Last chance to win a $500 EB Games voucher and a REFRESH prize pack!
By Tim Colwill on August 22, 2012 at 11:15 am
Here at games.on.net we like to give things away, and not just because we’re constantly beguiled by our very attractive community members and want to shower them with gifts. So when REFRESH Eye Drops emailed us and said “Do you think your community would like a couple of $500 games vouchers?” I was quick to re-assure them that, no, they’d be better off going directly to me and Cas instead. Luckily for you they insisted, and so we’re reluctantly very happy to offer this prize pack to you!
Two lucky games.on.net readers will each walk away with a $500 EB Games gift voucher – perfect for the upcoming end-of-year games rush – and a REFRESH Eye drops pack, perfect for soothing your dry, sandpaper-like eyeballs after you’re finished with all of those games you just purchased.
How do I enter?
It’s quite simple! All you need to do to enter is leave a comment on this article that, in 200 words or less, describes the most outrageous, intense, hardcore gaming marathon you’ve ever been a part of. Maybe you sat up for 32 hours straight to finish a game. Maybe you and a friend laminated your computers and took them underwater to LAN a game of Diablo III in a shark cage. Does it have to be real? Not really, but if it is – well, that’s even better.
The two most creative, well-written and cringe-worthingly-hardcore entries will walk away with a $500 EB Games voucher and a REFRESH Eye Drops prize pack.
How long do I have?
The competition closes at 11:59PM Adelaide time on Wednesday, 22 August. Winners will be chosen and announced the next day.
What’s this REFRESH stuff all about?
Ever experienced pain, dryness, burning, grittiness or redness of the eyes when gaming? REFRESH® Eye Drops offer effective relief for the symptoms of Dry Eye Syndrome, a condition that can affect anyone whose eyes experience prolonged exposure to computer screens. That’s you gamers!
The REFRESH® range of eye drops, available at leading pharmacies and selected optometrists, includes REFRESH PLUS® (30 x 0.4mL single-dose preservative free vials for every day dry eyes), REFRESH TEARS PLUS® (15mL multi-use bottle for dry irritated eyes), REFRESH LIQUIGEL® (15mL multi-use bottle for persistent dry eyes) and REFRESH CONTACTS® (15mL multi-use bottle for contact lens wearers).
Always read the label and use only as directed. If symptoms persist, consult a healthcare professional. REFRESH PLUS®, REFRESH TEARS PLUS® and REFRESH CONTACTS® contain carmellose sodium 5mg/mL. REFRESH LIQUIGEL® contains carmellose sodium 10mg/mL. ® is a registered trademark of Allergan, Inc. For more information about the REFRESH® range of eye drops, please call 1800 252 224 or visit www.allergan.com.au. AU/0034/2012.
Terms and Conditions
Entry into this competition is subject to the terms and conditions on this page.
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BenQ Gaming Monitor Competition: Winners Announcement
And they are....
Win a brand-new BenQ RL2450H RTS gaming monitor! Details inside
Three ways to enter - three ways to win. Click through for all the details.
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wtf….?
Perfect for gamers that smoke weed.
Biggest ‘marathon’ I have done is stayed up all night completing the COD:MW2 Spec Ops campaign with a co-worker. Very hardcore huh
Um what? GON selling out? I know someone (probably Tim or Cas) will jump in and say these types of things are required to have comps but frankly i’d rather no comp at all if comps were attached to random advertising like this. Though i’m likely alone in that.
The Last Game I played for an extended period of time Was Minecraft. Me and 2 of my friends had just got back into Minecraft after the 1.31 update, and to try something different, we opted to try HardCore Server Mode.
We Spawned,in what i could only describe as an island world (The Seed was GrimleyBlackAntridLeoDC2), with nothing but a tree and a whole boatload of squid. We each created a boat out of the shared tree and went in different directions.
Nothing.
Nothing as far as the eye could see. After around 3 minecraft days, my friends and i were all starving. Then, Land! My Friend had finally found Land, with animals to feed on. He then decided to eat till he was full, and then ignored our pleas for his coordinates. After another day, friend 2 arrived on the island of the gods, as friend one called it. He then ate, and joined friend 1 in his mine.
I was on the brink of Starvation… Then Suddently, on the horizon, i seen a tree. Not just any tree however, a Mushroom Tree! Food, and the Sweet taste of Victory was in the air, after friends 1 and 2 both died due to a creeper explosion.
I once spent 41 hours straight completing Phantasy Star Universe in one sitting my first time through.
Oh boy i loved that game. I cried, i laughed, i jumped, i loved.
Otaku4lyf?
lol.
Without a doubt, the most extreme gaming related session I’ve had, is reading some of exe3′s posts.
Playing Dragon Age Origins from morning until the early hours of the next day (barely making time for a bathroom or food break) and completely losing myself in the world of Ferelden. My beautiful blonde warrior Grace, fighting alongside many an amusing, sensual and interesting band of comrades. All the while trying to romance the beautiful Leliana until she succumbed to Grace’s womanly wiles. Alas my journey continues thus I have tossed aside this wonderful title because it calls to me and draws me in for far too long. I will return to Ferelden, there is many things yet to be accomplished. To be continued…..
Selling out? We don’t get paid for this, nor does iiNet or Internode or anybody.
If you don’t want to win a $500 games voucher, that’s your call!
Back in the distant era of 1998 when StarCraft first launched, I was grabbed by the family jewels and drawn in hook-line and sinker.
I had 3x 1.25L bottles of coke, My Desktop PC, my trusty weapons of choice, the keyboard and mouse and it was game-on.
Little did I realize how many hours or even days would pass, Hunger, Sleep, real-life obligations literally flew out the window and hit an old lady on the head that was calmly walking by my home as the sound of explosions and enemies being slain could be heard by the entire neighborhood.
Sometime during my second day of my marathon; I was in a climatic struggle where the desire to pee like a pregnant woman and my desire to decimate the Zerg swarm came to a clash. The solution? I had an empty bottle of coke.
So with one hand I was relieving myself of the desire to pee, with the other I was in a clicking frenzy microing a group of marines into victory against a group of Zerglings.
When StarCraft 2 rolled around, I thought ahead and bought a laptop so I could stay in the glorious royal throne.
So why does this comp have some really really random product placement? :S
And no I don’t want $500 attached to some weird eye drops :p (not that I believe i’ll ever win a comp around here again *giggle* XD ).
It was June 2000, myself and two mates took holidays and played Diablo II for 48 hours straight. This kicked off a week long LAN session at my house, not long after the games release back in the day.
I hate to think of the amount of Coke and Cadbury’s Chocolate, Chips and other rubbish that was consumed that week.
All three of us just waiting for the next shiny item to drop, we soon found one of my mates was a seagull. No sooner had loot hit the floor and he swooped on it like it was a hot chip.
We never, ever got sick of hearing ‘Stay awhile and Listen’ from our old pal Deckard. If only years later we had found Diablo III as compelling.
Hmmm mentioning this trip down memory lane I might give Diablo III another go right now.
They supplied the product and the vouchers, so, that’s… how it works. I’m not sure what else to tell you?
All I know is that from where i’m sitting it looks like a case of someone came to you and said “hey, we have this product that has absolutely nothing to do with gaming, but if you advertise our product we’ll give you some gaming vouchers along with our product for a comp”.
But watevs, i’ll drop it, it’s your site, you can do what you want, this comments section has gone off topic long enough.
Back in January of 2004 I played Desert Combat, a mod for Battlefield 1942 for around 50 hours straight. At the time the Mountain Village map had just been released, which above all had 3 choppers as only mode of transportation for the US side. I used to love shooting down choppers full of infadels with Stinger missiles.
Well one of my friends called me as I was aproaching around my 50th hour and asked me to join some friends to listen to the Triple J Hottest 100 at a local park and have a few drinks. Figuring I had been at the computer long enough I accepted, and before long I was out in the sun playing cricket, drinking a few beers and listening to some great tunes.
As I was standing around with a beer fielding (or maybe just drinking) A chopper flew overhead traveling quite fast. Before I knew what I was doing I had thrown my beer down, run to the nearest tree (roughly 35 meters away) and peered through the branches at the chopper while reaching for my Stinger.
I still get ribbed about it any time I am with my mates and an aircraft flies over…
My very first “all nighter” gaming session:
Back in the good ole NES days, when I was all of 8 years old (1988), I was woken and forced to stay up all night by my older, non-gamer sister to finish Super Mario Bros. in its entirety. The words spoken to me were: “You’re going to finish this [insert f-bomb here] game or you’re not sleeping”. You see, this was before I ever knew about the warp zones, had only owned the system for 2 or 3 days, and had not previously made it past world 3. Failing to read any instruction manuals, I didn’t even know you could run. Droopy-eyed and concerned for my own safety, I played the game. I managed to beat the game. Moments later after my victory, my father walks into the room and says “It’s time to get ready for school”. It was a horrible day, but I had accomplished my first gaming accomplishment, and earned a smidgeon of respect from my sister. Win/Win.
