As I'm sure you're all aware, we had a bit of a run in with a hurricane here on the East Coast during Marathon time. We started the Marathon around noon, Eastern Time on Friday and went until a little after midnight on Sunday Morning (so about 36 hours or so long). We lost power and cable around this time, rendering us unable to continue streaming (we couldn't even do what we tried during the April 1st update...)

If anyone was wondering what it was like, Rory Powers had a pretty accurate depiction of what we went through:

(Okay, well, maybe it wasn't quite THAT bad...)

Anyway, during the time we were able to keep the Marathon up and running, we raised $3,350 for Free the Children. Now, we've never had a Marathon get cut short so severly before. The forecasts before the start of the Marathon projected Hurricane Irene hitting us around Sunday afternoon to evening, giving us at least 48 hours or so before we'd have to worry about packing it up.

Since the Marathon was cut so short, I'm sort of at a loss as to how we should handle things. Don't worry, all donations made made it to Free the Children as always and raffle winners will receive all the prizes they're owed. I'm wondering more along the lines of, "How should we handle the Bootleg Bonanza being only about half done?" So, we've got a few options here that I'd like you guys to consider and vote on:

Close the donations now and consider the Bootleg Bonanza Marathon to be essentially over. The donation total would remain at $3,350 and there would not be a part 2 to the Bootleg Bonanza.

Keep the donations open and have them be a part of a future Marathon. There will likely be another Marathon during Winter Break in December/January and we could allow the donations currently sent in to count for that Marathon. The upside to this is that we could have the donations go to a larger single project (like a schoolhouse). The downside is that we need to tell Free the Children not to use any of the donations for any famine-aid purposes and to set them aside for later.

Keep the donations open and use them for a continuation of the Bootleg Bonanza. We've got more bootlegged games we never touched and many more we could theoretically include if we picked up the Bootleg Bonanza idea again. This option would allow us to have a part 2 to the Bootleg Bonanza where we could finish up the list of games (and add more!). The donations from the recently ended Bootleg Bonanza would be added to whatever the part 2 raised, allowing donations to conceivably add to one larger project. Bootleg Bonanza Part 2 would be reasonably far along in the future (5-6 months or so?) so the donations made so far wouldn't be used by Free the Children until then.

If you guys have any other suggestions, we're open to hearing them! Send an email to Contact@ExtraLives.org if you had any strong feelings toward one choice or have something else entirely to suggest.


Sorry again for the abrupt ending to the Marathon! I suppose it should have been expected given the fact we were broadcasting in a hurricane, but it was still a little disappointing to have it die all the same. Thanks again for all of your support regardless and for helping us meet our $3,000 goal! Recordings are up on Twitch.tv right now so you can catch up on any of the Marathon that you missed.

I'm not sure when the next update will be so check out the ExtraLives Twitter feed for any news! Also, if you want to know what individual members of ExtraLives.org are up to, follow Jason's Twitter feed, check out American Steve's YouTube page or keep an eye on my Twitter feed and Justin.tv page!

Thanks again for all of your continued support!

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Well, we issues a call for banners last Friday. Needless to say, you guys really bailed us out-- we got a bunch of submissions!

We picked our three favorite banners and the following people will be getting an ExtraLives.org T-shirt for their submission.

...by SabertoothLizzie

...by Yannick

...by Thomas

Still, we had so many great banner entries that we're giving the following people 5 raffle entries (worth $25 in donations) to a T-shirt at the upcoming Marathon. Thanks again, guys!

...by MasterMo

...by Marc

...by Doeke

...by EvilHom3r

...by Matt

...by James

Thanks again, everyone! Hope to see you all this Friday at noon!

Over the course of the two years we've been doing these video gaming Marathons for charity, we've left a lot of games unfinished. The Mop-Up Marathon was held so that we could beat all of those games. The fundraiser started July 15th at noon and ended July 18th at around 5PM (Eastern Time)-- about 77 hours of straight gaming. How'd we do?

Here's the good news: We raised $10,663.52 as of this posting for Free the Children! The money will go to funding the construction and stocking of a brand new schoolhouse in Sri Lanka! (Having anything, let alone an entire schoolhouse, be made through the power of the Philips CD-i is nothing short of an absolute miracle). The school will go a long way to improve the quality of life everywhere in the region and I'll be sure to post up information and photos regarding it as soon as they're made available.

In terms of actually mopping up the unfinished games, well... let's take a look at the list.

Mario Marathon (December, 2010) Block

• Super Mario Bros. 2: All finished!
• Hotel Mario: Who would have thought a game about closing doors would be so hard? Still unfinished.
• Super Mario Galaxy 2: Beaten!

64 Hours of the N64 (March, 2010) Block

• Superman 64: Still unfinished, Lex wins.
• Zelda: Ocarina of Time and Zelda: Majora's Mask race: Finished, Majora's Mask won by a few minutes!

