Kirby
Crashman
Waddle Dee
Megaman
This past weekend was the Gaming Chronicles Nostalgia vs New Video Game Marathon. A group of friends and I played video games for 84 hours straight while streaming it over the internet to raise money for Child's Play Charity. And raise money we did! Over $1,600!! Child's Play's mission is to get video game systems and games into hospitals for children who are ill so that the hospital is not such a scary place. So what better way to raise money than to play video games. It was a weekend of tons of laughs, a Reddit Internet Flash Mob, Megaman the musical, and little to no sleep.
Punchout Streaming LiveI joined Thursday night after a pretty big day at work. I walked in on a total life high ready for more. I was there as the resident Gaming Chronicles staff artist. I was going to paint live as prizes for those watching online and donating. Painting is the only thing that got me through the first night. Planning to stay up the whole night, I was about ready to tap out at 2 AM. I pushed through, knocked out Kirby and Megaman, then took a quick 2 hour nap from 4:30 am to 6:30 am, then got back up to be Ian's (aka Grenn Balze) relief as he took off to work. Matt aka Capital M and I rang in the morning - me painting, him playing Kirby's Dreamland (nostalgia). Once this was beaten, Matt, Oliver, Holly and I worked our way through Kirby's Adventure (new). We quickly all agreed this was the cutest game ever. In multiplayer, if say Kirby (Oliver) got health, he could hug Waddle Dee (Holly) or Menonite (me) and share health. Cutest thing EVER. At this point we had made some new friends - shout out to Farronox, our official Quote Technician. He started up Gameathon Quotes, tweeting the more hilarious and cracked out things we said in our sleep deprived gaming states. Once this game was done, Holly donated to get the customized Waddle Dee painting pictured above.
Later Friday night I got to play Spyro (my fave!) and amuse the masses with my temper tantrums and spazz like gaming. The real highlight of the night was when our good friend Tom Hanley came over to play Punchout, a game requested and donation paid for by our friend Boy Named Sue, who was back from last year. Tom Hanley beat the game, but had a hard time defeating Mr. Dream. The rematch was scheduled for Sunday night.
Saturday during the day - stuff happened. To be perfectly honest I think this was the most cracked out day for us all. The no sleep of Thursday and Friday was catching up to us, as can be seen in this picture of Jed, asleep amisdst all the mattresses. Naps were occurring left and right, anyway possible. The only painting I was able to do Saturday was the Crashman painting above commissioned via donation from Matt.
Matt hugging a blanket with 925 viewersSaturday night - none of us saw coming. The first day Matt, Joe, Holly, and crew had promised if we had over 10 viewers they would do a happy dance. Goal achieved, they set the bar higher. Over 100 viewers we would put on Megaman the Musical. Not a likley goal, unless... INTERNET FLASH MOB! Late Saturday night into Sunday morning, little unsuspecting Gaming Chronicles marathon had made their way to the front page of UStream (the site we were streaming through). As Ian played Metroid the viewers started jumping. 6, 10, 20, 80, 120! Megaman the Musical was happening. It didn't stop there. As we were singing and dancing, the number over viewers rose to over 925. Nothing like making a fool of yourself to a huge group of people! It was hysterical and one of the funniest things I've been a part of in a long time. In walked user "Le Reddit Army". I was totally out of my element with what was happening, not being as Internet savy as those who would stage an internet flash mob, I simply sat back, laughed, and sang opposite Matt when called upon. I can only imagine what those 925 people were thinking. I'm sure they thought it would just be people sitting around playing video games. Instead they got us, dancing.
After techincal difficulties during the day, this was definitely a boost to our spirits. We got Internet Flash Mobbed!!! Cool.
Sunday, we ended on a strong note. There were two paintings left for me to do. The only thing that kept me sane Sunday morning was the fan input painting. I had a heart painting that had yet to be completed and I put it out to the viewers to decide what should be painted in that heart. The winning idea ended up being Matt's - Tom Hanley and Mr. Dream - the ultimate matchup. But not just Tom Hanley, the idea was to get a picture of Mr. Dream and one of Litlle Mac, then put Tom's hair on Little Mac's face. And I did it. And I laughed the entire time time because it was just too good!
Little Mac and Doc
Tom Hanley is my Punchout Hero
Mr. Dream
Tom Hanley is Little Mac
We decided that rather than raffling this off to the lucky donator, this painting needed to find a home with everyone's punchout hero Tom. It was presented to him an encouragement to defeat Mr. Dream. Which, to make this article totally anti-climatic, I have no idea if Mr. Dream was defeated. I had to leave. Work Monday was already going to be tough enough after barely sleeping all weekend, but if I stayed till then end on the last night, I would be truly dead. I went home early and went to bed, satisfied from an amazing weekend of amazing friends, charity and painting. My goal of at least 1 painting a month for 2013 was already half way there. In one weekend I completed 6 paintings. The last one not shown here, it was decided that we would present it to Mike and Jerry at PAX 2013. That was my amazing guy friends' idea, to hopefully help bolster me to artist stardom through some PAX exposure.
The coolest thing about that was Monday we still recieved more donations. We had already passed our 2012 record of $1,230. Through more generousity Monday from family members and Gaming Chronicles friend Swagman, we were able to raise a total of $1,625. Not too bad for a group of friends doing something they love.