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Who are you?

We are a group of guys and girls in our twenties who love video games and wanted to give back. Throughout the event we will be joined by our friends and family who have all shown great support of the event. The event is coordinated by Michael Warner, with a whole lot of help from those people listed on the right.

Where are you guys located?

During the event we play Zelda games from a living room in Bournemouth, England, UK.

Are you affiliated with Nintendo?

No, the Zelda Marathon is an independent fan run event. We are in no way affiliated with any corporate entity. But we do want to thank Nintendo for creating these great games!

Are you affiliated with GamesAid?

No, we have no formal connection to GamesAid Charity.

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 Zelda on the Wii.

Do you have a press release I can distribute?

Yes! Here is our Press information.

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 GamesAid. Our goal is only to raise awareness of GamesAid and prove that, “When gamers give back, it makes a difference!”

Is this appropriate for children?

The Zelda marathon team will try to keep the video feed as family friendly as possible. However, interaction in the chatroom, on Facebook and on Twitter are generally outside of our control and probably are not appropriate for young children to read. Still, to help prevent excessive abuse, moderators have the authority to warn or ban inappropriate activity.

Where did this idea come from?

The concept was borrowed from Mario Marathon who themselves borrowed it 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 GamesAid?

Donations are made directly to GamesAid via a service called JustGiving. We are using JustGiving‘s API (Application Programming Interface) to keep track of 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 Zelda Marathon.

Are you good at these games?

Not really when it comes to the earlier games as most of us we’re still in the process of being born around their release dates although we have been practicing alot! Most of us have played the 3D games so should be a noticable improvement in the gameplay from then on! Don’t expect a speed run, but we should make it through everything, eventually.

What versions of these games will be played?

We intend to play all of the games on their original consoles using the original cartridges, control pads, special gameboy adapters and discs! Not a single PC emulator will be used nor will we be using the Wii’s Virtual Console, Infact the only ‘emulated’ game we are playing is The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time Master Quest developed for the N64DD which was a commercial failure so the game was never released and is only available on Gamecube using a pre-order bonus disc that came with the limited editon of The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker.

How do you benefit from this event?

Other than 15 minutes of Internet fame we see no direct benefit. In fact, the Zelda 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?

All these game’s aren’t enough for you!? Well who knows, maybe we will play XYZ next year. We’ll see.

How do you plan to stay awake?

The pure excitement of Link saving the Princess Zelda and Hyrule from Ganon 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. Follow us on twitter @ZeldaGamesAid.

How can I submit Fan Art for the web site?

Simply post is in our fan art forums!

How do you plan to webcast the video?

Ustream.tv is being used to host our video stream. Equipment wise, we’ve got HD Cameras outfitted with wide-angle lenses, Dazzle video capture device, stage quality boundary microphones, and a high quality sound mixer hooked up to a custom built PC running Windows 7 and XSplit Broadcaster.

Won’t your consoles overheat?

At most each console will only be used for two consecutive games on our list, its unlikely that over the course of that time they will overheat as we will be swapping to the next console along with the next game. We do have a few spares availible though should the brown stuff hit the fan.

I want to run my own gaming marathon, any suggestions?

Mario Marathon put together some great notes which you can read in their article, Notes on Running a Gaming Marathon.

Can I access past Zelda Marathons?

No! This is our very first marathon, let’s make it a great success!

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.