darkSpyro

Subject: Extra Life 2015

Well, everyone, it's that time of year again! As we did last year, we at mini KABOOM! are participating in the annual Extra Life fundraising event to raise money for sick kids benefited by the Children's Miracle Network. Beginning this evening, November 6th, 2015, at around 7:00 PM EST US, we and our families will begin live streaming various games, chatting, giving away prizes and in general, having a good time. This year, instead of streaming for 24 consecutive hours as we did previously, we will be streaming as much as possible across three days, Friday 11/6, Saturday 11/7 and Sunday 11/8. We will begin streaming this evening around 7:00 PM EST US and around 9:00 AM EST US on Saturday and Sunday; we will be streaming live throughout each day until the point where we're too tired to go on and will "log off" for a few hours overnight, during which the chat room will remain open and we will stream past episodes of our podcast, Skycast: The Unofficial Skylanders Podcast.

We will be playing various family friendly/appropriate games across multiple platforms and invite any/all to join us when possible! There are plans for lots of Skylanders but also instances of Disney Infinity 3.0, Splatoon, Mario Kart and others! Once the kids head to bed this evening, Matt and I plan to stream Destiny together for a while and invite anyone who wants to join our fireteam to do so! If there are any games that we haven't specifically mentioned, please feel free to bring them up and if we have them available we'll see if we can get them into rotation. In the past we've streamed Minecraft for the PC and PS4 and are still up for some group builds if there is demaned for it.

In regard to the prizes, we have so much stuff to give away this year that we'll likely need to get something out the door approximately every 30 minutes in order to be able to give it all away! We have a ton of Skylanders stuff (well, maybe 100lbs) to give away including (but not nearly limited to) two individually packaged Dark element traps, Swap Force and Giants starters for various systems and a Trap Team starter for PS4, two copies of SuperChargers (Wii U & PS4, game & portal only), Punk Shock (standard packaging), Echo, all three Spring Edition minis/traps from earlier this year and more! As a grand prize, we are giving away an incredible painting of Terrafin by jurassicskylander! This will be available to donators only, with one chance to win given for every $5 donated. All donators, no matter the amount, will receive a mini KABOOM! wrist band!

You can check out all the details as well as see a photo of the incredible painting mentioned above at http://minikaboom.com/extra-life/. From there you can see the current list of prizes, what we've raised so far as well as any updates to our streaming schedule that may occur.

So, what can you do to help? If possible, please donate what you can as 100% of donations go to Children's Miracle Network to help sick kids. If you can't donate, we understand. Instead, come hang out with us and help us and others have a great time! Even if you just idle in our channel during the stream, you help drive up our number of viewers which makes us more visible overall on Twitch and helps to bring in donations. We'll be playing a lot of games over multiple days and aim to have a great time this weekend!

Thanks for reading this far and potentially, for any donation(s) you've made. You can check out our live stream starting tonight at around 7:00 PM EST US at http://twitch.tv/minikaboom. If you sign up for a Twitch account, you'll be able to follow us and receive an email notification once we start streaming. You can also follow us on Twitter at @mini_kaboom & @megacollector or on Facebook & Google Plus under Mini Kaboom; as soon as we begin streaming, we'll be sending out notices on all services, so if you're subscribed/following, you should know right after everything starts!

Thanks again for reading through this as well as any support you can offer. Looking forward to seeing you this weekend!

Edit: We will be using the application "Discord" during the stream to be able to take live calls from viewers/fans, so if you'd like to talk to us live and/or don't mind everyone watching hearing you, feel free to give us a call! Discord is currently available at https://discordapp.com/ for PC & Mac (Linux coming soon!) and iOS & Android. Thanks to TakeYourLemons for reminding me about this!

-Doug

(Note to mods: this was pre-approved by dark52 via PM, please confirm with him prior to nuking, thanks!)

I'll be making a donation. I challenge everyone here to do the same. Hope to spend a few minutes using the Discord app to talk to you guys during the stream for a few.

What systems are you guys going to be playing on? I believe PS4...

I was about to ask if you asked Dark because it probably would be more widespread if he made a news post about it.

I'll show up for as much time as I can even to just boost viewer count, though for privacy reasons I won't say my twitch username. And try my hardest to not backseat game during Superchargers >w>

Quote: TakeYourLemons

I'll be making a donation. Hope to spend a few minutes using the Discord app to talk to you guys during the stream for a few.

What systems are you guys going to be playing on? I believe PS4...

...Discord! I'd totally forgotten about that! We use it for private chat for our Destiny clan, but I'd forgotten about Matt mentioning that he'd gotten it happy up and running for the desktop! Now I have to go make an edit to the main post, lol!

The primary/most popular will be the PS4, but we've also got a Wii U, XBOX One, 3DS and PC at our disposal. I'm bringing along my PS4 and will be trying to swing back by my house during lunch to grab my Wii U and my and my wife's 3DS systems. If I'm successful, we'll be able to play Splatoon and Animal Crossing alongside Matt & Abby. I say try due to us packing up the car this morning and having everything ready to go (including baby pick up) as soon as we're out of work.