I’m inclined to agree with exe3…. BUT, i do see a vague relevance…. they are providing the eye drops for those who have extended gaming sessions so their eye’s don’t dry out etc.
However i think most people wont care about the eye drops and just want the gaming voucher.
So when I was younger I went to a youth centre and they have computers with games and on every second Thursday they have late nights, 3pm to 9pm and at 6pm I challenged two of my friends to see who could finish F.E.A.R. first it took us til 9 to finish and it was my most intense piece of gaming because one friend was really close to beating me at the end because I got stuck at this stupid lil bit but I got passed it and won. And now I want to play Fear again.
So when I was younger I went to a youth centre and they have computers with games and on every second Thursday they have late nights, 3pm to 9pm and at 6pm I challenged two of my friends to see who could finish F.E.A.R. first it took us til 9(3hrs) to finish and it was my most intense piece of gaming because one friend was really close to beating me at the end because I got stuck at this stupid lil bit but I got passed it and won. And now I want to play Fear again.
Most outrageous gaming marathon I’ve ever had would have to be a LAN I attended at a fellow CS clan member’s house. One small apartment. A group of 8 or so 18-23 year olds. And a lot of booze. We started the night with jager bombs, followed by beers and our first war. The first half went well, everyone going large at one point or another. Then it was time for more jager bombs and beer. This process went on for a few hours, until the aiming started getting horrible and the strategies hilarious. ‘Backwards knife rush’ was a favourite tactic of our team ‘DOCK*Z’.
Then the night took a turn for the funny, when our resident rager was killed by our resident noob, resulting in said rager punching the table, shooting his cup of beer up into the air, only for it to land on himself and the surrounding carpet. To top it off he left the game and started watching a movie while we all held in chuckles.
The rest of the marathon was a bit of a blur, but I awoke sometime the next afternoon to a house smelling of booze and man-sweat. Awesome.
Well, once, I played the original Half Life over LAN with my scout group. Does that count?
Insane? yeah I’ve been called that before, a long time ago in another world known as Azeroth someone opened the dark portal. I set forth as a warlock knowing I must defeat the demons.
The real world took its effect on my body after the first day, but I would not giveup, an ally came to my apartment baring sandwiches and cooking me food to keep up my strength they knew I must defeat the legions…
I know not the amount of time it took, the hours blended together and if it was not for the support of my friends bringing me sustenance and support I would not have made it, but Narull the first level 70 horde Warlock was born, and I had been preparing, for 2 weeks before the portal opened I prepared and saved enough for epic flying and thus the first lvl70 with an epic mount to rain hell upon all my enemies.
Narull still lives to this day, fighting on against the demons in one form or another, always remembering that the fight must be won, but without the support of those close to him a warrior is nothing.
First and best ever session was back in the 90′s when we hired a small town hall one winters day and about 15 of us kicked off early. Massive pot of soup for lunch and sausages in bread for tea. All but one of us had Amiga’s, the odd one had a Win 3.1 machine. Was a truly great gaming day with lots of PvP gaming going on from a Sensi Soccer tournament up to the absolute highlight of the day which was 2 Amiga’s linked with 2 screens and each joystick port had a double adapter plugged in to allow an 8 player game of Skidmarks. The 2 screen mode was awesome to see your car drive off one screen and continue on the other then back to the 1st as the lap was completed. This stuff was unheard of with home computers and we thought we were the bomb. An awesome day that could not be replicated ever.
Most outrageous, intense gaming session I ever had was 35,000 feet in the air flying from Melbourne to Los Angeles in a Airbus A380. Was I on a gaming laptop? No. Was I gaming on a tablet device? No. I was pwning teh noobs through the in-built entertainment system built into the back of the seat. The name of the game eludes me, but I was playing a generic G rated FPS using the remote control as the input device. Who needs mechanical keyboards and 5000000 dpi gaming mice when I’ve got a sticky remote control that countless people have touched/licked/sat on? I was pwning dem noobs so hard, I caused the game to crash. That’s right. My gaming caused the aircraft entertainment system to crash. No reset button here children. The flight attendant had to restart the system for the entire goddamn seat row. F%#k yeah. Ended up killing about 3 hours off a 14 hour flight.
Sit down; allow me to convey the deepest, tensest and most intricate story your eyes have ever devoured. Assuming your coccyx bone’s planted well within the depths of your chair cushioning, we’ll begin:
It was Loredas of Sun’s Dawn, and absolutely compulsory to play the living hell out of every Elder Scrolls game ever perceived.
Taking into account the actual amount of time/life it’d take to accomplish such a task, we instead ventured into the freezing crevasse of Skyrim.
After hours of getting virtually nowhere, it was time to replace the routine of strategically placing large pots upon people’s heads, and robbing everything they’ve ever had (and selling it). Replace this routine with what? Simple: seeking and kicking the living ass out of every single dragon in the whole of Skyrim.
We ventured forth to find our ass completely and utterly handed to ourselves … by a pack of wolves. These were no ordinary wolves though, oh no, they were demonic beasts who didn’t die at all.
After discovering the game was on Master level, we deemed it necessary to post-pone our intentions with Skyrim. Partly due to depleted snacks, and days had passed in real life.
The end (cliché).
Mine is a bit ridiculous. It was summer ’07 or maybe ’08, I’d just gotten TF2 and it was the first PC game with achievements I’d played, which I was trying to get. One Sunday afternoon, we had guests over because it was close to Christmas, but I was in the middle of trying to get an achievement. So I’d play a round, go out and try to socialise for a bit, but I’d end up being back at the PC in like 5 minutes. In the end it took me 5 hours to get the achievement I was going for, which was to get 25 headshots. I was only 14-15, and I can offer that as my only excuse why I played 2fort for 5 hours as a sniper on the battlements. I’m sure I spent a good deal of time when I was even younger marathonning Earthworm Jim or something, but this one stands out the most.
my longest gaming session was back in 2008 on the Australian day long weekend.
playing WoW and my guild buddys warlock hit lvl 58 while i was only a mere 54, he boasted how he got to go to Out land before me and withing 20 mins he was up 3-4 lvls (Outland owns).
So once he loged of to go on a family vacation i decided to stay and see how far i could get to.
36 hours later with only brekky, and toilet breaks, i went from lvl 54-65 (with some guild help, not much)
BTW i think my eyes are still dry from THAT session.
It was 7pm on a warm summer’s night. I was checking IRC and saw a bunch of friend frantically talking about Minecraft. I thought to myself, ‘what the gibblies is Minecraft?’ It sounded weird; like nothing I have ever played before. I promptly made the purchase to check it out.
For about half an hour we mucked around in GON’s free play server, until someone suggested trying out a PvP server. So off we go. About 6 of us flood into a PvP server to try our luck. We set off making a base and taking territory, and we finally finish our castle. It’s 1AM.
Woah, what happened to the time?
We hadn’t encountered many people at this point, but this was never going to last for long. All of a sudden we were under attack. Three? No four… six? There are six people attacking our castle.
We defended valiantly for hours. We thought the siege ceased so we logged off. It was 4am. Damn, I was not going to get much sleep.
Next morning at 10am I logged in. Everything was gone. ‘Oh shit’ I exclaimed. All of our work destroyed by some doucher with TNT. Such is Minecraft.
I was a teenager. I also had received my first dual speed cd-rom. Naturally the first thing I did was go to th city and buy Wing Commander 3.
A week later we finally got home from the holidays.
Nearly two days passed, with the occasional toilet break, before I finally got the game to run with the available memory. 640k meant a lot of tweaking to the config.sys and autoexec.bat files.
Got to love dos.
After a sleep (for nearly a day), I spent the next few days playing the game until I fell asleep at the keyboard. Within three four days it was finished.
Because I was in school I got fined by Austudy for skipping to many classes. I wouldve been fine if it wasnt for that game.
Back about 12 years ago, me and my mates use to pull all nighter LANs (Dial up is all we had back then), we did a 100 hour LAN party no sleep marathon, needless to say, 4 days later I was the last man standing, all the colours of walls were meshed together.
During this time we took a few short breaks and road bins down the hill at night, a gamer has to exercise!
Also Grinding the wow grind for Grandmarshal 19.5 hour a day, 4.5 hours sleep for 8 months, I did hit rank 14. I wouldn’t wish that upon my worst enemy.
My most recent LAN was a relatively small one with only 6 people but it involved gaming all night with much alcohol and pizza consumed as well as playing a large variety of games. I originally took a laptop but then the laptop (in true LAN style) decided to suddenly not work so I went home to get my PC. Now this thing is a beast I have a Coolermaster HAF X case and it weighs easily over 20KG with my 2 graphics cards and 5 HDDs and I felt so proud of my beast when they saw it and were all staring in disbelief at how epic it is. Im getting slightly off topic from gaming. The game of first choice happened to be COD4 where I eventually ended up versing 4 others head to head on my own. This may sound really unfair and that’s what I thought when I realized I was versing the other 4 but I soon noticed that I was really really pwning them. So I let the number in-balance slide until the round was over. Ill admit that made everyone else rage quit COD4 for the night but it was so worth it. I might see if I can find the screenshot I took. https://www.dropbox.com/s/jvfuj3duzi3w8nd/cod4rape.png
Idk if that code will add the image so if not just use the link
My most hardcore marathon gaming session would definately have to be the time I completed most of G-Police on the original Playstation in 1 sitting with what turned out later to be a broken wrist
My tale begins stocking up my friend Glenn’s bungalow with 20x 2 liter Mountain Dew bottles and 12cans of Monster energy drink, We picked up a copy of Halo Reach on release, Got back to his bungalow ready for the 4day gaming weekend ahead.
