Extra Life 2026 May Update

Hello everybody. It's been a hot minute since I've posted on this, but it really is something we can not forget is going on. After all, we are doing this to help sick kids who are stuck and don't have the luxury to forget.

But I am getting ahead of myself. To anyone new here, welcome in and welcome to our own little push for a little something called Extra-Life. And what is it? Well it's a charity drive run by the Children's Miracle Network in which gamers get to sign up and raise money for their local children's hospital by doing what they love. If that sounds good to you, come join the site and get signed up and come join in on the fun! The process could not be simpler!.

1. Go to www.extra-life.org and sign up. 
1. The website will feature a nice big yellow "Sign up" button which will guide you through the process. It is really easy and has all the regular processes except:
1. Picking a hospital. Who you play for is a bit more specific then just "Extra-Life." While you sign up you will also be offered a list of hospitals within the Children's Miracle Network. Once you pick one to play for, all your donations will go towards that hospital specifically.
2. Set yourself up to bring donations into your choice hospital.
1. Once again the site will have plenty of suggestions, but among the biggest things you can do is (if you are here to play video games) setup your streaming service to play through your new participation page! The site supports both Youtube and Twitch. (I am STILL hoping to see Rumble join the list one day.)
3. Start playing!
1. Draw attention to why you are playing. Once again, the site is your best place to get ideas.
2. While I may focus on video games, myself this is NOT just about those. It's about any game you can think of: Video, board, card, or hell even Tabletop. Have some friends who play D&D? Why not do some good for the world while you have fun!
4. In early November, get ready for the big one, the 2026 24-hour gaming marathon!
1. In previous years, this would be on the weekend of daylight savings to extend the marathon to 25 hours, but last year, it was decided with so many needing a raindate anyway, a week was set aside where games picked their day.

Easy, right? And that's all you need to do to use your hobby to help children who really need it. But if you are not a gamer or don't think you have the time, that is ok too. After all, we need your help to to help them, and if you help me help them, well, I'm honored and humbled.

You can find my team page easily enough: it's the big Extra-Life icon in the upper right corner of this very page.... or you can click the button below. From there, the donate button will guide you the rest of the way. Everything goes to the hospital the player you donate under is playing for and again, I thank you for anything you can do to help.

And of course we are not just gonna sit around and wait for the big event. Around here, we do our best to show off the event and what you might see during it twice a week. Our themes haven't really changed as we spend one day pushing through a franchise I still love to this day and the other basically playing with how far you can take the idea of First Person gaming... and just how varied it is

• Phantasy Star Wednesday: Come join us Wednesdays at 8 PM Eastern where we play through everything released in the US. From it's 8-bit origins all the way to the still ongoing PSO2: New Genesis! Currently we are wrapping up the Hunters Guild missions of Phantasy Star Online Episode 1 before starting Episode 2. And if you want to join in the fun, you absolutely can for free! We can be found on the Ephinea server and with all intention to let anyone interested join us! Just look for the "Red Sector" game. If you are not where we are do not worry. I've always been happy to lend a hand and get someone else started down their journey (and certain missions in particular I know really benefit from a partner in the field). So come on in and join the fun, either in chat or directly in play! You are welcome!
• First Person Friday: And this is where the REAL variety show happens. Every week we stop in as we show off games, both action and otherwise, where you see from the eyes of your character. We have played everything from Descent to the 7th Guest and we are still looking for new experiences to share! Currently we just re-opened Boltgun to play the Forges of Corruption DLC, and so far it is already intense! Come see what the 41st Millennium can throw our way every Friday, also at 8 PM Eastern.

In both cases, you can join the chat and see us on Twitch or our Extra Life Participation page and we would love to see you there! But on that note, Im afraid my time to write is up for now. I have a lot to get done before Mother's Day this weekend. Enjoy your day and keep on gaming!

- Megabyte

Thank you, but we are not done.... Extra Life 2025

UPDATE: It seems I posted this prematurely... because Extra Life itself had NOT posted the totals from the week... well now they have and you may want to sit down.

As a total for the year (so far) we have raised:

$10,552,585

EVERY GAMER who took part in game week and everyone who donated to help these sick kids should be PROUD OF THEMSELVES. Thank you all of you! Now back to the original post.

Hi everybody. How are you doing? Gameweek has just ended and while I am STILL tired 2 days later, I can honestly say it was a great time.

For those of you who have no idea what I am talking about, Extra Life did things a little different this year. Where as over it's long and storied history, the charity culminated in a single Game Day where gamers would play for 24 hours straight, this year a full week was dedicated so gamers could take full advantage and pick whatever day works best for them. You can see our event across several vods that currently live on our twitch page and will ultimately (for the most part) be moved to our Rumble channel so they can live for more then a week. (Yeah, that's a real issue... thanks twitch.)

