Marathon
Description:
We here at
ExtraLives.org love
bootlegs. From Vietnamese Crystal to Pokemon Adventu, there's just
something about bootlegged games that intrigues us. Whether it's
laughing at God-awful translations or wondering how the programmers
ever got away with such egregious gameplay faults, these games have a
distinct charm.
What better way to exhibit this than with a Marathon full of bootlegged
games?
- Super
Mario World... on the
NES!
- Pokemon
Gold/Silver... but
with an entirely new Engrish translation!
- Action 52
on the NES! Notorious for
the quality of its 52 "games" and $200 price tag.
- Final
Fantasy 7... but on the
NES!
- Somari
on the Famicom. Yes,
that's a Mario-Sonic hybrid. No, I don't know what they were thinking.
- Pokemon
Jade... AKA Keitai
Denju Telefang, a Japan-only, Pokemon-inspired RPG commonly passed off
as a new Pokemon adventure on the Game Boy!
- Kart Fighter!
A NES game where you
beat up your favorite Nintendo characters pre-Super Smash Bros.
- Bible Adventures
on the NES! A video
game about The Bible. And by "about The Bible," I mean, "barely related
to The Bible."
- Super
Noah's Ark 3D
on the SNES! A game built on Wolfenstein 3D. Yes, that's the game about
killing Nazis.
- Super Mario &
Sonik 2 on the
NES. If you thought Sonic '06 was horrid, you haven't seen anything yet.
- Pokemon
Stadium
on the Genesis. Now
if only it had the over-the-top announcer...
All
the
money raised will go to Free the Children, a charity that provides
humanitarian aid to children in developing nations worldwide. If we
raise $8,500 we can fund the construction of a school in an
underdeveloped country. Check out a
total list of what your donations go to here
and help us build a school (or raise that goat army we're always
talking about).
I understand the
end of August is a busy
time for many of you. In the event that the fundraiser doesn't raise
enough to build a schoolhouse, we're thinking of
having the donations
go toward
famine-aid and irrigation projects in East Africa.
The region
is facing their worst drought in sixty
years,
resulting in a famine
which has left tens
of
thousands dead.
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What is a bootlegged game?
Bootlegged
games...
-...incorperate
copyrighted content from one or more sources in another
game...
-...are not officially
authorized to be
published or sold on any video game console...
-...may
represent attempts to bring games over from one console to
another.
What
system will
you play the games on?
Pokemon Gold and Silver (also Pokemon Jade) will be played via the Game
Cube's Game Boy player-- we have actual cartridges for these!
Similarly, Bible Adventures will be played on a genuine Nintendo
Entertainment System.
Normally we do our best to have physical copies of all the games we
play. However, in this case, many of these bootlegs are difficult (if
not impossible) to find. Plus, we'd rather not send money to
bootleggers anyway (it could be better spent on charitable donations).
Many of the games in this Marathon will be played on an emulator,
allowing us to showcase as many bootlegs as possible.
That list of games
seems pretty short-- aren't there more bootlegs?
There sure are,
but many of those not on the list have only one or two defining
features that makes them unique.
Some
have very repetitive gameplay, awful music, a cheesy title screen or
hilarious spritework (the number of games that have Mario's head placed
on another character's body is mind-boggling). While we'd rather not
devote a large amount of time to games like that, we still feel they're
worth exhibiting.
We'll have multiple periods set aside between games for "Bootleg
Grab-Bags" where we can show off those games. Each of these
periods
will last a few hours each during which we'll go through a large list
of bootlegged games quickly. They'll all be related by theme (Mario
Bootlegs, Sonic Bootlegs,
Pokemon Bootlegs,
etc). They're
too numerous
to list (bootleggers made "Mario World" games up to Mario World 16), so
you'll have to tune in to see what exactly we have in store.
Will the green
screen be used for all future Marathons?
We're not sure, it depends on the feedback we
receive from this broadcast. The idea of the green screen was to
emulate the look of Mystery Science Theater 3000. Given that the show
is about mocking poorly produced movies, we thought the silhouette
effect would be appropriate and keep the feed interesting when there is
only one screen.
Is there going to be a raffle?
Yes! I am in the
process of getting some ExtraLives.org T-shirts printed up to raffle
off. We will be raffling five
of these shirts during the Marathon and one shirt will be reserved for
the highest donor, making a total of six
shirts we're giving
away.
As
was the
case with the previous Marathons,
every $5 donation counts for one
entry in the raffle. Each $5 entry will enter the donor in every
raffle we have throughout the
course of this Marathon.
Like the
Pokethon and second Sonicthon, we will not
be raffling off all of the items at once. Instead, we will raffle off a
T-shirt approximately every 12 hours.
Donate early and often for the best chances at winning!
What about fanart?
Do you guys want that?
Sure! We love to get fanart and we hope you guys enjoy looking through
it as much as we do.
For every piece of fanart you submit, we'll give you an entry into the
raffle. However, the fanart has to be something a bit more than some
scribbles on a white MS Paint background-- put a bit of effort into it!
Also, do me
a HUGE favor and don't call the files "fanart.jpg."
I get a
LOT of files named like that and I have to go through and manually
rename them. Including your name in the filename would be a great help
in sorting out who made what!
I can't draw, I'd
rather write something. Would you guys accept written works?
You bet! One caveat-- fanfics are fun to read but can be time
consuming. If you write something lenghty or we receive a great deal of
written submissions, we may not be able to read yours aloud on the
stream.
I don't want to
watch this on Ustream! Is it being streamed anywhere else?
We'll be streaming this Marathon on both Justin.tv
(Kappa) and Usream.tv!
Feel free to use whatever site works best for you, we'll be doing our
best to keep up with both chatrooms.
I
want to watch, but I'll be away. What
do I do?!
Provided there
are no unforeseen
technical issues, we'll be recording the entire Marathon
so you can re-watch
it whenever you'd like!
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