Blog of the Green Mage

     Hope you're ready for a pretty big post.  So one of the first posts I put up here on my personal blog was about a 48-hour Zelda Donation Marathon I happened to stumble across back in April, and I thought it would be quite interesting to blog about it and then go watch Zelda for all of that nostalgic goodness. Now I've just found out that there will be not one, but two major upcoming stream donation marathons of interest, both beginning tomorrow, September 10.

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     The first one is yet another Legend of Zelda marathon, or specifically, "Gamemarathons.com’s Legend of Zelda Versus Marathon."  Versus marathons are common to the GameMarathons site, and are held a few times each year between competing teams.  Game "achievements" (much in the same style as the ones used by XBOX 360/Microsoft games) are designated before the competition/marathon starts, and as teams meet the requirements needed for each achievement, they receive points. Whoever has the most points at the end of the overall marathon is proclaimed the winner, and besides bragging rights, they also receive the right to name the game/franchise to be used in the next Versus Marathon.  Don't know about you, but it sounds like quite a fun and competitive marathon to attend and watch.

     Two teams have been officially signed up to compete so far, and the Zelda Versus Marathon will be running for 60 hours, with team members on either team switching off playing the games at different intervals.  Based on donations, for each cumulative multiple of $5 received, the Marathon will be extended an extra hour, up to a possible of 36 hours tagged on to the original 60.  This means, for example, the first $5 donated adds on one hour, and the second hour is added on once another $10 has been donated, for a total of $15 towards the donation.  For the marathon to be extended by a third hour, another $15 needs to be donated for a total of $30 overall, and so on, so forth.  All donation earned will be sent to the charity Child’s Play. GameMarathon's description: "Their primary mission is to give toys and games to children in hospitals. They’re fairly well known in the gaming community because a lot of other game marathons also donate to them and they’re founded by Gabe and Tycho from Penny Arcade."  The Versus Marathon begins tomorrow at 5 PM US Eastern Time.

     To visit the official Versus Marathon page, click here.  For more in-depth information and faqs about the Versus Marathon and how things will be set-up/work, click to go to the Versus Faqs page.

The Two Competing Teams: (click team name to visit their personal web site)

 OCT Stream Link

 TSR Stream Link

The Zelda Games to be Played: (chance not all will be played within time constraints, nor in this order)

Legend of Zelda (NES)
Zelda 2: Adventure of Link (NES)
Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past (SNES)
Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening (GB)
Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (N64)
Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask (N64)
Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Ages (GBC)
Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Seasons (GBC)
Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker (GC)
Legend of Zelda: Four Swords Adventures (GC)
Legend of Zelda: Minish Cap (GBA)
Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess (WII)
Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass (DS)
Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks (DS)

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     The second marathon, also beginning tomorrow, is the Haloathon.  This is, in essence, your more basic marathon, dedicated to playing through the Halo Games/Franchise.  However, there is one specific twist to this marathon: it will be building up to the release of the next game in the Halo series, Halo: Reach.  The marathon will dedicated to playing through all of the other Halo games in the franchise up until Reach's release Tuesday, in which they will then proceed to play and complete the game on its release date (with luck).  The marathon will be lasting a whopping 100 hours, which is plenty of time between Friday and Reach's release on Tuesday.  Donations towards this marathon will also be sent towards the charity Child's Play.  The Haloathon starts tomorrow at 8pm (UK – GMT).

Haloathon Official Website

The Halo Games to be Played: (chance not all will be played within time constraints, nor in this order)

Halo: Combat Evolved

Halo 2
Halo 3
Halo Wars
Halo 3: ODST
Halo: Reach

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     Personally, I will be popping in every so often to attend/watch/chat it up in the Zelda Versus Marathon for a majority of the time, simply because I like LoZ better than Halo, plus I want that nostalgic feeling of watching all of those old Zelda games I've played from way back when (and others I never had the chance to play myself, too).  A Versus Marathon sounds like it would be really interesting to watch, as well.  However, I actually did find that I enjoyed Halo 3 quite a bit more than I expected, and have been hearing some good things about Reach (plus sheer curiosity), so assuming I have nothing else to do then and I'm not physically/mentally exhausted by then, I may go over to the Haloathon to watch them play through Halo: Reach on its release day (midnight release may make this very hard to do, though...).  Hopefully a lot of you will come to watch and have some fun with at these marathons, and even more hopeful is that many of you will help donate some money to help Child's Play during either of these marathons.  We need to get toys and, more importantly, video games to those kids in hospitals, so jump on it, gamers (and non-gamers)!