First problem: Halo Reach co-op on legendary mode only took us 10hours to complete.. We sat there confused and i said “Either that game was short, easy or we’re Really skilled” Glenn said:”Want to play Halo ODST on legendary?” I shrugged and said “k”
So for the next 62 hours we played through the entire halo series backwards, ODST, Halo 3, Halo 2 and lastly Halo 1.
The last hour or so we where so tired that we kept bumping into walls and stumbling around in the game world like drunks, But as soon as the legendary ending cut scene for the original Halo ended we immediately powered down for the next 14hours.
For health reasons we did not retry this when Halo Anniversary was released and by that time i had fully converted over to PC gaming.
There were sixteen of us arranged in a circle, each of us beaten and handcuffed to a computer. Our armed captors stood behind us watching the contest unfold, hidden by the bright glare of our flickering screens.
On the other side of the room somebody let out a victory shout as they won their match. To my left I heard a desperate protest from the loser, followed by a loud gunshot as their life was snuffed out. I couldn’t take my eyes off the game to see who it was, as my own match was reaching its conclusion. I felt bad for the fate of my opponent, but I had to survive. I winced as another gunshot punctuated my victory.
Before long the final round was upon the two of us that remained. My vision was blurry from exhaustion and the sweat that poured from my brow. I felt the cold barrel of a gun rest against the back of my head, as a reminder for what was at stake.
The game was frantic, but in the end we both knew that I had won. “GG” appeared on my screen, and then it was over. I had won my freedom.
The final countdown had begun, 4 days 16 hours ago word had broken the winters chill, the Lich king was free. Determined to prove ones worth Jandrett, mage of Northren, embarked towards the icy citadel, her training began. Hours had past, her steed, old and trustworthy rode on as they entered the icy catacombs. Slay after slay, bread after bread she honed her craft. Tailoring wares from her spoils and refining her rotation. For 70 was the new 60, what lay ahead was unknown. Deeper the catacombs swept, darker the caverns grew, evil had taken hold of this dank unholy place, it felt her presence, it sensed her light, it craved her blood.
As Jandrett grew stronger from the fallen fiends of the King, an uneasy tension compelled her to proceed deeper and deeper into the darkness. Lead only by the occasional trickle of running water, or the grunt of an enemy. She battled for days, feeding from her prey, gaining strength and prowess in her darkening magic’s, she wondered if she was indeed becoming what she had hunted. She could feel him now, she knew he was watching, her emblem read 79. It was almost time….. Damn, it’s Tuesday.
Waiting all year for Zelda: Twilight Princess to be released had a 35 hour gaming sessions with a friend to do it in one sitting. During this time was freezing cold, Jumped in the pool to get a wake up boost my voice went about 3 octaves higher for around 4 hours I believe due to shrinkage. The most embarrassing thing that has ever happened to me luckily we we still had around 8 hours to go until we finally finished Twilight Princess.
I felt it beading on my skin; the cold droplets of sweat on my brow melding together to trickle errantly down my face and neck, soaking my already clammy t-shirt with perspiration born of concentration. My eyes, dry as a desert wind, were focused on the luminescent glow of the monitor looking for the slightest change in pixel that could reveal my foe. Like cushions of air, my headphones embraced my ears, whispering suggestions of the slightest movement while dulling the low thrum of the auditorium around me.
The thrum had now became an increasingly louder chorus of cheers and encouragement. Three continuous days of competition had led to this moment. I rubbed my eyes again forcing them to refocus on the task at hand, my opponent had yet to reveal himself to me. Both our crack squads, our team mates had been eliminated leaving one on each team to claim the victory. I would be that person.
Suddenly something caught my eye. In a moment that would last a lifetime my hand twitched instinctively…
A roar erupted all around me as I sat back in disbelief. I had won the tournament
4 back-to-back matches of large scale Sins of a Solar Empire. 3 with Diplomacy mod, 1 vanilla.
I think my most hardcore gaming marathon I’ve had was when I left high school, I took a year off and played WoW constantly for the whole year 16hrs per day Monday to Sunday, I would have only had about a weeks worth of break days that whole year. It was actually the best thing I think I’ve ever done, I lost 30kg and met some awesome friends, I’m not socially awkward either, which is good. =P
It was a cold winters night in the town of Ipswich when 5 young boys ventured out into the world of Battlefield 2142. They thought if they stuck together throughout this 3 day marathon and there was enough coffee they would be invincible against any foe that would stand in there way.The headphones blasting and the constant shouting to each of the five young boys took its toll over the first 48 hours with ears piercing and throbbing desperate for a break while the coffee kept them beaming with energy. Little did they know the constant glare of there monitors would burn there eyes bright red and the coffee would turn on them giving them severe headaches while there lower bodies turned numb.The adventure was cut short at the 51 hour mark when there bodies gave out and there evil girlfriends demanded they rest but with a healthy body count and a impressive chest of medals for there achievements the young boys was happy to greet there slumber.
The End.
5 words from back in the day: “Six hour Timezone lock-in session!”
12 midnight to 6am of arcade gaming goodness that resulted in a dire need for eyedrops that weren’t available back in those times…ahhh those were the pinkeye days!
For PC gaming I’ve always enjoyed the weekly gaming sessions where you krank up Skype with some good mates and talk sh1t while killing n00bs and getting killed like a n00b in the various Battlefield games mixed with the occasional gunning down of AI controlled masses in crazy Serious Sam fragfests!
The time 12pm, the location my mates decked out gaming room aka “THE SHED”
Man power involved 4 man squad, computers on speakers up battlefield bad company 2 going off.
It all started off so inoccent bunch of mates together to rain hell on all enemys in there path to have fun have a laugh and work as a team to win each match that came around.
12pm till 8pm having a hoo and kickin ass
8pm till 12pm next day still having fun and some what hypo after heaps off coffee.
12pm till 9pm starting to get a little silly but still having a blast.
10pm uh oh who opened the “JACK DANIELS”
Now things have just gone down hill in the funniest way ever choppers are taking off and crashing back to the ground due to the pilot now being heavly intoxicated.
After that a serious game just turned silly with freindly fire on and us seeing how much crazy things we could do with c4 and vehicles before most of us fell asleep in our computer chairs.
It was an awesome marathon and will always be remembered.
thank you.
As a former humble worker at a Internet cafe, solid 8 hour sessions were just the normal gaming/work shift. Server a customer at the front desk when they need, otherwise just game the shift away. Then the bosses asked the simplest of questions, “can you run the graveyard shift lock down tonight after your shift?”.
HA!!
12 hour lock down shift in a room filled with nothing but the shops regular gamers, many I was good mates with. Leader board competition gaming fueled on the 2 boxes of rockstar energy, 15 pizzas and cola? Now that is just it right there.
Normally this would be great, but as I was getting paid to play, closest thing to professional gaming I will ever get to.
Counter Strike, CoD, Half life 2 Deathmatch and a few racing games, each winner getting points. As I worked there, I could not win the prize of the night, but the other gamers left with graphics cards, razer gear, shop vouchers etc.
Good night for all. It wasn’t till then I found out I had the morning opening shift as well, another good 8 hours to come. Think that is the only time I have “worked” for 24 hours straight.
My best remembered gaming marathon was not my own but a friends. Four of us had got together for a night of various games and the first one we chose was Age of Empires 2.
All of us were used to playing against AI at normal difficulty but none of us at the time had won a game against the hardest difficulty. Deciding to work together as a team we pitted us four against working together against four hard level AI.
Half an hour in one of us had already been decimated. 2 hours later two more of us, including me, were wiped out and we were ready to give up the campaign and move onto another game. The fourth guy though wasn’t willing to give up until he was wiped out also, simply on principle.
For the next couple of hours he held on by the skin of his teeth at which time the rest of us decided to go to bed. 8 hours later we woke up and he was still going. He had wiped out 2 of the other civilisations, was just finishing off the third and in the next hour he won the game.
We had all the great titles like Prince of Persia and Myst. Then we upgraded to things like Doom, Quake and a Voodoo 2. But being 1 of 5 boys crowded around a computer fighting over who’s turn was next was a common occurance, naturally my older brother always won. Then as time went on My brother brought home a game called “Diablo 1″ I was hooked isntantly I played it the moment I got home from school and all through the night every day (Where was my Refresh Liquigel then?). With our crappy little CRT Monitor in a well light room I had to Cover myself and the screen with a blanket to block the sun making my screen picture vanish and destroy my eyes with glare. There was I hidden away from the world under a blanket absorbed in Tristram and all its Dungeons. You guys use examples like hours or days? This was every day for years, until ……. Diablo 2. Needless to say I now were glasses and could use some Refresh Eye Drops every day!
