Legend of Zelda 72-Hour Marathon Relay Race for Charity! Dec 30th - Jan 2nd

[Raen]

Hello everyone, and welcome to the topic for

The Legend of Zelda 72-Hour Marathon Relay Race

Where: http://gamersgamingforgood.com/

Time: December 30st until January 2nd, starting at 6 PM MST.

What: A race through all 14 The Legend of Zelda video games.

For: NAMI (National Alliance on Mental Illness) - http://www.nami.org

Zelda? Cool! So, uh. . . what is this?
The Legend of Zelda marathon relay race is just what it sounds like; a race between teams (composed of member of our little marathon group, Gamers Gaming for Good) to beat all of the Zelda games. Some of my friends and I thought it would be really fun to do a charity marathon of our own. However, in an effort to not simply copy what others do, we thought it would be incredibly fun to have a big relay race that lasts 3 days.

Sounds nifty. So, how does this work?
Basically, there will be either 2 or 3 teams with 3 people on each team who will be playing through all of the Legend of Zelda games to see which team can beat all of the games before the other teams can. We will be streaming this event live on UStream; we have a website where you can watch the marathon instead of just going to the UStream page. There will be a stream where you can watch the games currently being played, and another stream with a commentator and a camera showing the room where everyone will be playing their games.

That's cool. So. . .
Whoa, whoa, whoa. Wait a second, I'm not finished. Along with the video streams of the marathon, there will also be a chatroom where you can talk to various other people who are watching the marathon, and even talk to the commentator/players.
We're also going to try to up the ante a bit on the competitive aspect of this, and as such we will have a voting system where you can vote on which team you think will win, and another where you can vote for your favorite team. You don't get anything for guessing right, but hilarity will inevitably ensue as team rivalries arise.

Ok, sounds fun. So, are you guys just doing this for fun, or is there any kind of point to it?
While getting to play Zelda for 3 days is a reward in and of itself, we felt it would be good to do this marathon for a good cause. As such, we will be taking donations throughout the marathon in support of NAMI, the National Alliance for Mental Health. We feel this is a great cause to support, and we hope everyone plans on donating! We will likely be giving out some prizes to people who donate at least 5 dollars, which is all the more reason to donate. So please, be generous and help a great cause.

So, you said ALL the Zelda games? Which ones are you playing, exactly?
We will be playing:

The Legend of Zelda
Zelda II: The Adventure of Link
A Link to the Past
Link's Awakening
Ocarina of Time
Majora's Mask
The Wind Waker
Oracle of Ages
Oracle of Seasons
Four Swords Adventure (this will be played co-op, of course!)
The Minish Cap
Twilight Princess
Phantom Hourglass
Spirit Tracks

(this is not necessarily the order we'll be playing the games in)

[ZachZ]

Looks like you've planned out most of the details. Great job on the originality and thought process.
Will one person need to play each individual game and beat it before the next person can start playing? Or shall the entire team work together on three separate consoles to work through the games faster? Does the team only play one game at a time, and can multiple team players play the same game? Hints are likely allowed, as the chatting is already accepted, but are guides going to be used, or will everything come from memory and prior experiences?
Nice idea.
;-)ZachZ;-)

[Dan]

You really can't use GBAs while using a Game Boy Player?

Huh... I'm a little confused about why that would be the case with Four Swords, since I've been able to link the Super Mario Advance games to a GBA while playing on the Game Boy Player... Kirby: Nightmare in Dreamland as well.  In fact, isn't there a hook-up port on the Game Boy Player?  I'm like, 99% sure since I was just using it the other day... 

[Raen]

What I meant by that, Dan, is that you can't link multiple GBAs together using the Game Boy Player. You can hook a GBA up to the Game Boy Player to play with, but you can't link multiple GBAs together, which is needed for Four Swords.

And Zach, it's sort of a relay kind of thing, meaning one person on each team plays a game, beats it, then hands it off to the next guy on the team who plays a game, beats it, then passes it on, ect. So far, it's looking like there are 3 people per team, meaning each person plays roughly 5 Zelda games over the course of the marathon.

As for using strategy guides, we will likely allow parts of them to be used as reference (for example, we will likely require getting the Biggoron Sword, and we will probably allow strategy guides as reference for that). It will be limited, though.
And wow, thanks for the sticky whoever did that!

