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 2025 July Update

Hello everyone and welcome back to the Extra-Life updates. As we rush towards November and the big event, things have been, well... rather hectic here at the RedSector. Some reasons very happy... others, well... let's just say it's also been a very rough month over here.

But I am getting ahead of myself. If you are first hearing about Extra-Life with this post, all I can say is "Welcome in!" At the most basic level, this is a yearly run charity event where gamers gather, pick a children's hospital to play for, and all donations made in their name go specifically to there. Run by the Children's Miracle Network, we do our best to use our hobbies and help these kids throughout the year, and yes I said hobbies. Most of us use video games, but there are table-tops and board games. Card games and RPG games around a table with buddies. Basically if you can imagine it being a nerd's playtime, it probably fits in here.

However, the big day we all look forward to is in November when we get to celebrate with the major push with a 24/25 hour gaming marathon! I'll be honest, it's one of the big days I personally look forward to each year since the event began, and every year it has only gotten better each time. From it's it's humble beginnings drawn from a rather simple appeal to do something in the name of a young lady who lost her life to cancer, to the absolute behemoth of an event, I've had the absolute honor of watching this event grow to what it is from the inside. But I'm not exactly the best to explain that story. I leave that to the team at their site.

Still to focus on the past few months we have definitely had some personal highs and lows which have limited what I can do to draw to it... perhaps more extreme then I have ever seen happen for me. I have not been able to do the streaming I wished to for this event this month due to both medical and family reasons: My family tends to take one week a year to go on vacation, which limits a lot of what I can do streaming wise that week, but so does being sick to the point of going to the emergency room. (No I am not about to give details. to that, but having been there a few times this month, my schedule was pretty much killed.) I am still recovering some as I write this, but yes, I am ok and hoping to get back to my usual schedule soon... kinda.

I have every intention of continuing our adventure through the Phantasy Star series as soon as I can get back to it and on our usual schedule, but I may be increasing the rate at which I stream for this event before we get there, and not just through a random game of the week. While that was fun, I would like to share the adventure of what I'm playing with you all on my own, and to do that, streaming may become more of a "when I'm playing, we're here" like I used to do. This may be a development in progress, but we will see how things go. But the confirmed schedule is as follows as soon as I can get back to it:

• Wednesday - Phantasy Star Day: As much as I love this series, I think my experiment to try to push it into Saturday as well wasn't flying so well for me... so I think we are returning to a weekly adventure here. We are still working on Phantasy Star 4 and in fact very early in the game, but we will let the game breath a bit more between runs. Generally this will be an evening stream around 7 PM Eastern, but as of right now I don't want to set an exact time while everything settles.
• Drop in at Random: I wish I had more I can say, but where I plan to stream pretty much "whenever" I don't think a plan for Saturday is going to work any longer. Rather what I am hoping to do is to pop on the stream when I'm playing so people can just "join in" if they think what I'm playing is interesting. At the moment I am getting ready to start Shadowgate 2014: Not a new game for me, but I haven't played since it launched and I know it has had a LOT of updates since. If you want to join in the fun, please feel free to do so.

Of course joining me for a stream or two may be a fun way to see what Extra Life is all about, it's even better when you can actually get involved directly, and that can be done a few ways:

• Become a participant! As always, the best way to help these sick kids is to step into the ring and play yourself! And it couldn't be easier to do. On the Extra-Life website, there is a sign up button which will guide you through the process, including the ability to pick which hospital you are playing for or even the team you want to join up with if you choose. From there it's a matter of collecting donations, and the site has ideas for that as well! The only detail after this is gameday itself, but we will get to that in a moment.
  
  
  
• Donate in the name of your favorite player! If you don't think you can play or just want to back someone else playing, that is important to. After all, if it wasn't for donations made in the name of these players, we wouldn't be able to do what we have over the past 16 years and still will do again! Here you will also have a few choices.
• If you are looking to support a different gamer's efforts, you can find them easily enough with the search on the header of the Extra Life page. Whether an individual or a team page, there will be a donate button right there that will make the process easy.
  
  
  
• However, if you want to help us directly, I have to personally thank you for much the same reason. The process is the same, but I can supply you with a direct link to the Red Sector Team Page below. (We also have a link in the about section of my streams)
  

Once again, thank you for any help and support you offer to help these sick kids, but before I go, there is one more thing to cover: Gameday. To explain what it is, Gameday is the 24 hour marathon that highlights EVER Extra Life player's year, but until this year, it was always a single defined day on the webpage. Those who could not play on the big day (myself usually included) would pick a rain day to play instead. This year, there is no one Gameday. There is a Gameweek. I have not yet picked my own day, but Gameweek is from November 8th through November 16th and you can pick any one to join in the fun! When I have a date you will know, but it's gonna be a blast whatever day you (or I) pick!

But on that note, I have to thank you all and head out. You will hear from me again soon. Have fun out there.

- 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