Two weeks straight of co-op Hexen 2 with my Dad. We ate, we slept, we played Hexen 2. It’s one of the most memorable moments of my life, both because I don’t recall having such a great time with Dad, plus night after night of bleary-eyed staring at the ceiling with the game burnt into my retinas. It was worth it though. Never done anything quite like that again unfortunately.
Christmas Day, 1987. I was 11 years old.
The game: Championship Wrestling for the Commodore 64 (did I mention it was purchased at EB Games?)
The cast: Me as ‘Prince Vicious’, Milgate as ‘Purple Hayes’, Simon as ‘The Berserker’.
Most of the other presents stayed wrapped up once this bad boy had been discovered. The next twenty-four hours were spent mastering the Piledriver, Body Slam, Helicopter and Backbreaker.
The whole session was fuelled by litres of Fanta and a few dozen candy canes. Didn’t even have to stop for Christmas dinner.
This was our first all-nighter. No idea who won, just remember loving every moment.
My horrible story is true and what pushed me out of addictive gaming.
During the original WoW installment I was a Warlock who desired to look like the Grim Reaper. A particular armour set known as “Dreadmist” was my ultimate goal. Most of the pieces were already obtained from many raids.
However I literally played and counted 32 attempts on Scholomance Dungeon to get my shoulder armour and 59 attempts to get the body armour from upper Black Rock Spire (ubrs) during my Christmas holidays. Each day I woke at 8am and slept at 2am skipping breakfast and lunch to ensure more raiding time. Not once I saw the Warlock chest piece drop until my 59th attempt. Unfortunately I had to temporarily leave the group to help collect a replacement player for the final boss of ubrs. They promised not to begin without us. They did. Before I was in time to return the Boss was killed, the final Dreadmist set piece slapped on my screen however due to my lack of proximity I was unable to collect it.
I ran outside in a blind rage. Then I vowed to never play a game as intensely as that ever again.
Maybe, should mention my 4 day 16 hour levelling spree did actually happen.
In my younger days I, I was amazed and dazzled when I saw someone complete a full size grid of Minesweeper. I spent a very, very long time trying to re-enact this feat. Dodging threes, taking a risk by clicking near a two, placing a flag near a four…
Sadly, this was before I knew about the “xyzzy” cheat…
Me, a friend and couple of family members were setting up our xbox’s for a game of halo 1, I guess you can say it was like a LAN Party.
One xbox was in the bedroom and the other one was out in the backyard on a table, I should also mention it was night time and very cold outside. We connected them up with a network cable due to being no xbox live at the time.
The room had two doors one leading to the another room and the other leading to the backyard, which is why we were able to put the xbox outside due to there being no room for another tv and xbox.
The marathon lasted for a least 6 hours.
True Story
Eyedrops? Seems an odd prize
Doom 2 with 2 pc’s conneted via parallel cable over at my best friends house.
Started Friday morning ended Sunday sometime..
It was so much fun we didnt even noticie the passage of time.. never to be repeated again.
I remember back in high school (2005), we had our whole entire IT class (30 something students) playing Doom 2 mp via a special launcher. Every time the teacher would walk in to the class room, we would all alt + tab back to work, as soon as they left we would all be playing again.
One of the best memories of school.
I’m thinking the 3 day marathon CS 1.5 session that myself and 12 or so school mates had back in possibly 2003. Everyone brought their school laptops over, set up around a single table with an old school 10/100 24 port hub smack in the middle and we went nuts. We existed solely on a diet of Pizza Hut and Coke intermittently swapped out for Salt ‘n’ Vinegar flavored chips or party pies.
I even checked the power bill after and there was a 20% increase for that month due to all the laptops, TVs and stereos going. Not to mention the water bill from showers etc.
Looking back, it’s cringe worthy that it was done with no alcohol :s
‘Twas the launch of Cataclysm.
Yes, I know, I used to be a WoW nerd like many of you; I recently broke the chains though and plan to (hopefully) never go back.
Me and 4 mates all got a week off work and went round to the one guy who had moved out’s house and we gamed.
We gamed like never before. Non-stop leveling until we hit 85! Well, I did anyway. I sorta, kinda passed up a friends birthday party to continue leveling, but I did manage to hit 85 before all the rest of them; go me?
TL;DR – Week long Cataclysm launch party, skipped friend’s b’day party to hit 85 first.
I once finished all three stalker games in a single sitting.
(Yeah so?)
WITHOUT ANY EYE DROPS.
I once played 3 full races of Yaris on Xbox Live arcade. I’m sorry, but that’s the equivalent to 5 straight years of playing a good game. Although I didn’t need Refresh at the time as my eyes were glazed over, I need some now as the memories have used all of my natural tears.
A 48 hour live stream i did with friends for l did with friends for charity. Wasn’t very big but we did it and raised some money! Monster cans everywhere…. bed coming of the edge…. dorito packets everwhere… fun it was.. fun it was xD
Broke my office chair aswell. started playing halo and bf
I played through an entire massive battle on Battlefield 3, the server had very high tickets and I believe it was only half full. The game went on for hours, both teams at a stalemate with constant pushes for each teams flags. It was neck and neck the entire game and the teams couldn’t have been more balanced for a fair fight. If only every round could be like that one.
I once spent 3 hours in a BF3 server which started out as being a 60ish man battle then steadily decreased to about 12… Because I was still relatively new to the game I didn’t think anything more of it. I stuck around and persevered even though my attention span was wearing thin, mainly because I just wanted the points (I got several head shots by this point so my points was really adding up – or so I kept telling myself that it would in the end). Only to realize once the round ended that this server was a ‘no points’ server………………
From about 5pm til about 11am the next day, me and 5 other mates had a big LAN party in my mates basement, which was spacious enough to fit a couple of beds, couches, tvs, a pool table and a big desk to set our all gear up with switches for internet and plain LAN goodness. With only the light of our screens and the sound of the game and our voices going through our headsets, we played all throughout the night. We played games such as Warcraft 3, FEAR, Battlefield, and many more in 2006. Even though we only got the chance to do it, I still miss it and wish I could have a repeat of that night.
Ugh didn’t mean to click post.
Anyway… upon deciding to rise from our dwelling, we were blinded by what felt like a million suns shining into our eyes. It was only then that we realised that we were so tired and hungry that we feasted on bacon, eggs and sausages. Boy was that a wonderful night.
1999, Kent (UK).
I bid goodnight to my mother at about midnight, but I had lost track of the time in Black Mesa – the endless tunnels and corridors, compounded by the eerie feeling of deja vu that accompanied every press of the F9 key, meant that I had no clue what time it was above ground.
After spending hours (days?) gunning down inter-dimensional aliens and military industrial complex goons, I finally reached the Lambda Complex. I was to teleport to Xen and defeat the mysterious power keeping the rift open.
Not now, not yet, I said to myself. Outside the birds were beginning to sing once more, and the eastern skies were brightening.
Have raced full length 24Hr races, doing all the driving myself on Gran Tourismo (PlayStation) & also on GTR2 (with Logitech force-feedback wheel :D ). GTR2 race was good with transitions from night to day (getting blinded by sunlight at dawn while trying to see the corner apex) & with rain too.
That’s on PC b.t.w.
It was 2005, like any day but it was the day i bought Grand Theft Auto San Andreas . As an earlier adopter of the franchise, naturally i was hyped up and crazy, waiting to get my hands on the game. I get home and put the game into my PS2, for hours and hours i played the life out of it, no breaks and i simply enjoyed the game more than i had ever enjoyed any game before it. Ten hours later, im taken away from my PS2 by an angry mom. alas, im not an Australian, i just wanted to share my story as a UK gamer
A poem by Smithy entitled “My life as a hardcore gamer”.
Written to the beat/rhythm of “5 o’Clock in the morning” – Lily Allen / T-Pain
It was one o’clock in the morning,
My girl was still in bed snoring.
So I snuck out to the lounge room,
Grabbed some chips and a cask of goon.
Then I fired up my PC,
Turned on some AC-DC,
It would be a hardcore gaming all-nighter,
Frags aplenty for this über gunfighter.
And then WTF it was morning,
My girl was still in bed snoring.
But I wasn’t done gaming,
So instead of complaining,
I picked up my car keys,
And drove over to APC’s,
This was my favourite internet café,
And there I spent the rest of the day.
And so now I am single,
About as classy as Lara Bingle.
And when people ask was it worth it?
I say $#17 yeah, GON server rank #1, fully legit!
Mine is all about Borderlands which is great game, so I even pre-ordered Borderlands 2: I wish my marathon was about the hours of eye pain due to 3 days of constant pain. Sadly though my eye strain was created by the dramas on Gamespy total inconsistency. When we played it was fantasic and all four us had a great 5 hour stint and our eyes almost bled with soo much fun. Mind you we could have played for 12 hours had it not been for the fact that then Gamespy decided to dump us.