But what is Extra Life, I hear some of you ask. Well to explain, lets set the way-back machine to a younger time when gaming websites were booming and I personally had found myself treating one as my online home called "Sarcastic Gamer." If you were there, it was exactly what you would have expected from a community site of the 2000s: it had a forum for gamers to talk, joke, share gaming discoveries, and it even had a podcast or two for weekly radio-style shows, and I absolutely loved all of it. But it was not always happy news. The founder, "Doc", was the one who would drop the biggest bombshell for as long as I was called it home... the day Victoria passed away. Who was Victoria? Well Doc was a friend to her family, so he knew her personally before she lost her fight with cancer in Texas Children's Cancer Center. I still remember driving into work and listening to that podcast as it had downloaded the night before, and those tears still haunt me.

But from this heartbreak came Extra Life, an event to give her legacy meaning and to thank the hospital for their efforts to help this girl in that fight. And of course the community took to it like fish to water. We would spend the next few weeks to raise money for the hospital, then do what we all do best to push it to the end: a 24 hour gaming marathon. I am still honored to be have been a part of that very first Extra Life in 08, but it wasn't enough for any of us. We would do it again in 09, an 2010, and so on... and here we are now. Sarcastic Gamer is gone, Doc has moved on to work with Children's Miracle Network directly, and the event itself has gone global through them... but we are still here, doing what we love and using that hobby to help the kids who need it most. 

And as I noted, at the very beginning, Gameweek for this wrapped up yesterday, Sunday November 16th. Personally I am grateful to be able to help out with this and to do my part. Personally I play for Boston Children's Hospital.

Looking back over the year, I can not say this was an easy one, though. I had to take roughly a month out of the situation due to medical reasons which frankly took me down hard enough, for two separate hospital stays, the latter ending with several days at my folks place to recover. Nor can I honestly say that was the only issue I've had this year... in fact I would argue 2025 was my year of Hell. BUT we still managed to bring in $400 ourselves for the event, no small amount for a small community like this. And I would like to thank you all for that.

But we are not done with this year. Extra Life takes donations year round, so if you would like to help us help the kids, we are still going through the end of the year.... you can expect the same twice-a-week Extra Life streams I've been doing for a while now... and we will be on Twitch for a little while longer since the Extra Life page will be active through December and links directly to the service. Thank you for any help you give now or in the future... the kids need it and I am humbled.

Thank you again - Megabyte: Head Archivist of the Red Sector

Extra Life 2025 October update

Hi everybody! The time is flying! Soon we will all see each other, getting together at friends' houses or at a local hobby shop or even just online. But the time is near for Extra-Life game.... week? Yeah, that's right. This year there isn't a single day but a whole week where gamers will choose to play, and we are no different.

But if you don't know what Extra-Life is, well perhaps we should start there. Extra-Life is an international charity event held every year where gamers pledge to play for 24 hours (straight if they can... in pieces if not) to help raise money for the hospitals of the Children's Miracle Network. We have been working all year to bring in what we can (or even donate ourselves). To help these kids, and each one of us have done so in the name and for one specific hospital in this network. I myself play for Boston Children's Hospital as I have for MOST years of the event. And I don't say "my history" for a reason that I am honored as Hell to be able to say: I've been here since the beginning. Since before this was a CMN event, but instead one held with only a few weeks notice by a single (sadly now defunct) gaming site who wanted to something special in the name of a young cancer victim to help their hospital help more kids in her situation. But the site does a much better job telling Victoria's story then I ever will so if you want to hear how all this started, you can check it out here.

So where does that lead us today? Today the event has gone international with gamers from all over signing up, selecting a local hospital where everything they raise will go, and playing like hell to help the kids who need it most. Seriously, how awesome is it to help out like this using our hobby? Truly one of the best things ever, which brings me to our own little related announcements for the big event around here. 

First and most important, our own marathon will happen on:

SATURDAY: NOVEMBER 15

As we said earlier in this post, we are just a few short weeks before things begin and gamers will be playing 24 hours for the kids during the week of November 8th through the 16th, and we have picked our day, too. For us, that Saturday, starting at 8 AM, we will be gaming nonstop until 8 AM the next morning. It's brutal every year, but rewarding and I can't wait to join you all there. And join is the word since I plan to have several online games ready to go, starting with a continuation of our current adventure in Phantasy Star Online! All are welcome to join, and I can't wait to see you all. I may also sneak a few extra streams Friday while we get ready before resting up for the big event.

And we will be doing so from Twitch for ONE LAST YEAR. You see, I've never really had strong faith in the platform, but it's been shaken all the more watching how much they clearly do not care for their own community over the MANY garbage stories content creators came back from at Twitchcon this year. To that end, I made a decision: I myself am leaving. I've already had to make a rumble channel for this page so the videos of our sessions to help kids AND celebrate the various franchises I personally cherish will live on instead of Twitch killing them in a week.

