day ends at 3, well...that's....extremely not true. Same reason that your garbage collector doesn't actually work for JUST one day a week.)

 

I have about three hours left to do, which I'll do Tuesday when I get home from work. Probably will pull out the Vectrex for at least some of that.

 

If I do this again next year, I'll split it up over two weekends. Maybe an arcade day one weekend, home day the next.

 

BTW, Scott and Alex and Underground Retrocade were both awesome and willing to bend over backwards to accommodate me for Extra Life, but I didn't want them to at all. I don't want any special treatment that any other customer wouldn't get. (Heh. Scott told me to let him know if I needed anything. I felt bad -- I wanted him to tell me if Alex needed anything - she was on her own for a while, and it can get busy on Saturday!)

Supernatural, perhaps...baloney, perhaps not.

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Man that’s awesome you were able to get so much time in at the actual arcade! I hear ya though, even planted at home in front of a console 12 hours with just a couple of meal breaks was a long stretch, and it was pretty much bed, up again, same drill. I was pretty burnt out Sunday night, but man we had a blast.

 

We focused on TG16 the whole morning and early afternoon, then switched to Colecovision and a little bit of Sega Genesis, then ended with some River City Ransom on the NES of all things. We planned 8-8 but we played till 9:30 to try and make up for the breaks we took.

 

Sunday we played Switch and Wii U most of the day, Animal Crossing Amiibo Festival (my daughter’s pick lol) Octopath Traveler, Puyo Puyo Tetris, Zelda Breath of the Wild, Super Mario Party, Splatoon, Nintendoland, Dragons Lair collection for the Wii, and finally wrapped up by beating Dungeons and Dragons Tower of Doom on the Xbox One. We went until 9PM again to make up for breaks, and it worked really well.

 

One thing I experienced after this is some pain in my left elbow... I think holding controllers in the same position for two days straight messed it up. I’ll need to move my arms more next time...

 

Can’t wait for next year!

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