Meanwhile, because of the inconsistency of the Servers ours was all about Playing the game at an intense speed rather than long times and that was really awesome to say the least.
I rented Secret of Mana from the video rental store 9 times in a row at a cost of more than the game. Spending a total of 80 hours trying to finish the game never did finish it.
Several years later the video store began selling off there SNES games and I picked it up again. After spending another 80 hours I finally finished the game. It is now my second favourite game of all time.
The usual hype from a GTA release was enough for me and a couple of friends to make the purchase and play it from start to finish without a wink of sleep. The title being Vice City. I can’t recall how long it took us, but it felt like a bloody long time, partly because of a small twist- we were all going through the process of attempting to lose our “gaming gut” .. This meant none of the usual fuels such as red bull, potato chips and pizza to get us through .. As if the game wasn’t tough enough (at the time!) without having to deal with that crap!! :D
When I was younger, my dad had a Super Nintendo and a copy of Lufia (known as Lufia II: Rise of the Sinistrals in North America). I had always enjoyed watching him play the game, but after he had a terrible back accident he slowly became less able to sit upright for long periods of time, meaning I wasn’t able to watch him play as much. At this point, though I was young, he said that I could play the game if I wanted to, which had been my dream for years. I never really got a chance to play much until one day, when I was about 8, after completing the story mode for the first time, I decided I would complete the game’s hardest minigame – the Ancient Cave, 99 randomly generated levels of hell. I stayed up for nearly two and a half days as an eight year old, however managed to lose on floor 96… Still, I’m extremely proud of myself. Though I’ve stayed awake for days to watch/play in League of Legends tournaments and other games, none compare to my desire to win at the young age of 8.
At a cozy LAN (30 or so people) we were playing Desert Combat (BF 1942 mod), CTF mode. This LAN would usually start at 10am on Saturday, and finish at 10am on Sunday. Our game of DC CTF lasted nearly the entire length of the LAN, and ended in a stalemate. People were pulling off the most amazing stunts in planes and helicopters (loop de loops, jump out at the right time and start faling, the plane would come back underneath them and hit enter at the right time to keep flying, etc) Neither side could capture the flag. We were rowdy enough that we attracted the attention of the local gaming cafe just 50m from our location, and ended up running a CAT5 cable to their switch so they could join in on our fun. I believe the total amount of people playing by the end was close to the 64 player limit, but we had people sitting outside on the concrete playing with jury rigged setups, computers set up on the back of Hilux’s, even one guy dual boxing through a modified KVM switch. Needless to say, we attracted the attention of the local Police due to our vehement ministrations on trying to capture that one little piece of cloth. As we finally wound it down, the match ended up as a draw, nil all, but every participant had an amazing time, and I personally wish I’d taken a camera because the site of CAT5 streaming across a car park into various (approx 12 if I remember correctly) computers and one very long one into the nearby (now defunct) Gaming cafe was certainly one to remember, and pictures would have made the memory all that much sharper.
It wasn’t a long session but it was intense. I was 10 yrs old. The parents had gone out for a while. Now was my chance. I loaded up Leisure Suit Larry. I played it through in 1 sitting. I finished the game with about 10 minutes to spare.
The sad reality is, my parents probably wouldn’t have cared that I played it and probably would have found it funny.
But could you imagine anything more intense for a 10yr old?
Back in the day… My friend Scott (R.I.P.) and I played Red Alert over and over in a LAN Session. We started playing the day before, one game after the other, and continued playing into the night and onto the next morning. We both fell asleep in the wee hours mid game and i woke up still at my PC with light streaming through the window. I checked to find Scott still sleeping. So i went back to my PC, started playing, wiped out ALL but one soldier and surrounded him with everything i had accumlated while he happily slept …. then i woke him up so he could enjoy his final destruction with my dozens of tanks simitaneously firing on his (l)onely troop.
Ivan
When the original Borderlands came out, I was still at school, but I was so pumped for it when I got home on the Friday I just played and played and played and before I knew it I had beaten the game over the weekend and was well through the second play through, and we’re talking like 9 hours of sleep over the 3 days, the rest was spent playing. When Monday rolled around got up went to school, got to class, sat down, and when I tried to focus on the teacher, people, work, anything, it all just turned cell shaded. I kid you not, the world literally turned cell shaded before my eyes and It was clear I had spent way too much time playing in the world of borderlands that it was affecting my vision of reality. And that was by far the most vivid bizarre experience I have ever had in my life, and It will most likely happen again with the upcoming sequel. Cheers.
OK – true story. No embellishments -
In my early console days from ’90-’98 I used to get three day hires from Blockbusters early Fri morning and play until midnight or beyond and resume play Sat morning by nine o’clock then play through again until mid-night, dreaming of the game through the night as I slept, and finally, hoping to complete the game of the week, would play right up to six in the evening on Sunday and race back down to the video shop to return the game before seven.
These mad sessions went on for several years, often three weekends a month,
from Nintendo Entertainment system through Super Nintendo and on to Play Station 1. I started to settle down a couple of years before the PC came into my life in 2002 ( Yes ! I did manage to have a life as well ).
So there you have it. Pretty much my whole middle age Crysis years frittered away on long gaming weekends (40 yrs in ’86).
.
L33tSkillz_1.0.4,
My arch-enemy logs on once more,
As I look at the time,
Flick over past nine,
I knew I’d be in for a war.
Twelve o’clock at night,
Shut the door, grab my mic, hit the lights,
He shoots from the hip,
Clip after clip,
I’m beaten and I’m not polite.
Four o’clock the next day,
I remember my English essay,
He’s rushing my base,
My turtle he breaks,
My homework I’ll have to delay.
The sun has risen it’s six,
With REFRESH eye drops my eyes I fix,
He’s already level 80,
What! This guy is crazy,
It’s time to end all his tricks.
I type – ‘Hey you,
It’s ten in the morning.
I’m tired, I’m hungry,
My headache’s concerning.
Let’s end this chore,
With one last draw,
So log on to Facebook,
And let’s FarmVille this war’.
For six hours we titans were split,
With as much trash talk the chat would permit,
My neck was aching,
My fingers were shaking,
But he didn’t know I’d never submit.
It’s nine p.m. once more,
24 hours since the start of this all,
It’s finally done,
This marathon’s run,
Victory over L33tSkillz_1.0.4.
I met the guy who would become my best friend and best man when he overheard me referring to a particularly abrasive girl (not my wife) as being MSLE (Multiple Shot Lightning Enchanted). This was 8 years ago. We got on famously and soon enough our nerdy cohort of friends had established a permanent LAN on the kitchen table.
Being charitable, his family allowed us to LAN weekend on weekend for months. Eventually his mother tired of 7 nerds as a permanent fixture of her kitchen and kindly requested that we bring our festival of fragging to an end. So we erected a glorious tennis table in the rumpus room – OUTSIDE THE MASTER BEDROOM. This didn’t last long.
Then, when all hope seemed lost, we discovered an attic. We named our terms. If we were allowed to construct a temple to the gaming god, we would release our hold on the family’s sleeping patterns. They submitted.
So from the conclusion of high school to the conclusion of uni 7 nerds dedicated their time to CS, DoD, Star Craft and D2 hardcore. These were the days before the dark times, before the console empire.
This is all true.
The night begun after a epic clan battle, fellow clan mates wanted to wind down on a game of dayz.
I logged in, hadn’t played for maybe 3 days. It was day 14 for this character. I asked my clan mates where they were, turns out it was around 15km run away. I looked in my backpack There was two slices of cooked meat and 1 bottle of water, hell thats not enough for a hike that big. I sat down, got the pen and paper out wrote down some hot spots for ponds & maybe some food supplies.
It was daylight turning night possibly the best time for me since I could switch on my NV goggles and pretty much be a ghost while doing my midnight stroll, I was around 10km and my health wasn’t that good, I was hungry and thirsty as a camel, I sat down and ate my first stake and drank my last bottle off water it was delicious.
I got up, headed south west it was almost pitch black now meaning I was more of a ghost and I was staying away from main citys hoping to stay out of site.
Fast-forward a couple of KM I see zombies on the horizon, I comunicate to my clan mates, they are more then 5KM still they couldn’t of spawned them. I was on the outskirts of Stary sober a very intense PVP zone, my heart was pumping from the run, I had to keep moving if I stayed still I’d be spotted a mile away.
I stick to the east of Stary, I hear a few sniper shots sounds like a DMR, I shit myself a get myself to some high ground, on the way out of Stary I see a pond, I fill my bottle and take a drink.
After searching the area for a good 5 minutes I decided it was time to try and group up with my clan mates. They are still around 3KM away, I high tale it away from Stary as quick as I can. About 800m away from Zeno I see some action in the shopping center, my clan mates were around Zeno I asked them if it was them, negative on that front my hearts pounding and I need food before I can regroup and do some fun stuff.