But when to leave was the real question. If you are on our Discord (and you can reach it either in the site socials above or right here, you might have noticed a poll where we asked our community if we should leave Twitch before or after the marathon this year, and the community wanted to stay. So for one last year we will do this on Twich and we hope to see you there. I will have a much shorter post the night before, so if you forget all this, don't worry.

But now we get to the big question for YOU. How can you get involved. Well, it's never too late to join in, so why not sign up now? Just go the extra life site and follow the directions to register for an account, then it's time to ask people to help you help the sick kids... easy as that.

Of course not everyone feels they want to play themselves, and none of us can do this without those who donate to help us help the kids, so doing that is always welcome too. If you look in the about section of my twitch page, there is a panel that will take you to my team page where you can pick anyone on the Red Sector team to donate under the name of. Any help you can give is more then welcome and we are more then thankful for it.

SO once again, thank you for joining me and I hope to see you on the big day! From all of us here at the Red Sector, thank you.

- Megabyte

Extra Life 2025 September Update

Hi everybody! It's been a few months since our last talk but time is flying by as we get closer and closer to the big marathon in November. I have to admit, I am looking forward to it as I always do. But I have this bad habit of getting ahead of myself here. I don't even know if you are new here or have been keeping up with Extra-Life!

For those of you who are new here, Extra-Life is a charity event that I have been lucky enough to participate in since it was started in 2008. Back then, it was a lot smaller affair, and one sadly born from the pain of loss. From my own perspective, I was at the time a happy member of the Sarcastic Gamer community, spending time on the forums and listening to every podcast that came out talking about an overview of the gaming stories of the day. But one day that podcast would be one of the hardest things I would ever listen to. The founder, fondly known around the site simply as Doc, literally broke down and cried mid-stream as he had just gotten the news that a family he was friends with had lost their daughter, a young girl named Victoria, from cancer. But he would not leave her legacy to end in tears. Instead, he came to us collectively with an idea.

To thank the hospital for their efforts, he rallied the site to have an event where for 24 hours we would all get online and play games as a fundraiser for this hospital. Needless to say, we were all in... site-wide. It wasn't a big event, but it was a successful one. And we were already hungry to do it again. it became a tradition of the site for a few years before Doc would leave, joining the team at Children's Miracle Network... and he took this event with him. No longer limited to a single (and sadly now defunct) website, the event could now expend to more hospitals, with more participants helping more children! And I have been incredibly honored to watch it grow through the entire process. But it's not fair to not let the event tell the tale for itself, so you can check out the about section here for their own take on it.

Today, Extra-Life is MASSIVE and has collectively raised well over $132,000,000 to help these poor kids who need it most, and it is truly an amazing thing to take part in and as I noted at the beginning of this post, I have been honored to be able to be there for since the very beginning.... and it's time for you to jump in too! So how do you do it? Well that's the easy part!

If you are a gamer, sign on up and get in here with us! You don't have to play video games, but really anything nerdy is good for this. Just get on the Extra-Life Website and click that signup button! The site will guide you the rest of the way including how to setup your own page, link any streaming channel you might wish to use for it, and even what team you want to play on. However the most important choice you will make is the hospital you are playing for. One of the unique points of this charity event is that what you bring in goes specifically to the hospital you are playing for. I myself an playing for Boston's Children's Hospital, but you can pick any hospital in the Children's Miracle Network you wish. With that in motion, you will have access to tips, tricks, and tools to help you kit up for the event, so time to get going and bring in what you can to help those kids. And all your efforts will culminate with a 24 hour marathon we all always look forward to in November.

In previous years this was date would traditionally be the Saturday of Daylight Savings in November, creating an actually 25 hour marathon, a lofty goal to play through indeed. But there was a problem with this: one weekend for every Extra Lifer can be a pain for many people's schedule. I should know. with family events almost always coming on the same weekend, it made tough for me to make it, which is why I was always thankful for the often used "rain date" the following weekend. But this year is different. The organizers have decided to try a new solution by letting us as gamers pick our days, defining a game week instead of a single day! This year, "GAME WEEK" will start from Saturday morning on November 8th and run all the way through Sunday night on November 16th. You pick when you put in your 24 hours to celebrate what we could do for these kids (as well as a final push the marathon represents). We here will have to pick our day still, but I will be updating here when we do.

And speaking of, that brings us to the other way you can partake in this event. If you can't or don't feel like you should be playing yourself, you can always donate under the name of your favorite gamers to help the hospital they play for. As noted above, I myself have chosen to play for Boston Children's Hospital, and if you would like to help me (or any other member of my team) thank you so much. We really can't do this without you. You can reach us three ways:

1. Look us up on the Extra-Life page: I am including this one first simply because it can be used for anyone you want to show support with, but in the page header, there is a "search for player" bar. Use it to find literally anyone you want to back.
   
