From 8:00 A.M. on May 16 until 2:10 P.M. two days later, 25-year-old Brandon Erickson of Portland, Oregon blew up the Death Star over 1,500 times, raised $800 for the Portland Schools Foundation and broke the arcade marathon time record for Star Wars Arcade on a single quarter.
There was almost no time to breathe for Erickson. “Star Wars only let’s you rest for about 7 seconds between levels. The gameplay is absolutely relentless,” he said. “If I had left the controls for even 30 seconds, it would have been over. It’s the most mentally and physically exhausting thing I’ve ever done.”
35 hours after he started playing, however, the machine’s controls started malfunctioning, forcing Erickson to quickly adaptor his playing style or kiss his record goodbye. Despite his fear of imminent doom, Erickson managed to survive for another 20 hours.
The previous marathon arcade record was also for Star Wars Arcade. In 1984, Brooklyn’s Robert Mruczek survived for 49-1/2 hours.
Hard to make fun of anything that is done for charity, but…
“It’s the most mentally and physically exhausting thing I’ve ever done.”
Is he serious? He’s never done anything more physically exhausting than playing a video game for 50 hours strait?
Actually, playing 50 hours straight without sleep or even taking a break for more than 10sec is quite a feat. In fact, can you imagine how dedicated he must have been to get that good? All those years and endless hours in front of the same exact game, while his (imaginary) friends were out there having fun and dating chicks… But it was all worth it, because through blood and sweat, he finally achieved the irrelevant.
In this case, the end does not justify the means.
So true.
I’m not really trying to diminish the enormity of his task. I just can’t imagine a video game being someone’s most physically exhausting accomplishment.
“someone’s most physically exhausting accomplishment.”
Replace ‘most’ with ‘only’ and it’ll make perfect sense.
Shit I smoke…I’ve done far less time consuming things than play video games for 50 hours and got off of her winded.
Damn, thats impressive. I am curious what he did for restroom breaks :)
He must have had people feeding him to.
Onlookers said it was embarassing watching him get a blow-job from his girlfriend…
Bob: You’re an idiot. You weren’t there.
Joe: Try doing most *anything* for 50 hours straight, much less playing a video game (like a Star Wars set to harder than factory default settings, as his was) at a high level of play, and you’ll compute the difficulty. I challenge you to just stay awake, while mostly sitting and doing *nothing*, for that period of time (and, it was actually over 54 hours).
cliche: Irrelevant to you, relevant to him. I imagine you (and most people) have a hobby or interest that others would question, or call pointless (or even cuckoo). At least his interest takes skill, smarts, and dedication (none of which are required for your inane commentary). Plus, I imagine most posters here play video games, and enjoy them, which is what Brandon does. Of course, the point could be made that playing for so long is silly, but, it’s kind of a ‘climbing Mt. Everest’ kind of thing – there’s no need to do it, but it is satisfying to push the limits on a difficult task, no matter how useful it may or may not be (to most people).
I’d have to agree with Mark. Ask 10 people if they have ever stayed awake 24 hours. At least 5 will say no without a doubt.
Yay! Ive only been awake 19 hours and Im off to bed.
I actually know Brandon from college. I just caught up with him after several years of no contact, so he told me about this.
In his defense, he is not a lardass, as some of you have suggested. He used to do cross country track and field, he plays guitar exquisitely, and has many other talents most of you would kill for, I think. So, there. And, mind you, I am not a gamer and would never consider doing anything like this myself.
I have a cheese cock made out of salami