Extra Life
Extra Life is an American charity benefiting children's hospitals across the continental United States. Their flagship charity event, "Game Day", began in 2008 and has occurred annually ever since. Starting in 2013 Draco has hosted a 24-hour fundraising marathon for Extra Life in an effort to raise money for Driscoll Children's Hospital in Corpus Christi, Texas. Draco says he chose this hospital because when his brother was very young they saved his life. To date, Draco and the Gatorbox community have raised over $2,000 for the hospital which Draco has matched personally with additional donations of games, toys, and stuffed animals.
Gatorbox's 2013 and 2014 marathons were hosted from the Extra Life event headquarters in San Antonio, Texas. Draco was a featured performer both years; in 2013 his speedrun of Cosmic Spacehead was showcased on the official Extra Life livestream and in 2014 he was a participant in some of Extra Life's live skits and comedy content. The event headquarters moved in 2015 and since then Draco has hosted the marathon from the regular Gatorbox set. A marathon was planned but ultimately not held in 2017 due to Hurricane Harvey destroying the studio where the show was taped. The annual marathon resumed in 2018 with a record-setting turnout both in funds raised ($644) and marathon length (~30 hours).
Extra Life participants are permitted to do whatever they like for their Game Day fundraising events, Draco has elected to model Gatorbox's marathons similarly to popular speedrunning marathons such as Games Done Quick. Between 2013 and 2018 Draco hosted a 24-hour speedrunning marathon, however starting with 2019's broadcast the schedule was split into two 12-hour marathons in order to allow for better scheduling and a more restful break.
Occasionally, new world records are set in some of the games featured; in 2013 and 2014 new records were set for Super Off Road (as of 2015 Draco no longer holds the record).
Donation Incentives
Throughout the many years that Gatorbox has broadcast an Extra Life marathon there have been numerous attempts to incentivize donations. The marathons hosted in 2013 and 2014 included basic "milestone" style incentives such as turning an "Any%" run of a specific game into a "100%" run. These incentives were eventually discontinued due to the issues they posed with scheduling.
In 2015 the idea of performing a quick game "challenge" for every $50 raised was introduced and this proved to be a much easier incentive to incorporate into the show. Every time the marathon's total donation amount reaches a multiple of $50 Draco draws a random challenge from a box of community-submitted ideas and has 15 minutes to complete it.
Milestone incentives were brought back as a test for 2019's marathon, though this time the incentive would be placed at the very end of the marathon to avoid scheduling issues and to offer as much time as possible for viewers to donate. The game in question, Twitch Sings, would only be added if the marathon's goal of $500 was met (which it was).
Gimmick Speedruns
There are numerous games that are featured multiple times in Gatorbox's Extra Life marathons and some of them are included every year. In order to avoid these games becoming "stale" to viewers Draco occasionally mixes up their features to include fun gimmicks and keep them interesting.
Thus far, Kirby's Adventure has been played through in its entirety with an era-appropriate NES flight stick, Super Off Road has been attempted with a steering wheel, and M.C. Kids has incorporated a "Cheeseburger Challenge" gimmick where each time Draco loses a life in the game he keeps the clock running while he eats a whole McDonald's cheeseburger. In 2019 the cheeseburgers were replaced with chicken nuggets when M.C. Kids' run was changed from Any% to 100%.
Featured Games
Below is a table showing every game that has been featured in a Gatorbox Extra Life marathon.