   
   
2. Donate on our streams: When I stream, it is always for this event, as one of the two reasons for it: getting pictures for reviews on this little space online and (more importantly) to draw attention to this event so we can get more players and to offer an easy way to help us help the kids if you so incline. And while the reviews are why you never see me on screen (video, picture, anything really), you can find the panel below in the about section of the stream page. The donate button there will take you directly to our page where you can donate to anyone who is a member.
   
   
   
3. Click the button below! At the bottom of this message, I will leave a button to reach our team page as well. Feel free to use it if you just want to get there without any hoops.

As for when you can catch the stream, I finally have set a solid schedule for streaming games. Wednesday has remained the same, but I have reserved Friday nights as well, if for a different more action built franchise. In both cases we celebrate the gaming past, even as we try to help kids have a better future:

• Phantasy Star Wednesday: This has not changed, but every Wednesday around 7 PM, I am playing my way through the entire Phantasy Star franchise in order of release. Currently we are making our way through Phantasy Star IV, but it won't be much longer before we make the jump to the first MMO in the series.
• First Person Friday: Yes the games we play on Friday, beyond the franchise, will have a theme, as this is arguably where a lot of my favorite games live, but we are starting with one of the big Granddaddy of them all with Wolfenstein. As I write this, I have finished Spear of Destiny and our next stream will be to start our adventure in Return to Castle Wolfenstein.

But on that note, I think its time for me to get going as I have gotten very long winded today. Please join us for the fun and helping kids who truly do need it the most.

Thank you for listening,

Megabyte

Extra Life 2024 May Update

Hello and once again welcome to our regular updates for Extra Life! If you do not know what Extra Life is, welcome to the site. (Seriously I make a point to keep a post about it on the main page so you've gotta be new.... nothing wrong with that, in fact the welcome is VERY heart-felt... welcome indeed.) 

But to answer the obvious question about it, Extra Life is a charity event that takes place every year. Run by the Children's Miracle Network, they handle all the details so we can focus on what we do best! If you want to join, the process is VERY simple:

1. Go to www.extra-life.org and sign up! The process is very easy. Just click the big sign up button and follow the directions. You will even get to pick what hospital the donations you bring in helps directly. If you want to join or follow team, you can set this up on the site too.
2. Adjust anything on your page to look how you want and tweak the message as desire.
3. Get out there and get donations for the kids! You can do this in several ways, be it streaming with a link on your page, getting a gaming night at the local hobby shop, or even just doing a doner drive. The site itself will offer advice on things you can do. (Maybe even put a little in yourself if you believe in putting your money where your mouth is.)
4. Finally in November there will be something known as "game day." This is when we get together as a community and celebrate what we were able to do with a 24/25 hour gaming marathon. This is the biggest night and highlight for many gamers in the entire event, self included. For most of us, this will be on Nov. 8th but schedules can be adapted to with rain dates (something I usually have to do myself... family related).

And that is about all there is too it. If this sounds good to you, then I assure you, it is worth your time to play. I myself have been here doing this since year zero when it was a single gaming website trying to help a single hospital in Texan in honor of a single young lady who lost her fight with cancer despite all everyone's best efforts. It was an honor then and it remains one now.

Which brings us to what we are doing here. Right now I am staying a pretty standard coarse with 2 weekly streams, although times I stream may be changing.

• Wednesday: now at 7 PM eastern, we are taking a weekly run at the venerable Phantasy Star franchise, playing each in the order of release. Currently we are heading ever closer to the end of Phantasy Star III: Generations of Doom as we make our way through generation 3. It's been a great time so far so feel free to join us every week!
• Saturday: Still at 3 PM we stream a random game with the idea of never showing the same game twice. If you are interested in seeing anything and everything over time, please feel free to come on over!

And of course in both cases all my gaming is done to support Boston Children's hospital. If you would like to help me help the children there, me and all the kids we help would all be eternally grateful, and you can do so right here on my own Extra Life page or in the about section of my twitch page which you can reach here or via the link in this site's menu!

Thank you for any help you can give and even just showing up and hanging out! We can't do this without you.

- Megabyte

IT HAS BEGUN!!!!!!

No I do not care how old this reference is... it fits the way we do this every year and now, we may truly begin. The Red Sector now has a team page on the Extra Life site, so yeah, our hat is officially in the ring. I still have a little tweaking to do since there is little customization on the page itself, but functionally we are up and my quest to show off games you might see on the big day continues.