I make my way to the shopping center switching NV on and off due to multiple flares, my eyes were so saw it felt like they were bleeding, I had to move forward and find some food before I logout. I see the shopping center front windows, NV is on I see nothing…. no shadows nothing ask my clan mates, if the rear is clear they repsond with a hell yeah. I move forward, I see those bean on the floor from 200m away, I make a dart for it dodging zombies and trying to stay out of sight. I get to the beans, Then suddenly I hear a bullet wizzz pass me, I drop and start barrel rolling out of fire, I’m bleeding.
I bandage and inform my clan mates raging because I think it’s them leading me into a trap. They argue it wasn’t them, I agreed and came back out to see if I could spot him, a few more bullets from wizzing past, this guy sucks…. I still can’t see him.
I look out to the hill to the east looking directly over the shopping center, CONTACT! I YELL EAST MOUNTAIN!
my clan mate with his AS50 with infer-red spots him and fires, direct hit.
yourmum died.
I Just ran 15KM on little food and water, not once did I stop, the run took a good 3 hours, which I thought I was running into a captured town so I could resupply, turned out my clan mates suck at locking down a town and forgot one person or who knows HE nearly got my longest surviving character!
it was 3:20 AM, I think this game did anything but wind us down after a epic BF3 win, My eyes were watering, my palms were sweating I needed sleep. I logged out and said good night to my clan mates.
I stumble to the bathroom looking for a cure to my eyes, there was nothing! just my LUCK! I said stuff it and shoved my head under the tap and turned it on.
My whole face was drenched, I no longer was worrying about my burning eyes, but dam I wish I had some eyedrops, if I did I would of went to sleep within 20 minutes rather then sitting up for another 2 hours charging because I stupidly dunked my head under the tap making myself wide-awake.
This one time, at an epic Energy drink and skittle fuel lan, we saw a guy punch his monitor then start biting into it, He ended up taking a chunk out of the corner of what was left of his monitor before passing out.
Lesson learned, don’t stay awake for 96 hours playing games.
I had reached my monthly download limit and decided to download as much of ARMA II and ARMA II Operation Arrowhead as much as I can before my limit resets. I leave it over night and it’s done 1gb each, I then wake up the next morning know that my Limit should have reset and then find both ARMA II and ARMA II Operation Arrowhead both complete as I have forgot to cancel the downloads and used up a lot of my monthly limit. I download DayZ as to not really caring after using a fair amount of my limit, I play it for 2 Days with constant dying, on the 3rd day after I die, I respawn and I find an AK I keep searching and find a lot of ammo for it. I go outside scavenging for more items only to be run over by someone in a Car and rage quitting it ever since.
During my gaming experience I was a dynamic figure, often seen scaling walls and crushing ice. I was known to remodel train stations on lunch breaks, making them more efficient in the area of heat retention. I had to translates ethnic slurs for Cuban refugees, I wrote award-winning operas. Occasionally, I had to tread water for three days in a row. I wooed women with my sensuous and god like trombone playing as well as cooking Thirty-Minute meals in twenty minutes. Using only a hoe and a large glass of water, I once single-handedly defended a small village in the Amazon Basin from a horde of ferocious army ants. I was the subject of numerous documentaries. When I was getting bored, I built large suspension bridges. I was an abstract artist, a concrete analyst, and a ruthless bookie. Critics worldwide swoon over my original line of corduroy evening wear. I didn’t perspire. I created deft floral arrangements having earned fame in international botany circles. I had to hurl tennis rackets at small moving objects with deadly accuracy. My intense gaming experience forced me to read Paradies Lost, Moby-Dick, and David Copperfield in one day and still have time to refurbish the entire dining room that evening. I performed covert operations for the CIA. I slept once a week and when I did sleep, I slept in a chair. The laws of physics do not apply to me. On the weekend, to let off steam, I participated in full-contact origami. It was a intense marathon of gaming.
The problem with having friends all over the world is that there is always someone who is awake to play games. After having worked a 10 hour shift on Friday, my friends and I had gone out drinking and after a particularly late night we had missed the last train from the station. Not wanting to waste money on a taxi, my mate and I headed to the local 24 hour internet cafe. We then proceeded to have a 10 hour gaming session in which we also had pizza delivered to the cafe. Realizing it was around midday we decided to head home. I was ready to collapse but there was street work going on outside, so I played some Battlefield with my overseas cousin.
Later that afternoon I was informed that our guild in was running ICC 10H, whilst my care factor was zero at this point a friend guilt tripped me into coming. By the time we finished I had been awake for around 44 hours. I then got a call on Skype to play Borderlands. I went to the bathroom and looked into my bloodshot eyes, did the logical thing and went to sleep.
True Story.
STARCRAFT MARATHON
Tonight its time to train
For the world Cyber Games
So take my life away
Sleep – so yesterday
Alone, on my seat tonight
Got a Bar fridge on the right
Will call in sick tomorrow
Dial a pizza to fill the hollow
Got a pair of Snugglers on
Wont even go to the Jon
All so I can be a
Champ in South Korea
Eyes’r sore, got dry eye syndro
Feel like two dog ‘P’s in the sno
Fixed with a couple drops of refresh
Thanks to EB’s for this game sesh
2hours, 4 hours, 8 hours, 10
Zerg rush works again and again
24, 36, 48 hours ATTACK!
What day? I think I’ve lost track
Now you know the scene
My skin starts turning green
Over use of the ’6 pool’
Has turned me into a gaming Ghoul
Forgotten about food, water, my life
Sitting so long, I think I’m in strife
WCS seems out in the lurch
UH OH! I’m gunna fall of my perch!
September 14, 2010.
A monumental day, one that started, ended and was filled in between with gaming. However, this was not the only day, but the first 1 and a half days on non stop gaming. The came of course: Halo: Reach.
It started at midnight on the 13th of September, my brother and I made the trek to buy the game, running 2 km to the store and then back again. We were one of the first to get there and as soon as we clutched the beautifully present metallic box of Reach, we jogged, ran, sprinted, with one copy each, back to our home. It was just beyond 1 AM and the Xbox took flight, little did it know it wouldn’t touch down, rather crash in a matter of time.
The marathon begun and as we, combined in a party, soldiered our ways through both the ranks and the hours, it came to about 3 PM the next day, when it all came to a rapid stop. A sight that you wouldnt wish upon your worst enemy, not even a PS3 owner, the Red Rings of Death. My 5 year old Xbox Arcade had finally succumbed to its inevitable death. My brain, tired and weary, still managed to persevere. I ran to a neighbour next door, and belting helplessly begged that i might borrow his xbox for the day. He allowed it, thank god.
And so, the marathon continued for almost another whole day, a total playing time, id raked up of 33 hours. By this time of course, depleted of food and water and pale as a ghost, thought that it was best that get some sleep, only after a couple more hours.
I reflect on my first time with Fallout 3. For thirty hours (toilet breaks excluded), I lost a good chunk of my weekend in the Capital Wasteland. Mutants were killed, bottlecaps were collected, Moira was shot. Repeatedly. Just me, my Pip-Boy and plenty of weapons to protect me. Hopefully. I found myself lost in its atmosphere, refusing to fast travel, the hostile and bleak ruins of Washington D.C. could be down right depressing, but as long as I had John Henry Eden’s raspy voice telling me stories about growing up in rural Kentucky, I felt safe and secure from its horrors.
The grand finale had me wandering through a little place called Dunwich Building. Maybe it was the pre-war flashback that caused me to wonder if I was starting to hallucinate from playing so long, a door opening without assistance or the sound of feral ghouls growling around every corner that caused goose bumps to cover my skin, but what finally did me in was a coffee pot throwing itself off a shelf and landing on the ground. That was enough for me to call it quits, turn it off and retreat to the sanctuary of my bed.
In order to really feel the rush of Need for Speed, rigged a system that would run on top of a friends van, installed arm chairs (gotta be comfortable) strapped in and started the game. Meanwhile aforementioned friend starts van and drives at speed down the straights, so as we are racing down streets in the game, our hair (and the rest of us) gets windswept and feels fully immersed!
One weekend, about a week before Gears 3 was released, by mate came over on the Friday night and we planned to finish both Gears 1 and 2 as my brother had them, but i had never really played them. So at about 7pm we started, (just after dinner) we headed out to our rumpus room (shed) and set up, we had two 1.25 liter bottle’s of fizzy each, about 4 bags of chips, and a few blocks of chocolate, we set up some bedding as we could then fool my parents into believing we would get some sleep, we played Gears 1 on Insane, after maybe 3 or 4 hours of dying, we got a little bit bored and decided “If we’re gonna do this, we’ll need interval games!” so i said my mate could pick some, so he got up and walked over to out medium sized Xbox collection. i saw him pick one out and smile… Condemned 2…. he put it in and we started to play, it was a windy night outside and we had a relatively good sound set up…. it took us up till we were at the Doll Factory level until a small branch of a tree landed on the roof of the shed…. we jumped……. i was so damn scared! but we kept playing as we were hooked, soon enough it was morning and we had done close to nothing on Gears… we had been playing Condemned….. my mates dad wasn’t picking him up till about 2pm so we played a bit more gears, well, a LOT more…. but by about 1pm we were still not done, so my mate text his dad and ended up staying another night as well, but by night time we had finished both Gears, we then decided to watch a few movies, we started with action thrillers like, Rise of The Foot Soldier and Crank and what not, then we started to get into the horrors….. this made us want more condemned, then i realised.. i had the first one as well, i had already finished it, but i thought i could play again…… so by late Sunday afternoon (when we woke) we had finished both Condemned’s and both Gears… it was a good weekend!