Quote: Bifrost

I was about to ask if you asked Dark because it probably would be more widespread if he made a news post about it.

I did and he volunteered without us asking, so as soon as he gets my PM about the post going up we may get a sticky/news topic for the next couple of days to help spread the word.

Quote:

I'll show up for as much time as I can even to just boost viewer count, though for privacy reasons I won't say my twitch username. And try my hardest to not backseat game during Superchargers >w>

Much appreciated! If you end up racing with us, it'll probably be a dead heat at the back of the pack, lol!

-Doug

Quote: TTD

I'll sticky the topic to get it some notoriety
Fantastic, cause, I'll try to watch most of the stream as possible.

Thank you! Hope to see you there and honestly, the more I talk and interact with folks about this, the more I can't wait to get started!

-Doug

Thank you all in advance. We had a great time last year and hope this year is even better. We love this community, wouldn't have a show without darkspyro.net. Looking forward to hanging out with you all.

Quote: minikaboom

Thank you all in advance. We had a great time last year and hope this year is even better. We love this community, wouldn't have a show without darkspyro.net. Looking forward to hanging out with you all.

Fist bump. I've been listening since Ep6, you guys get better every week. I still think you guys can get some youtube Skylander guys on your podcasts....I think it would be very awesome. I think doing live calls during your shows might be another good twist.

Had fun with y'all last year. Wish I could join in the fun this year. Good luck!

Get on, guys. Infinity toybox now.

Moving on to Destiny...thanks to all who have stopped by. Partay!

I'm checking right now. Good way to attract gamers to the cause.

SuperChargers in Play....

Yep! SuperChargers all day long + giveaways galore. twitch.tv/minikaboom

Green Gill Grunt Prize + more to come. Weeee.

Sweet! I'm in!

I'll definitely pitch in a donation today! Stoked that I won the Comic Packs!

I was just talking to mini Kaboom with my kids for the last little bit. Please consider donating to Extra Life and participating and supporting min iKaboom.

Thanks guys, it's been a blast!

Final day of the stream starting soon(hopefully, the 'starting soon' screen isn't actually up)!

edit: or... Not? Dunno if a delay was announced yesterday because I left way early.

9amEST was the starting time....you were a bit early.

Doug played some Nintendo classic last night (helped Matt complete Super Mario Bros. and then played through MegaMan 2 and then returned to Destiny chores.

We're starting today off with Infinity.

End of stream! It was awesome, guys!

A great time was had! I even won an Echo at the last minute, a Punk Shock on Saturday and Skystone cards. YAY

I won some comics and a dark trap. mini Kaboom DOUBLED their donations over last year. Great time was had by all, but I must admit I was expecting more folks from here to join the party. Congrats to those who did AND make themselves known--fairyland, Matteomax, myself, JAP28 (is that his id here) ... and any others I may have missed. It was a great geekfest / community event!

Btw, it's still not too late to donation to extra life to gain a raffle entry to the wonderful Terrafin painting.

http://minikaboom.com/extra-life/

Mods: I guess we can now un-sticky this topic.

dang i missed the last day. dang east to west coast time diffrence

I see dark52 chipped in another $50 last minute...way to go. over $750 raised. Awesome job everyone.

EDIT: Alphawolf donated $15....now over $766. Wahoo!

Ok, now that I've been home and have gotten a little sleep (but still feel like I need about a week to catch up, ah, being a parent, lol)...

Thank you so much to everyone who was able to come hang out with us, to jurassicskylander for the amazing painting he donated as our grand prize and to everyone who was able to donate and/or otherwise support us as we raised money for sick kids. Special thanks to dark52 for allowing this thread, allowing it to be stickied then putting it front and center on the launch page of darkSpyro! I know this helped drive a lot of traffic our way and resulted in a lot of visibility that we likely wouldn't have otherwise had. Another special thanks to TakeYourLemons for helping keep this topic updated and engaged as well as trying to get the Reddit Skylanders folks excited and involved! I know I wasn't always the most vocal or communicative member of our party, but I honestly can't thank everyone enough for pitching in and hanging out.

As it's going to take a little bit of time for all of us to get our feet 100% back under us (and for Matt to get all the prizes packed, labelled, etc.), the drawing for the painting will be later this week with a "last call" announcement coming through via the official (I want to put quotes around that so badly, lol) miniKABOOM! social media accounts prior to it taking place. This will give anyone who wasn't able to join the stream who still wanted to donate (or folks who just want to rack up extra chances at the grand prize) a chance to do so before it's too late. Even though we'll be giving away the last prize for the official Extra Life stream soon, it doesn't mean that folks can't still help out. Extra Life 2015 will technically still be running through 12/31/2015, so if you end up skipping a cup of coffee, eating a sandwich at home instead of going through the drive-thru, etc. and feel like doing so you still have plenty of time for it. There were some incredibly generous donations this weekend and while we announced each donation as (we realized) it came in, we would like to specifically call out (by name/handle) on the next Skycast everyone who donated and give special thanks to those who went above and beyond.