This will take the form of two weekly games, though the times may vary (I'm sorry, I work and I have rather chaotic schedules for the most part:

• Celebrating the Series (Wednesday nights): Generally this will be at night after expected work hours, but I am making a point to highlight a single franchise at a time for a weekly game to both celebrate the ability to use these games to help sick kids as well as our past in gaming. Right now we are getting ready to wind up the second game in the Phantasy Star series (appropriately named Phantasy Star II) and you are welcome to come with me as we finish it up and get ready for round 3.
• Variety hour (Saturday afternoon/night): This was the original weekly game I began when I decided to stream during the year and show off games for the big event... and the rules haven't changed. Every week, we start with a game I have never played (my backlog or demo... I let the dice choose). If there is time after, we may take on a game I'm working through. Today we will be opening the demo of BioForge, a game I have zero experience with outside of testing to make sure my capture setup was ready.

And we will be getting to that second stream shortly after I post this entry. So come on in! Lets have some fun! You can find us on the above team page OR on the side panel where team member's twitch pages are listed.

Thank you for your time, and again, lets have some fun out there. - Megabyte

August Extra Life 2024 Update

Hi again everybody! Every day that passes is another day closer to Game Day, the culmination of Extra Life, and we are now a few scant months away. How close are we? Well for most people, gameday will be November 2nd, starting bright and early (8 or 9 AM LOCAL time, no I don't care what time-zone... it doesn't work like that). And for the first time in years, I will not be using a rain date to go the next weekend! It's been too long, but I can be there for the actual 25-hour marathon this year. I hope to see you all there, new and familiar faces, cause it really is a fun time.

But with my own schedule solidified, it is time to get ready, and to have that last big push to bring in donations so we can help the sick kids... but here I think I've gotten ahead of myself for anyone new so let me step back a second.

For those of you who are new here, Extra Life is a 24 (or 25) hour gaming marathon and charity event a lot of us gamers take part in to help sick kids local to us every year. Each one of us has signed up on the site here and try to raise money for the hospital we chose to play for. I myself play for Boston Children's Hospital as my own page can attest. All of this, however is handled by the Children's Miracle Network so they will handle all the details with any donations received, but it all goes to the hospital you choose to play for, so you really are making a personal difference by playing.

And while I will be streaming my marathon and it will be video games, these are optional if you wish to take part. Not everyone will have a stream going, choosing instead perhaps to just have a local event. Nor are video games the only option. Basically if you have nerdy things you like to do, you can make it part of the event. Board games, card games, table top RPGs, miniatures... it's all good. Hell if you wanted to and could figure out how to make it work, LARPing would probably work as well. (But you better start planning that campaign if you wanted to do that... November is going to come quicker then you think.) So yeah, all are welcome to help make these kids' lives just a little bit better. And of course if you can't make it on November 2nd, you can always rain date it to another weekend that works for you... just try to go the full time when you take it on.

If, however, none of this sounds like your kind of thing, you can also help by donating to another player and help them help sick kids. If you would like to do so for anyone in my team, thank you deeply and completely, and we will make this as easy as we can. Clicking the image below or this link here will take you to the Red Sector team page. Once there the donate button will guide you step-by-step to pick which team member you want to donate under the name of (everyone plays for their own hospital choice... that isn't decided by the team), choose how much you want to, and even leave a message if you so desire (anonymous is also an option if you don't want to leave a name). If you take this option, thank you very much. We are humbled for any help we can bring for the kids.

But with that simple note, I'm afraid my time to talk is up. See you next time and see you on Game Day.

- Megabyte

May Extra-Life 2024 Update

HAIL AND WELL MET! Welcome in to see what's going on for Extra-Life! We are now moving well through the year, almost halfway to the end of 2024 and even closer to the big day when gamers from around the world will get together to play games for 24-hours to use our hobby and help sick kids. But I;m getting ahead of myself.

If you don't know what Extra-Life is, it is in essence a charity event that will be going for it's 16th year. If you think about it like a marathon, it's a lot like the ones that might run across major cities in the US. Participants will pick a cause they run for, collect donations from sponsors for said goal, then run like hell on the big day to honor them and the cause they run for. In this case however, we are not running, we are gaming... and come November, we will all come together and for 24 hours (or 25 if they pull their traditional "daylight savings day" timing), we will play. It could be video games, board games, card games, tabletop RPGs, tabletop wargames, and any mix in between. If you can think of it, it is probably there, and it will happen.

Nor do we have to worry about picking a cause. That too, was decided from the moment this event started in honor of a single young girl who fought valiantly, but ultimately lost her fight to cancer. The man who started this event back then went online by the name of "Doc" and ran a site had the honor of being a regular on called Sarcastic Gamer, and he was a friend of the family. When she lost, it hit him hard, and I am going to tell you right now, it was actually hard listening to the podcast as he broke down live. However, her loss would be the spark that started something truly great as the site got together to play for this single hospital and raised thousands of dollars to do so. It was only a few weeks (if I remember right) between announcement and taking part, and I am still honored to have been there.