There is nothing like a Mario Kart 64 marathon with your two brothers. Each of us taking turns in picking the next track in hopes of leaving the other two on your tail. We spent hours playing through all the tracks, some of them twice, battling to see who was the ultimate Mario Kart’er in the household. You can already imagine how much fun we were having by the situation alone, there is nothing like the multiplayer in which your sitting next to those you’re playing with.
DAMMIT! first one was more than 200 words, (this is a re-post exactly the same, less words)
Prior to the release of Gears of War 3, my friend and I decided we’d spend the weekend attempting to finish both Gears of War games in order to be truly be prepared for the third game. After dinner, we set up in the rumpus room which involved getting the beds ready so it looked like we’d attempt to sleep. We hit up Gear of War on insane with our snacks and after dying more times than we could count we needed to play something else, something less, insane. My friend picked out Condemned 2 of all the games in my rather large collection, whilst at the Doll Factor level, a tree decided to drop a branch on the roof, scaring the hell out of me. Moving past the fear of a tree branch, we continued playing, we were hooked, and before we knew it the sun rose. With my friend’s departure approaching fast, he successfully asked to stay a second night, and after hitting up some more Gears of War followed by some movies and the first Condemned, come Sunday afternoon we’d finish both Gears of War games and both Condemned games.
- 5 Minutes Remaining -
It was the final hours the planet had to spare. 26.4 hours and Dratas would no longer exist. We knew there was no way out, so we stayed inside. The ground was beginning to rumble more and more, and the urge to live life to the full was at its climax. Suddenly, drake yelled to all 7 of us saying “TO THE G-STATIONS!!!”. No one hesitated running towards their G-STATIONS as they knew it would be the last time they could have a game. “Halo: New Reach, anyone?” said Drake. Shaking with excitement, Trent spoke “Yes! For the final time!”. After Drake launched the game, there was a subtle silence during the countdown. “5…4…3…2…“ “No! The Dratas destruction counter just jumped to T-…” Drake struggled as he spoke the digits of the counter “…T-5 minutes!”. The G-STATION adjusted the playtime to 5mins: “5 minutes remaining” it said. Everyone in the room began to play like they never have before, violently mashing the keyboard so hard that the keys began to fall out. “1 Minute remaining”. The gamers began to yell. It was level 2 during the launch premiere for the new ‘Gameception’ console.
A stormy weekend in 1998 facilitated the perfect conditions for a gaming marathon for my brother and I. Our plans, however, were ruined by Dad’s insistence that we round up our pet guinea pigs (which ran free in our backyard like miniature wildebeests) lest they become startled by the storm and flee the safety of our backyard to be eaten by neighbourhood cats.
Soaked to the skin, we eventually finished catching the squeaky bastards and headed inside to sit by the gas-heater and finally have a crack at collecting ALL the wumpa fruits. MANY hours into the endeavour my father walked in to stop us…
“Dad, is it just us or is the TV going funny? It’s all wobbly.”
“I dunno. It does look a bi…HOLY S**T!”
Such consternation erupted as he gazed upon the faces of his sons, expecting to see the pleasant countenances of two young boys, only to have his vision raped by the sight of two delusional, bloodshot-eyed child-devils, visibly weeping, yet who were completely unperturbed by the fact that their eyes had turned to mush and were streaming down their faces; steadfast in gaming on as we were. Playing hours unknown…
My epic gaming marathon was rather a retro affair. New to gaming, I casually took my flatmate’s Gameboy to the bathroom and tried out a thing called, The Legend of Zelda…
I was sitting there on the loo for a good four and a half hours before the last vestiges of feeling finally left my legs. Then another hour and a half after that, before I finally toppled sideways and yanked the charger from the wall. The red rings around my eyes were matched only by the perfect oval imprinted on my behind.
A friend of mine was the owner of a local netcafe where a bunch of mates would have nightly LANs filled with CS, DOD, BF1942, COD, QTF, MOH and a whole other bunch of acronyms. One night around 8:30p.m the shop was quiet of tourists, browsers and runescapers .. so the owner decided to lock the doors and leave it up to us gamers. What proceeded was hours upon of hours of gaming goodness played with the screams of 12 intoxicated grown men. Little competitions between groups formed, bets were placed, chemicals ingested, ciggarettes smoked.. and memorable times were had. It was’nt until someone decided to actually step outside that it was discovered that it was past lunch time the next day, and around 20 hours of gaming time had transpired. My eyes were stingy red, my back hunched over and aching, my voice lost and my wrist cramped in a Monty Burns kind of pose. Great times.
Highlights
Racking up $100 dollar bill in munchies and drinks
Threatening to kill the owner with an axe for awping
Been knocked unconcious for nipple crippling the owners girlfriend
Seeing a guy recieve sexual favours outside the shop from one very drunk girl
Making the gamewinning kill with steyr with only 3Hp in a competition and recieving a GPU.
…and just overall gaming and laughing all night with my mates.
True story.
A friend of mine was the owner of a local netcafe where a bunch of mates would have nightly LANs filled with CS, DOD, BF1942, COD, QTF, MOH and a whole other bunch of acronyms. One night around 8:30p.m the shop was quiet of tourists, browsers and runescapers .. so the owner decided to lock the doors for us gamers. What proceeded was hours of gaming goodness played with the screams of 12 intoxicated grown men. Competitions started, bets placed, ciggarettes smoked.. and memorable times were had. It was’nt until someone decided to actually step outside that it was discovered it was past lunch the next day, and around 20 hours of gaming time had transpired. Eyes stingy red, back hunched over aching, voice lost and wrist cramped in a Monty Burns pose. Great times.
Highlights
Racking up $100 bill in munchies.
Threatening to kill the owner for awping.
Been knocked unconcious for nipple crippling the owners girlfriend.
Seeing a guy recieve sexual favours outside the shop from one very drunk girl.
Making the gamewinning kill with a steyr on 3Hp in a comp and receiving a GPU.
…and gaming and laughing all night with mates.
True story.
(Double post, as previous one was 200+, couldnt edit/delete first, sorry!)
The year was 1980. The location? Classified.
I was a rookie at the time, only 18 and I had been left in command of a Pac gunner.
My sergeant was by my side the whole time, breathing down my neck. He gave me the creeps. But I knew I could trust him.
After 18 hours on active duty, eating white pills and chasing and being chased by ghosts, I turned to my sergeant, who was mysteriously gone.
Sarge? I said out loud. Where are you?
No Response.
‘WAKA WAKA WAKA!’
It sounded like an explosion, 3 ghosts flew out of the wall towards me, but just as they were about to hit me, I dropped my biggest pill. The ghosts shat themselves and started to bail, so I took chase.
As I drove the Pac machine down the twisting hallways, chasing the ghosts, I suddenly saw my Sergeant, facing into the corner of the room. ‘Sarge?’ I called to him. Slowly he turned, as he was turning around, I realised something wasn’t right.
Instead of a normal head, hair, nose eyes etc. Sarge had a Giant red lamp shade with eyes and a wavy little mouth, all of a sudden he ran at me, I shouted in alarm and began to run, but it was no use, he was gaining on me fast, as I turned a corner I saw another ghost. I was doomed.
I turned around to accept my fate, ready to see my life flash before my eyes, but instead all I saw was GAME OVER.
Then I woke up, I had fallen asleep on my Pac-Man table after a massive gaming session. My eyes burning, my head throbbing, I looked around the darkened room to see a man with a red lamp shade on his head wearing an army uniform, staring at me.
Earlier this year I was at some girls party, It was fairly boring since I didn’t know many people. I decided to give myself a tour of the house.
I came across a room with an xbox 360 hooked up to a 50 inch LCD tv. Usually I wouldn’t invade someones privacy, but I was reasonably drunk. There was a game of Call of duty Black ops paused. Without really thinking I sat down and started playing someone elses game.
I ended up finishing the entire black ops campaign on hardened. But without realising the party had ended a few hours before I had reached this gaming achievement. I still had no idea of the time, and so I continued on to play countless games of Deathmatch online. I even found a headset and made an online friend.
The funny part of this story is that, around 5:00 pm the next day, the girl who lived there, while doing the laundry or whatever, discovered that I was still there playing. She was so amazed that I had subconsciously played 24 hours of xbox in someone elses house.
