Video gaming is becoming in integral part of technology today, and gamers have recently raised over a million dollars for charity by holding a week long gaming event.
From Sunday 4th January 17:00 to Sunday 10th January 09:00, a large group of gaming enthusiasts got together at Hilton Washington Dulles Airport Hotel, located in Herndon, Virginia to raise money for charity. The bi-annual charity event – streamed on the games streaming site twitch.tv – had 24/7 non-stop coverage for the whole week, raising around $1.2 million USD for the Prevent Cancer Foundation. The foundation, based in the United States, specialise in early detection and prevention of cancer.
Organised by the Speed Runs Live and Speed Demos Archive gaming communities, the event revolves around expert players completing games as fast as possible, often using glitches, bugs and unintended routes to achieve blistering times. The gamers – or often called “runners” – also explain what they do in the games, so that the audience can try to understand what is going on. The event is made possible by not only the runners themselves, but also the many volunteers that help with donations and infrastructure management.
The viewers can also get involved, with donation incentives that can affect the runs, such as naming of a game file, or extra games/runs not guaranteed on the schedule. Donations are made via Django. Django is a web Python framework coupled with PayPal's API. When a donation is made, this gets automatically fed through to hosts on the show floor, who then get live-updated donations with comments to read out during the event. As well as this, data gets compiled to keep track of the donation incentives, and also near-instantly updates on the stream ticker for the viewers to see the progression.
If you are interested but missed the event, we've compiled some of our favorite highlights of the week that we managed to catch for you to digest below:
Goof Troop (Run time: 23 minutes 29 seconds)
Goof Troop is a game based on the Disney television show of the same name developed in 1993 for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES). It consists of a player (or two in co-operation) solving puzzle rooms to progress through the game. The real kicker here is that the runner – Yagamoth – is playing two-player by himself.
Batman: The Video Game (Run time: 11 minutes 54 seconds)
This game is a 2D combat platformer based loosely based on the Batman 1989 film. Here we have four runners (Just defend, dxtrslab, badbrakes and InfestedRiche) in race to see who can complete the game first. The techniques for this game can be quite precise so there were many changes of the lead, making it an enthralling spectacle.
Battletoads (Run time: 38 minutes 41 seconds)
Initially developed for the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) in 1991, Battletoads is a beat'em up platformer featuring toad combatant protagonists and is famed for its difficulty. A donation incentive was also met for the Runner (TheMexicanRunner) to do one stage Blindfolded – it needs to be seen to be believed.
Mike Tyson's Punch-Out!! (Blindfolded) (Run time: 26 minutes 43 seconds)
Another race, this time between sinister1 and zallard1, but where both are Blindfolded for the whole run. Deep knowledge for each of the computer opponents is needed to get through this 1987 NES game, and more when blindfolded.
StepMania (Run time: 32 minutes)
Not really a speed run, but nonetheless still impressive. This showcase shows off the talent of Staiain, with what seems like in-human reflexes to tap keys in-time with the commands on the screen.
TASBot Showcase (Run time: n/a)
TASBot (short for Tool-Assisted Speed-run Bot) is a computer program/robot that can record and playback commands onto a console via the controllers, similar to a human player. Unlike a human player though, TASBot can replicate commands in-perfect time, and thus can manipulate game code to achieve truly wondrous things. The bot is a showcase of human ingenuity and technical skill. The showcase includes Mario Kart 64, Pwn Adventure Z, Brain Age and Super Mario Brothers 3. There is some set-up time between each run but it is well worth the wait!
Until the summer
AGDQ is a testament for how technology can used for good despite how niche it may be. The next event will be in the Summer period, where hope is that it will continue to thrive and grow. It also shows how gaming has become a huge part of our every day lives and how well adopted it has become over the years. Gaming consoles are no longer used solely for gaming, contrary to popular belief. Video game consoles now have much more processing power than they used to, and offer many of the capabilities we have in our computers. For example, you can browse the web, catch up on your favourite TV shows using apps like BBC iPlayer and Netflix, stream music, watch videos online, access your favourite social networks such as Facebook and Twitter and even order a takeaway with apps like Pizza Hut.
Get involved
If speedrunning sounds like something you'd be interested in, you can get involved! You can learn to speed run a game by visiting the speed run forums. Anyone can offer to run a game at a GDQ! Several months before each event, game submissions open on the Games Done Quick website and are open for several weeks. During game submissions, you can submit which game(s) you want to run, a video showing off your skills in each game, and you are given couple of sentences to explain why you feel your game would make a good addition to the GDQ schedule
You can also help raise money for charity by hosting your own video game events! Why not arrange your own competitions where players must pay an entry fee to compete, with all proceeds going to a charity of your choice? This is a great way of getting the younger generation involved in charity fundraising by doing something they enjoy and partake in regularly.