Don't Touch That Dial

[Pepsi Ranger]

It’s official. You’ve got six weeks. And then it comes. The Epic Marathon will be making its return on September 25th. And it’s gonna be the biggest and baddest one yet.

What will it be about this year? Some may already know. For those who don’t, the savvy investigator could find out pretty easily. And for those who like mysteries, but hate solving them, stay tuned until the end of September to find out more.

In the meantime, I’m gonna give each of you a chance to come into the contest with some bonus points under your belt.

There have been four contests so far. One of them was a big success. One of them failed miserably. The other two had moderate turnouts. All of them had the potential for more.

For those who intended to join the old Epic Marathons, but never produced anything, or failed to finish what you started, this is your chance to redeem yourself.

Starting now, and continuing into the contest phase, I will be allowing new entries to old contests (sans the Magnus contest unless you were on the original signup and never released your game) and to drastically revised versions of games already submitted for a hefty point bonus toward Epic Marathon 5.

Here’s how it’ll work.

The Magnus games are six years old now. The engine’s changed a lot since then. Volcanic Kings never received a single entry. Considering all the time I put into preparing it, I’d still like to see one. Mynority Whispers still has an empty entry on the Game List. Retrogamer was making it, which means it would’ve been really cool had it ever been finished. Who Shot Bob the Hamster? had one game entry. It too was never finished (despite a number of people requesting it to be finished).

Each of these game series could use some fresh blood.

The contest window for Epic Marathon 5 will be another long one, so most of you should have enough time to work on several games at once during this time (including your non-contest projects). For anyone who drastically revises his Magnus entry (with sound effects), creates a Volcanic Kings game (I’ll email you the rules if you choose this option as the original website is probably lost by now), revises his current Mynority Whispers game or releases a new one (the rules can be found on Castle Paradox in the “Third Annual Epic Marathon” thread), or creates a new adventure game surrounding the Bob the Hamster mystery (though the resolution’s already been posted, so it would make more sense to use it as backdrop than to make it the actual story) or finishes an old Bob the Hamster entry (I’m looking right at you, Shadowiii), I will award you 50 bonus points toward the fifth contest. Or, if your entry manages to end in the negative point range from excessive penalties, I will automatically bring your score up to zero.

If you’ve ever needed a reason to go back in time, this is your chance.

Before I close, I need to make it clear what constitutes a revision. A couple tweaks here and there aren’t enough. What I’m looking for are new areas, fully orchestrated soundtracks, or even finished games. Maybe you want to introduce a new hero. Maybe you were itching to burn down the hero’s village but just couldn’t find the time. A qualifying revision should be something that’s noticeably different from the original version. It can be a change to the battle structure. It can be a complete overhaul of graphics. The best revision, of course, would be to add new areas. But it’s up to you.

You may post your additions or revisions to the existing roster of past games anytime between now and the end of Epic Marathon 5. I won’t reveal the deadline here until the contest starts, but I assure you that you’ll have plenty of time to make a qualifying entry this year.

For anyone reading this who has no idea what the Epic Marathon is, it’s a somewhat annual contest that attempts to chain similar stories or ideas together into a single grand unit, often bypassing theme in favor of building epic stories. Lately it’s become an organic contest that is constantly changing its parameters to become more interesting to contestants depending on how successful the last one was. This year’s bonus score (what you’re reading now) is one such example, as this has never been done before (to my knowledge) in any contest. It is also a contest that attempts to put the fun back into game design by offering a wealth of alternative options for scoring additional points toward an entry (again, such as this).

This will be the biggest Epic Marathon ever, and not just because of what it’ll focus on. There is more to this story than what I’ve been discussing, and I’ll reveal the full story on September 25th. Stay tuned until then.

You may now return to your regularly scheduled program.

[Mogri]

Dang Pepsi it is like you are asking me to make more Darkmoor and what can I say? I mean other than "I won't possibly have enough time." I can only say yes, I want to do it.

[Pepsi Ranger]

Dang Pepsi it is like you are asking me to make more Darkmoor and what can I say? I mean other than "I won't possibly have enough time." I can only say yes, I want to do it.

Aw, come on, new family man (congrats by the way), you could always release Darkmoor Beckons in that timeframe and receive your 50 points. I don't think you realize how large the contest window is going to be. Here's a hint: it won't be a mere month. Unless your OHR life is over now you *should* have enough time to make at least a little more Darkmoor for your bonus.

[Mogri]

Oh man. You know I love it when you talk to me like that.

The gears in my head are slowly turning now.

[Uncommon]

I've always wanted to remake Magnus Seventeen, but I've had this idea for an interactive comic that would take a lot of planning (i'd have to set up the branch or at least get some thoughts on it before i started) and involves removing it from the Magnus canon.

[Pepsi Ranger]

I've always wanted to remake Magnus Seventeen, but I've had this idea for an interactive comic that would take a lot of planning (i'd have to set up the branch or at least get some thoughts on it before i started) and involves removing it from the Magnus canon.

Well, can we honestly say that any of the non-Ryan Simonetta Magnus games are part of the canon? I think if your characters are the same, I could probably be talked into dishing out the 50 points, even if the Magnus part of the story changes.

Throw in a Mynorety Whispers reference and the 50 points are guaranteed. (just kidding)

This is more about updating the games (or series) than it is about updating defunct contests. It's sort of slapping the face of contests old where the games died because the contests ended.

The only one that's sort of begging for a contest resurgence is the Volcanic Kings series, but that's because it's the only one to break my heart (it almost killed off all future Epic Marathons if anyone remembers). What actually happens with these updates is up to all of you. As long as it's updated (noticeably), I'll award the 50 bonus points or eliminate the penalties depending on which side of zero you fall into.