Since then the event has expanded, but the goal has never changed. Instead of helping one hospital in Texas, Extra Life has now expanded to be a Children's Miracle Network event and helps hospitals across it's entire network. So we are not choosing what cause to play for, all we are doing is picking which hospital we want to help the most, choosing to be a gamer specifically to help them. Me? I play for Boston's Children's Hospital, but you can pick one close to you... or any one at all if you have particular ties.

So how do you get involved? Well that's the easy part. Just go to their website at www.Extra-Life.org and click the sign-up button. You can set your profile, select your hospital. You can even show up by a selected call sign if you are into that anonymous online thing (or the "cool kid" 90s vibe... I think you know where I sit on this one XD) if you wish! And once signed up, all you have to do is collect donations like you would any other drive. Then when the big event comes around, make yourself comfortable with friends or solo... and be part of something amazing. Streaming is optional, but more then welcome as it lets the world see that much more of what we are doing. And if they pick a weekend that doesn't work for you, don't sweat it. Hell I'm usually in the same boat (reliably I can count on their weekend choice to be family related the next day... and zombie-megabyte driving an hour to meet them is no fun for me, them, or anyone in between us on the road). That's what raindates are for. Likely the weekend they pick, I will pick the next one to play my part, cheering on the main group in the meantime, and I recommend if you're in the same boat you do the same!

But if you don't think you can pull off a marathon like that, there are still ways you can help. Your donations towards other gamers are this event has been a HUGE success over the years and continues to absolutely crush it every year. You can search out your favorites in the site, or if you would like to help me or my team (we rock it each year under the name of this site), first let me say thank you and second let me make it even easier. At the top of this page is a big Extra Life button that says "support me" which will take you to my team page. Once there, you can select anyone who's signed up to join me and donate under their name in the roster, helping their hospital directly. The same button is also below!

Thank you for any help you want to give... the kids need it and we are all greatful. But on that note, my time this morning is up. Have a good day and see you out there on the gaming grid.

- Megabyte

Extra Life 2024 September Update

Hi everyone and welcome! Time is flying ever so fast as we find ourselves quickly racing to the big Extra Life Marathon in November. In fact for most gamers, there is little more then a month left to bring the kids the help we can! It's getting to crunch time!

Now if you don't know what Extra Life is, allow me to explain. Gaming is a massive hobby around the world with gamers taking to their favorite past time on the regular. But what if you could do some good with that controller in your hand? No, I'm not belittling the hobby we all share: in fact we are elevating it with Extra Life. In essence, much as you would sponsor a runner in something like the world-famous Boston Marathon to help them raise money for a cause close to them, we now do the same with gaming. Extra Life is in fact doing just that by letting gamers raise donations for their local children's hospitals to help sick kids in their area. I personally have had the honor of doing this since it began some 15 years ago, and it truly is an amazing experience.

If the idea of playing games to help sick kids sounds good to you now's the time to get involved. Follow the link and sign up! The 24-hour marathon you are looking for donations to play in is on November 4th when we will globally take over the web to show the world what we can do! Of course not all of us can do it on this day... life can get in the way. I myself have family events around the same time which makes my own available time kinda iffy, so I speak as someone who uses the rain-date (the next weekend) every year and will likely do the same this year. This is not an issue since we are still all playing for the same goals: helping these sick kids. So if you need to schedule a little different, don't even give that a second though.

But still, some people are more interested in donating to help these kids rather then play themselves, and that's ok too! I mean, without you we wouldn't be able to do this. And if you wish to help us here at the Red Sector out, let me take this moment to thank who deeply and humbly.. as well as make it a little easier to find. In addition to the link in the pages list of this blog, you can also follow the link below to reach our team page. It's just a few clicks to help us help kids (basically picking which player you want to donate under since we all play for our own local hospitals).

Thank you again for all your help. We are almost there. Lets see what we can do to help these kids out.

Extra-Life 2023 August Update

Hi everyone! Once again checking in as a few more months have slipped by and November is getting ever closer to us. With this month comes the big day us Lifers look forward to, the 24-hour gaming marathon!

But I'm getting ahead of myself. After all, if this is your first time on the page, you may not yet know what I'm talking about. But the answer to that is simple: Extra-Life!

But what is Extra-Life? Well, first and foremost, Extra-Life is a charity event gamers from around the world take part in. We all pick a hospital we want to play for and drive donations to help them and the sick kids they are taking care of, culminating in early November when we take on the big event: a 24-hour gaming marathon. That's right. Extra-Life is all about playing video games to help sick kids. Sound impossible? Not at all. I myself can attest to taking part in this event since it first started, but if you want the origins, I would let the site itself tell the tail far better then I ever could.

And no, you don't have to worry about maintaining things. All you need to do is sign up (button on the main page of the Extra-Life site) and ask for help from your friends, family, workplace, you name it. And any help you bring to the table yourself is also more then welcome to help the kids who truly need it the most. All resources and details you could need are right there.