We actually ended up talking and we even went out for a while.
i once parked a tank in Battlefield 1942 sideways off a the main centre cliff in Wake Island map and got diagonal multi-killstreaks, we spent our night attempt to shoot planes out of the sky and often did, we trolled the server, while a girl gave us a screaming violent dildo show right next to me on the couch, while i was wearing a sombrero, i remember laughing as i got a 10.0 ratio but stopped and watched this crazy woman with her feet behind her head smash her box, shes now a housewife down the street with 2 kids, life is bizarre.
One morning, Jebus McAwesomesauce woke up and thought to himself “I’m going to do as little work as possible today, so I can win the $500 voucher”. He laughed out loud when he thought of all the other people who actually made an effort to enter the competition. So he got out of bed and went to play some CoD while everyone else tried their very best to win the competition.
Back in the good old days during school holidays, organised a week long computer gaming event. Spent the first day driving around town looking for a NULL Modem cable as the one we had was faulty. After hours of searching and driving, we found what we were looking for and headed back home. Then spent the next few hrs huddled round the screen watching it copy files from one machine to the other over the NULL modem cable, and then it was on. I Didn’t sleep for 2 days, just watched and played with 4 other mates (on 2 x pc’s) and when i did finally stop, everything I looked at was overlaid with doom & rise of the triad textures and run bob motion. That coupled with a nice bit of motion sickness as I lay on the bed trying to go to sleep is something i will never forget. AWESOME TIMES! could have sure used some refresh eye drops that week!
The experience I’m about to describe is certainly, not even by a long shot, the longest gaming marathon I’ve been in (54 hours straight when my mate and I first got Shogun 2 would be a contender for that), but it is by far the most intense. Even though it lasted maybe 5 hours at most.
And it was a single game of worms world party.
Fort mode. Sudden Death – but no water rising. It was a zooks and nades game. All other worms: eliminated. Not only was it a duel between the last two worms but we each had one hit point left.
And both of us were standing on a single pixel or two of remaining ground. With the only viable option being a bazooka, we each fought tirelessly for hours trying to hit that one distant spot on the map. Two worms started the fight. Only one would finish.
Back when i was younger, i remember waking up shortly after midnight for the release off the Battlegrounds in world of warcraft.
Jumping into alterac vally for 11 hours for my first battle, and then right into a second.
eventualy expireing to my bed when it was all done after who knows how long.
And then my raiding carear started, not realy a single hardcore moment but 3 times a week i would get up at 2 or 3 am for raiding.
often on school days :D but i made it allmost to Cthuns death >.< and into the naxxramus.
Now i even Use Eyedrops daily :D
I remember an incident where we played a Diablo 2 Bossmod and Starcraft: Broodwar for about 14 hours and I didn’t leave my seat once until the end of the night, no bathroom breaks, no sustenance except a 2L bottle of warm Pepsi, tried to get up and just fell down like a broken house of cards. Of course this was before the “deep vein thrombosis” scares.
I also have a pretty epic story regarding the week long LAN my friends and I had at Bill Murray’s house… but no one ever believes me :(
When The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time was released on N64 I was lucky enough to have my parents agree to buy it for me for Christmas, luckily for me they have/had extremely predictable present hiding places and I located the OOT box without anyone knowing.
The next afternoon I forged a letter from my parents informing the school that I would be an hour late for school for a while due to unavoidable family commitments (pretended to be some weird fundie theist) and then I spent an hour every weekday for the next 3 weeks blissfully playing OOT before going to school.
I narrowly avoided the beating of a lifetime on at least 2 occasions when a parent came home for something they forgot, I was pretty happy on Christmas day and nobody ever realized I was already half way through the game i had “just received”.
Playing the original Rainbow Six coop with a bunch of mates under an outdoor pergola was amazing. A hot summer day eventually transformed into a midnight thunderstorm; the perfect backdrop for the nocturnal jungle missions!
Crawling silently through a river bed swarming with Tangos was intense enough – add the occasional flash of lightning to ruin your night vision and the thunder that masked enemy gunfire and we were all pretty on-edge. We found ourselves talking in whispers to each other. I’m sure the AI didn’t notice or care, but it was so engrossing it just felt like the right thing to do.
The rain was coming down so hard we could smell the jungle… we also got a whiff of gun smoke and realised the pergola wasn’t protecting our CRT monitors quite as well as we’d hoped. A few bits and pieces from the kitchen were rigged to catch the drips and we continued our mission…
I’d never heard such a genuine ‘aaaarrrrrhhhhh’ from a player as he was gunned down storming the farmhouse at the missions end. With the focus that only comes from being so completely absorbed, the next player just calmly clicked and reported ‘Tango down’
I used to be IT Manager for SA/WA/NT for a large independently owned company.
My first job.
People used to ask me stupid things. Lots. So on Fridays sometimes, if I wanted a break, I’d pull the power cord to the server and close the door to my office which was superthick glass walls and door, and look ‘concerned’ while trying to ‘fix’ said server.
No one ever bothered me.
BF2 gets released.
I fix the server and rid the network of a virus/worm for three weeks straight. (read: I get in early, pull the server to maximise bandwidth, hook up my own PC, game for 12hrs behind glass, go home, game more, rinse/repeat).
Three weeks of BF2 hilarity, fully paid for. Not disturbed. Not once.
NB. Some months later, feel completely and utterly justified in the above when asked to return to office after driving an hour to my home, to ‘put paper in the photocopier’……. I did, return to the office. And filled the photocopier, printed my resignation and left.
Shortly after the release of The Burning Crusade when I hit level 70 I got my first flying mount. Loved it till to 60% flight speed began to infuriate me. To rectify this I embarked on a 3 day non-stop marathon of grinding. Most of this was spent simple mining minerals in Shadow Moon Valley which were then sold on the AH. At the end of the 3 days I had finally achieved the 5k gold needed to buy my mount but it came at a great cost. For at least 2 years after this whenever I held a mouse I would often randomly right click due because this was all that was needed to perform the task of mining in World Of Warcraft. The grind had taken its toll, but this did not stop me from many more hours of mindless grinding in the coming months and years for items such as a fancy nether drake and a Nether ray.
Isn’t World Of Warcraft just great.
RISE OF THE BACKSEAT GAMER: A SHORT MEMOIR
———————————————————————
I play a lot of video games, but I fear that I have created a monster. A month before Skyward Sword was released, my wife forced (yes, forced) me to pre-order it from a certain chain with lots of yellow. I knew what was coming…
The day I picked up Skyward Sword was the day my life was bound by a strict schedule, stopping only to eat and relieve myself. I had to keep on progressing, or face my wife’s wrath. If I lost my way, I had to follow her directions. If I missed an item, I had to backtrack. Making even the slightest mistake resulted in demoralizing comments about why I could not defeat Ghirahim.
Sleep wasn’t an option, although my wife was kind enough to prop toothpicks in front of my eyes to keep me awake. After two weeks of non-stop playing, it finally ended. I was free!
Alas, that was just one of many games I have to complete. I have to go now. She’s holding up a copy of L.A Noire and I fear the worst.
It was SWOTVAC. We had a precious free week before exams begun. We had CoD: Black Ops. The glorious maidens V and Red Bull were summoned from their shelves and stocked next to copious amounts of Mountain Dew and Doritos. This was not a week to waste.
A hard semester behind us, exams ahead, we drew the blinds, killed the lights and begun. Forge challenges on Halo had us sweating and raging as we grav hammered our way to glory. Hours of SWAT followed, a fitting game type. This was broken up by LoL matches, destroying our eyes and our ELO at the same time.
Our sense of time was long gone now, riding the hype of energy drinks and sugary delights, we settled down to CoD. Hard Core, snipers, Jungle. Hours we spent, proning our way through bushes, any noise causing us to nearly die. Finally, with our eyes bloodshot and our vitality drained we slept where we sat, content to rest at last.
italics test
The last vestiges of life cling to the ocean’s floor and ragged lightning tears across a charred sky. The Machine War is over, the human flame extinguished. And yet, in a dark and forgotten corner, I persist.
I persevere in waiting. Faith is rewarded.
The engines of industry preserve me, pneumatics pumping my wasted heart, the synapses of my cryonic brain plugged into the terminal where I commit myself daily anew. Stalking digital killing fields, each playthrough brings me closer to that which was promised.
Forget about it, they laughed.It’s over. No chance of Half-Life 3 in this lifetime. Perhaps not in your lifetime, but for some of us one lifetime wasn’t acceptable. There are ways around death.
The year is 2189. This is the 13,487th time I’ll have finished the Half-Life series. and I know that Half-Life 3′s release is close.
Metallic shrieking. The roof of my derelict hovel is torn asunder. GabeN, tyrannical overlord of Valve, once pioneering game developers, now transhuman conquerors, grins at me through jagged metal.
‘Fool!’ he bellows. ‘You still believe.’
Cackling, his gargantuan mass descends on my husk as he utters the last words I’ll ever know.
‘Was it worth the weight?’
Playing 6hrs of Battlefield 3, raging, switching it up with an adventure game and played some of Darksiders 2……….. havn’t slept yet…..
Thanks guys – the competition is now closed.