[Stephen J. Weber]

That was me Also tweeted, Facebooked, added to the ZREO IRC topic and podcast site.

[ZachZ]

...

That means that you have a really, really good idea, Raen.

;-)ZachZ;-)

[Raen]

That was me Also tweeted, Facebooked, added to the ZREO IRC topic and podcast site.

Wow, thanks a ton! I really appreciate the support!

[SuperJario]

This sounds really cool!

On the aspect of the Game Boy Player, why can't you just use a GBA link cable to connect multiple GameCubes together? I'm certain it has a GBA link cable port on it.

[Raen]

This sounds really cool!

On the aspect of the Game Boy Player, why can't you just use a GBA link cable to connect multiple GameCubes together? I'm certain it has a GBA link cable port on it.

I'll definatley look at it and see what we can do. I'm still not certain we'll do FS, though. FSA we will do for sure, but since FS isn't really beatable and we're already taking on a LOT of games, we may just skip over FS.

[Raen]

For those who are interested, Gamers Gaming for Good (our little gaming marathon charity group) now has a website with forums. Check it out when you can:  http://gamersgamingforgood.com/

[Raen]

I just thought I'd remind everyone about this, as it starts in exactly 3 weeks! We're all super excited for this marathon and hope you will all enjoy it and donate! Also, in case people haven't noticed, you can now follow us on Twitter, right here: http://twitter.com/gamersgaming

We've also announced some prizes we'll be giving away, so check out the website to see those, and we'll soon be announcing a lot more!

I also have a request for anyone who is excited for this marathon: Please tell others about it! It would help us out a ton. Thanks!

[Erik Schröder]

I love Zelda marathons. But the last one sucked, because they didn't really know what to do at times even though they said they had practised.

[Mycro_chip♪]

Practicing for a marathon takes a lot of time before doing the actual thing and that takes a lot of time already.

[TheLesserDekuSprout]

If we don't complete the games in those 3 days, the moon falls from sky and destroys us all!!


Mycro
For correctness:
24 being 1 full day.
24+24+24=72 hours which technically breaches 3 days due to early morning.
Majora's Mask was 72 virtual hours.
This Marathon says its 72 hours.


The joke may now be corrupt, but I feel better about myself.

[Mycro_chip♪]

Haha, good one Mr. Deku Sprout.

It's actually four days but we still get you. lol

[Erik Schröder]

Practicing for a marathon takes a lot of time before doing the actual thing and that takes a lot of time already.

It's more fun without it.

[Raen]

Mycro_chip is right in saying it takes a lot of time to really practice a ton, even more so for this marathon where each individual person is playing 3 or 4 games. However, at least as is the case for me, I've played a lot of these games many times over the years and have many parts of them down already, without a ton of practice needed. Of course, I'm still practicing! I beat Minish Cap in 4 hrs and 37 minutes a few weeks ago. I'm hopeing I can get that one under 4 hours, at least. TWW I think I can get finished under 10 hours, hopefully around 8 or 9, maybe.

Albeit, I'm not promising we'll finish all the games, but I'm pretty sure we can!

[Erik Schröder]

TWW in under 10 hours? Snap. I can only get through in 15 hours.

What's the secret?

[TheLesserDekuSprout]

TWW in under 10 hours? Snap. I can only get through in 15 hours.

What's the secret?

What's slowing you down? The Forsaken Fortress? That dungeon's design is extremely non-linear and I'm pretty sure my second run through, I 'glitched' past certain areas to beat it. Most annoying part of the game, getting that sword back.
I must have been thrown into that jail cell a dozen times on my first round through...

[Raen]

Forsaken Fortress is a pain when you don't know exactly what you doing. I've gotten to the point where, from the beginning of Forsaken Fortress, it takes maybe 20 minutes to get to Dragon Roost Island. I think the actual playable bits (meaning no cutscenes) from Forsaken Fortress take under 10 minutes for me.

But basically, when it comes to WW, the trick is just know exactly what your doing. I have up until you get the Master Sword almost completely memorized, and up to the triforce quest I know many thing, although don't have it all memorized. I kinda really slow down at the triforce quest, though. Last time I timed myself (well, not really accurately, just with a clock, but yeah), I think it took 7ish hours to get to the triforce quest. I didn't keep going (this was a while ago), but I'd expect to have beaten that game in 10, maybe 11 hours. I need to really practice that triforce quest, though.