Of course if you do not feel like you could do a 24 marathon, you can always cheer and help the rest of us out. If you want to help our team here directly, thank you so much! You can find our team page right here, which will include one of our streamer's stream live (if they are life at the time) and a donate button which will let you pick who to help directly (we all play for our own hospitals, so you can pick which one you want to help this way). Thank you again for any help you want to give!

But on that note, I'm afraid I have to run... have a good weekend, and see you next time. Be that here on the page or in the streams!

Thank you!

-Megabyte

Extra-Life 2023 June Update

Hi everyone and welcome back! I hope you are all getting as excited for Game-Day as I am... but I guess that may require you to know what I'm talking about. For those of you who don't, welcome to Extra-Life! In essence we who are taking part in it are playing games to help sick kids. If this sounds like it's impossible, I assure you it is not. I've personally had the honor of being a part of this since it started as a charity for a single hospital in Texas in honor of a young lady who died way too young fighting cancer. It has obviously grown since then, as the Children's Miracle Network has taken over and now runs it. Now, it is a global event with gamers from around the world playing to help their local hospitals.

So what does this have to do with Game-Day? To be blunt, everything. Game-Day is a 24-hour marathon every gamer taking part finishes their run with... in essence the endurance run our sponsors are paying for... kinda like people who sponsor marathon runners, but our road is made up of dice, cards, controllers, keyboards, and mice. It is a beautiful way for us to take up our hobby and help these kids who need it most.

So how can you help? Well if you yourself game and want to take up the 24-hour challenge, sign up and join us! It can be video games, board games, tabletop games, or any other gaming you desire in any combination. It can be streamed or held locally. The only rule is you go until the next morning or you drop. (And if you drop, make it up.) Most gamers will be doing this on November 4th, but we here at the Red Sector will probably doing this the following weekend as many other will. This is often referred to as the rain-date weekend for those who want to partake but can't make it for the official day... something I personally have to agree to due to family events around the same time, but whichever day you choose, it is a blast and really is for something amazing. If you can join us, as a fellow gamer, it is simply awesome.

However, if you do not wish to take on a marathon, you can still help by supporting gamers who do! We, for example have a team page for this event and would be honored for any support you can give. Each player on the team is playing for the hospital of their choice, but every dollar donated to help these kids helps, regardless of where it helps... so any help you can give, I can only thank you humbly for helping us help them. As I noted before, this is all handled by the Children's Miracle Network, and goes to a good cause. There is a FAQ here which can explain any details I simply can not as a participant not steeped in them, so please feel free to check it out. But if you would like to help us, thank you VERY much.... you can find our page in the link menu to the side of this page or right here. Once again I have to thank you very much for everything you are helping happen.

But on that note, I believe it is time for me to go... thank you for listening and again for any help you give, either by joining up yourself or helping us help these sick kids. It's all needed and it's all more then appreciated.

Thank you - Megabyte

We Play for the Children Tomorrow

The big day has arrived! Tomorrow morning I will embark on my 24-hour gaming marathon as I play video games to help sick kids who really need it. This is, after all, what Extra Life is about: gamers from around the world doing just that, and we can always use your help! First of all, if you can show up during the event, please do! I will be online from Saturday morning till Sunday morning, hyped up on gaming, the cause and possibly a 5-hour energy at the end, so please stop in.

Last weekend was the main gameday and as of then, Extra Life has raised over $9,000,000 for the year, but it's not over till we say it's over! (Ok ok, donations are taken right up till the end of the year.) And tomorrow we take our dive to add to that number, and this is where you come in.... joining us to show your support is always a good thing and I will be happy to see you during the adventure. Hell, I even have several multiplayer games ready to go and may well install a few more today or in the background while the marathon is on depending on how it all goes down so we may even meet up in the virtual space. But if you want to help directly, you can also donate to the cause with the link above or on the Team link on the right-side of this page while hanging out with us. It's all there and all handled by the children's miracle network, and any help you can give is greatly appreciated. I am humbled and honored to be able to say I've been part of this event since it began for a single hospital in Texas and expanded into this world-wide phenomenon and can't wait to see you all there.

Thank you again for another amazing year of gaming for the good of others.

Extra Life July Update

Hi everybody and welcome in! Once again, it's time to speak up about Extra Life as we move closer and closer to the big day when gamers around the world will play for 24 hours, showing it to the world. But why? Well up till that moment, we are collecting donations to help sick kids in our local hospitals and then playing to honor those we are trying to help and those who helped up do so! Gamers doing what we do to help the kids who need it most.

Does this sound good to you? Do you play? Video games? Board games? Card games? Collectible figurine games? It doesn't matter what you do, helping kids with it is easy!