| 2013 | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3D Body Adventure | |||||||
| 3D Dinosaur Adventure | |||||||
| Anticipation | ♦ | ||||||
| Arista's Ring | |||||||
| Asmik-kun Land | |||||||
| Attack of the Labyrinth |
|||||||
| Bible Buffet | |||||||
| Biker Mice From Mars | |||||||
| Blast Corps | |||||||
| Blue Sphere | ♦ | ||||||
| Boggle Plus | ♦ | ||||||
| Bubble Ghost | ♦ | ||||||
| Chiki Chiki Boys | |||||||
| Codename: Kids Next Door |
♦ | ||||||
| Cool Spot | |||||||
| Cosmic Spacehead | |||||||
| CrazyCars 3D | ♦ | ||||||
| Dian Shi Ma Li | ♦ | ||||||
| Donkey Kong Country | |||||||
| Dragon Tales: Dragon Adventure | |||||||
| Duck Tales 2 | X | ||||||
| Duke Nukem Forever | |||||||
| Dynamite Headdy | |||||||
| E.T.: The Extra Terrestrial | ♦ | ||||||
| Ecstatica | ♦ | ||||||
| Extreme Forklifting 2 | ♦ | ||||||
| Extreme Sports w/ Berenstain Bears |
♦ | ||||||
| Forgotten Ones, The | |||||||
| Gon' E-Choo! | X | ||||||
| Goof Troop | |||||||
| Hacker, The | |||||||
| Ice Road Truckers | ♦ | ♦ | |||||
| Island Xtreme Stunts | ♦ | ||||||
| Jeopardy!: Teen Tournament |
♦ | ||||||
| Kirby Super Star | |||||||
| Kirby's Adventure | |||||||
| Krazy Kreatures | ♦ | ||||||
| M.C. Kids | |||||||
| Maniac Mansion | ♦ | ||||||
| MANOS: The Hands of Fate |
|||||||
| McDonald's Treasure Land Adventure |
|||||||
| Mega Man 4 | ♦ | ||||||
| MegaRace | |||||||
| Microsoft Entertainment Pack | ♦ | ||||||
| Milon's Secret Castle | ♦ | ||||||
| Mini Putt | ♦ | ||||||
| Monster Truck Madness 64 | |||||||
| Monster Truck Rally | ♦ | ||||||
| NanoQuest | |||||||
| *NSYNC: Get to the Show | ♦ | ♦ | |||||
| Pac-Man Championship Edition |
|||||||
| Pepsi Invaders | ♦ | ||||||
| Pokémon Blue | ♦ | ||||||
| Puggsy | |||||||
| River Raid | ♦ | ||||||
| Robot Wars: Extreme Destruction |
♦ | ||||||
| Rugrats: Search for Reptar |
|||||||
| Shamu's Deep Sea Adventures | ♦ | ||||||
| Shao-lin's Road | |||||||
| Shovel Knight | |||||||
| Sonic Jam (Game.com) | |||||||
| Sonic the Hedgehog | |||||||
| Sonic the Hedgehog 2 | ♦ | ||||||
| Sonic 3 & Knuckles | |||||||
| Spot Goes to Hollywood | |||||||
| Spyro the Dragon | |||||||
| Star Fox | |||||||
| Star Fox 64 | |||||||
| Super Mario Bros. | ♦ | ♦ | |||||
| Super Mario Bros. 2 | |||||||
| Super Mario Bros. 3 | |||||||
| Super Mario Maker | |||||||
| Super Mario World 64 | |||||||
| Super Off Road | |||||||
| Taboo: The Sixth Sense |
♦ | ||||||
| Tail 'Gator | |||||||
| Tetris | ♦ | ||||||
| Trick Trap 1771 | |||||||
| Twisted Metal III | |||||||
| Twisted Metal 4 | |||||||
| Twitch Sings | |||||||
| Tyrian 2000 | |||||||
| Vectorman | |||||||
| Vigilante 8: 2nd Offense | X | ||||||
| Virtua Racing Deluxe | |||||||
| Wacky Races | |||||||
| Where's Waldo? | ♦ | ||||||
| Wonderful End of the World, The |
|||||||
| Yukkuri no Meikyu | |||||||
| Zoop | ♦ |
* 2017's Extra Life marathon was cancelled due to Hurricane Harvey.
Games noted with a diamond (♦) signify titles that were featured as a "challenge" and not a full speedrun. An "X" denotes a run that was cancelled during the marathon due to technical difficulties or other unforeseen problems.
Trivia
- Total games featured: 89
- Most money raised in one marathon: $644 (2018)
- Most games in one marathon: 38 (2019)
- Most challenges in one marathon: 14 (2018)
- Most featured game: Kirby's Adventure, M.C. Kids, Super Off Road (6)