The Rise and Fall of Sonic the Hedgehog (August, 2010) Block

• Shadow the Hedgehog: You guys wanted Shadow to be played with Sonic Heroes. We tried but only managed to complete a couple stories from each game. Shadow is too edgy to be completed and Heroes is... just too awkward to play.

Pokemon Marathon 2 (July, 2010) Block

• Hey You Pikachu!: Does this ever end?
• Pokemon Adventu: So, so close! It was pretty sadistically difficult, though-- never quite beat it.
• Vietnamese Crystal: Both games crashed within a couple of minutes of each other, we're calling this a tie.
  

Legend of Zelda Marathon (December, 2009) Block

• Faces of Evil: Beat it! By... throwing a book at Ganon.
• Zelda: The Wind Waker: Beat this one too!
• Zelda: Twilight Princess: Didn't even have time to attempt this-- back to the vaults it goes.

Terrifying...ly Bad Games Minithon (October, 2009)

• Big Rigs: Over the Road Racing: You're winner!
• E.T. (The Atari 2600 masterpiece): Came close but E.T. never got home.
• Shaq-Fu: Never had a chance to play it.

So, with all said and done... well, there's still quite a bit of mopping up left to do which is why I'm pleased to announce Mop-Up Marathon Part 2 but that's a job for another day. Perhaps.

Thank you to everybody who watched and donated! Without all of your continued support, we wouldn't have been able to be nearly as successful as we were with this fundraiser! Also, a special thanks goes out to everyone who spread the word or posted something on their website, blog or social media page-- we couldn't have done it without you!

Also, a very special thanks goes out to Rory Powers for making a second awesome theme song for us! Give it a listen (or download it!) if you haven't already-- it's an absolute masterpiece. He also recently remastered the original theme so it sounds even better (listen to it here or download it).


The next Marathon is still in the works but it'll likely be next month. I'll post up any and all details as they are confirmed. Keep an eye on the forums or the IRC chat to keep track of any ideas we're kicking around.

One last thing-- we're working on a new update to ExtraLives.org. The site needs a bit of love. While it's functional, it's also a bit of a pain to keep updated and full of interesting content. We're working to change that with a bit of a site redesign. Here's a link to a little sketch I drew up with a potential new look.

Thanks again for everything, guys! Your continued support means the world to us. Not only that, but you're helping to improve the quality of life for a great deal of impoverished people. Everyone should feel proud of what they helped to accomplish-- we couldn't have done this without everybody's help!

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You guys may have noticed that we've been raising money for Free the Children in a lot of our Marathons recently. There's a reason for that (and it's not just because we're too lazy to find any other charity to donate to).

These guys consistently get results. Instead of just throwing money into a large, anonymous pot of donations for a charity, wouldn't you like to know what exactly you're funding?

Every Marathon we've held for Free the Children has raised upwards of $10,000-- more than enough to build and furnish a single-room schoolhouse or add an additional room to an existing structure. Free the Children sends me reports twice a year regarding the communities where the donations went and I'd like to share this information with everyone.

The Legend of Zelda Marathon raised over $12,000 and the donations went to fund the construction of a schoolhouse in Chismaute, a small village in Ecuador. Here is a photo of the new schoolhouse in the village (and another is on the way!)


If you're interested in learning more about living conditions and Free the Children's actions in Ecuador, here's a link to the charity's official Community Report.

The 64 Hours of the Nintendo 64 Marathon raised about $10,000 which went to funding a schoolhouse in Kenya. The Kenyan village where the donations went is called Sikirar and they've got a new schoolhouse in the works too!


Here's the link to the more detailed Community Report. Good job, everyone!

And finally, the second Pokemon Marathon (my personal favorite Marathon out of all of them) raised another $10,000 for our friends at Free the Children. You guys voted on seeing it built in Sierra Leone where it went to a village known as Moyamba. Here's a photo of some new construction and more can be found in the Community Report. Gotta start somewhere!


You guys voted to see the Mario Marathon's donations go to funding a schoolhouse in Haiti. I'll be sure to update everyone on progress there when I receive any information (still a tad premature to hear anything at this point).

So, again, I just wanted to thank everyone for their continued support. You guys have done a lot of good in various developing countries that will go a long way to improve the quality of life for a great deal of impoverished people. Everyone should feel proud of what they helped to accomplish-- we couldn't have done anywhere near as much without everybody's help.

I know I've mentioned this a few times already, but the fact that people continually watch and donate to our fundraisers means more to me than anybody will ever know. Still, I'm sure this feeling pales in comparison to the joy felt by children whose lives you all touched through your generous donations.

This one photo (from Sikirar in Kenya) really sums it all up better than I ever could.


You guys continue to amaze and I'm always looking foward to the next time I can bust out the video capture equipment and start broadcasting a Marathon... for the children!

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