1) Get on the site extra-life.org and click the signup button. The process is really easy and the whole event is handled by the Children's Miracle Network. While you do this, you can choose the hospital you are playing for (and as such, where the donations you bring in will go), start a team, join a team (if you know where you want to go) or even go solo. No pressure here at all since you can always make a join a team later if you don't know what you want to do here.

2) Talk to family and friends! These are the people most likely to back you and help you help the kids. You can also always talk to people at work or even put up links in your social media. Do you stream? Bring it up there too! Just get the word out.

3) On November 5th, join gamers around the world where from 9 AM on Saturday till 9 AM on Sunday we will be taking our victory lap in the form of a 24 hour gaming marathon! Can't make that day? That's ok. Every year many gamers go the weekend before or after as alternate days. 

Don't stream? That's ok too... many gamers make local events of the day and in fact I have had the honor of sitting in at a hobby shop where a group got together to play D&D for the time, donating cash during the campaign to get small and large cheats while playing. It was quite clever and no cameras were needed... just to give you ideas.

But what if you don't game? Well that's ok too, you can still help out. On the link in step one is a donate button you can use to help out in general, or you can find your favorite gamers or teams of them to donate to, helping them out with their specific hospital. For example, if you go to the pages section of this page you will find a link to my own team, and we would be honored for the help.

But the point is we are doing this for the kids... and really it's amazing what we as a gaming community have done for them and will continue to do for them. Thank you for reading and see you out there!

Extra Life 2022 June Update

Hi everyone! Almost half the year has gone by and we have only begun to fight! If you have been a part of Extra Life, seriously take a bow. You are part of one of the biggest ways gamers have been able to make the world better for those who truly need it. If you haven't joined yet and want to use your hobby to help sick children (around the world or even just around you), now's the time to sign up!

If you do not know what Extra Life is, it is a charity event where gamers raise money via the Children's Miracle Network and do so by playing video games. Donations are all handled by CMN and culminates to a 24 hour gaming marathon in November. The official day this year is Nov 5th, but this is nothing if not flexible: Many will and usually do take a rain date, making the weekend after another big one... as well as doing marathon drives on the way! To take part, just go to the site and click the sign up button on the page (or you can follow the link above. It's really that simple, and it isn't just video games. Any kind of gaming works from card and board to VR. Just let the world see what you are doing so they can cheer you on and help you support the hospital you are playing for. I myself have been playing since year zero when it was not so much a massive push by the gamer community, but a single website playing to honor a single lost soul (Rest in Peace, Victoria) and help out the hospital that was there for her during her fight with cancer. It felt amazing then back in 08, and it still does now, so I implore you to join us!

And if you don't feel you can do this, or just don't play games, that is ok. You can also help by donating. On the main page there is also a donate button to just help in general... or you can find your favorite gamers and donate to them directly. But if you would like to help us, I have to humbly thank you. You can find our team here and on the side of this site in the pages list. We even have my person twitch stream linked so while there, you might well see some of the games you will see on the big day so get excited! (We even have the link to the team page on the twitch page so if you join us during game time, you can find and help us out there too!)

Either way, thank you for listening, and hope to see you on the big day.

Extra Life 2021 Update

 

Well here we are as another year towards Extra Life is drawing to a close. In just over a month we will be having the big 24-hour gaming marathon. And while things may still be complicated as we go though our second year of a pandemic, things are still looking up. At this point I am proud to say I've almost hit $400 on my own to help out at the Boston Children's Hospital, but I'm still looking to do more before we hit the big one. So I must ask as always if you can help us help the kids, anything at all is more then welcome and we are thankful for anything. You can find the team page for this webpage at https://www.extra-life.org/team/RedSectorShutdown and thank you in advance.

But if you wish to play to help kids, it's still not too late to get involved! Signing up at https://www.extra-life.org will bring you into the event, and it is one hell of a great one. This is handled by the Children's Miracle Network and isn't limited to just video games. Got a D&D gaming group? Why not ask them to be a part of it? More into hobby figurine games or board games? All are welcome! Hell, you don't even need to stream to be a part of this.

But we do need everyone's help to push this year even farther then last year, so if you want to play or just donate, please do. We all, and I mean the kids, those trying to help them, and all us gamers around the world, thank you.

One Month to Go! Join Us at Extra Life!

Ok, it’s now reaching crunch time. Extra Life is almost here, and it’s shaping up to be the biggest one yet! So my question for you, if you are a gamer (and if you visit this site, you probably are), why aren’t you here with us? Seriously, think about that question for a second. On Nov. 2nd, gamers the world over will let loose on their couches, in front of their PCs, around the kitchen table, and in various halls for 25 hours of nonstop gaming time with friends, family, online, and anywhere they are… and this will happen in the name of helping kids who are seriously sick. We have a chance to do what we love, and help out someone who really needs it in the process. Why not be a part of that?