Game marathons became something of a fad last year, but the original's still the best. Year two of the Super Mario Marathon, which raised more than $10,000 in 2008, is already past $16,000.
Update/Clarification: My remarks above failed to consider Desert Bus for Hope, which is both a year older than the Mario Marathon, is cited as one of the Mario Marathon's inspirations, and has raised more than $90,000 in its two drives - $70,000 of that coming last year. Desert Bus's organizers will be doing it again this year. Not only is it a great drive for a great cause, its use of Desert Bus is unbeatably novel and hilarious. The marathoners will be enduring a zillion hours of torment again in November.
If you remember last year's charity drive, you know the drill for this year's: Participants Brian Brinegar, John Groth and Chris Deckard are playing all seven Super Mario Bros. games. (2008 Marathoner Dan May is out of the country, but checking in via chat on the team's live stream.) They're taking donations for the Child's Play charity, which is affiliated with more than 40 hospitals worldwide and is dedicated to helping children in their care, with donations of toys and games.
Click to viewThis year the team is going for 100 percent completion of all the games - playing every level and collecting every star. As of 1 pm MDT time on Sunday, they'd completed 452 of 599 objectives, nearly 60 hours into the marathon. It's scheduled to end July 14, with an ultimate goal of $98,000
The team has set a progressive cash goal for all of its milestones, meeting every one so far. As of writing, they're still driving for 100 percent in Super Mario Bros. 64, but they've already surpassed their fundraising goal for the next objective, 100 percent in Super Mario Galaxy.
Whatever the outcome, a big hand to the Mario Marathon team - not only for raising the money for a worthy cause, but for their commitment to doing this bigger and better in a second go-around.
Super Mario Marathon [site]