If anyone has any questions, comments, etc., feel free to drop them in this thread, via PM, email, social media, etc., and we'll be happy to respond. As we all still feel like we've been hit by a small economy car (unlike a large truck, like last year), there may be some small delay in our responses until we get back to our usual rest patterns and daily routines.

With that being said, I had a great weekend and hope everyone else did too. Thanks for indulging me with my Nintendo obsession (you missed out, UncleBob!), helping me goad Matt into finally rescuing the princess and your tolerance of our Destiny habit. We can quit any time, we swear! (twitch, twitch)

I'll stop rambling now, give one final thank you for this post (before it just becomes a wall of thanks) and sign off for the moment. Everyone came together as a community for a great cause and helped us turn several people staring at a TV and talking to one another while playing games into a weekend long good time for everybody. You folks are great and we can't thank you enough. Here's looking forward to next year's stream!

-Doug

Doug there was no indulging you with your Nintendo obsession...that part was actually really cool for us older, senior gamers. haha Well my opinion.
Matt's princess is finally not in another castle. haha

Was a total nerd-fest week-end. You guys were troopers!!! To be on like that and very entertaining for soooo many hours. Great work and for an even greater cause!
Awesome to everyone who donated or who just joined in on the fun!

Quote: JAP28

Doug there was no indulging you with your Nintendo obsession...that part was actually really cool for us older, senior gamers. haha Well my opinion.
Matt's princess is finally not in another castle. haha

Was a total nerd-fest week-end. You guys were troopers!!! To be on like that and very entertaining for soooo many hours. Great work and for an even greater cause!
Awesome to everyone who donated or who just joined in on the fun!

I remember my NES fondly. I had actually forgotten that there were two warp paths on 4-2. I want to see Streets of Rage on the next stream

I still need some level playthroughs and races online to get some gold badges, so feel free to ping me when you're online JAP28.

Who won the lovely artwork drawing? Even though I have a 2.5% chance, I'm hoping to win it. LOL!

Quote: JAP28

Doug there was no indulging you with your Nintendo obsession...that part was actually really cool for us older, senior gamers. haha Well my opinion.

Well, as far as I can tell, none of the younger gamers complained, so it looks like a good (or at least neutral) time was had by all, which is great for me since I'm such a classic game nerd! Now to figure out how to get my Atari 2600 hooked up to capture hardware and get one of my Odyssey2's running...lol!

Quote:

Matt's princess is finally not in another castle. haha

My thoughts exactly. I can't recall if it was on the stream or not, but Matt told me sometime afterward that finally finishing that game was like a weight had actually been lifted from his chest. I thought he was humoring me, but I overheard him telling his wife the same thing the next day after we'd stopped streaming. I initially pulled that surprise out of my bag both for my amusement as well as a potential point of interest for viewers and fans, but I'm glad that it really accomplished something more than just making us grin.

Quote:

Was a total nerd-fest week-end. You guys were troopers!!! To be on like that and very entertaining for soooo many hours. Great work and for an even greater cause!

Thank you! I wasn't sure how entertaining we were long-term, as there's only so long that one can "put on the face" before you just start acting completely natural (for good or bad), which for me is probably about 5 minutes, lol!

Quote: TakeYourLemons

I remember my NES fondly. I had actually forgotten that there were two warp paths on 4-2. I want to see Streets of Rage on the next stream

Honestly, I had forgotten the second warp zone as well, lol! I ended up on top of the level, having messed up the vine blocks and was like, "Whaaat? Maybe I remembered this wrong...oh, one pipe, NOPE."

I'll have to see if I've got the first Streets of Rage, but I'll be happy to accommodate. I know that I've got 2, but don't know for sure that I've got 1. If I can get the hardware and software together that I'll need to stream on my own, I'll definitely put together a list of titles that I've got on-hand and would be able to stream. As it is, I've got ~97% of the entire NES library, 10-20 GameBoy titles, 4-5 GBA titles, and maybe 10-15 each of SNES and Genesis. There wasn't a great deal that appealed to me in the 16-bit era, so I mostly skipped that period in gaming. I do, however, have a couple of friends who own a great independent game shop who can likely sell me more common titles that folks request and I don't have on hand, so the sky may just be the limit.

Quote: fairyland

Who won the lovely artwork drawing? Even though I have a 2.5% chance, I'm hoping to win it. LOL!

At this exact moment, no one. However, sometime in the next few (couple?) days Matt will be announcing a "last call" for donations via the official mini KABOOM! social media accounts and then drawing the winner. I'll make sure to cross-post that information here as soon as a winner has been drawn. Thanks for tuning in, hanging out and donating!

-Doug

Hey, if you really want to go retro.....






And yes, I had the Odyssey at one time in my childhood. I first programmed on a TRS-80 and an Apple ][

Got my winnings from the Extra Life 2015 Mini-Kaboom event! Thanks so much! Here is an image of my haul!



Hope to see you guys again next year!

Normal Package Punk Shock? Wow.

Quote: The Bone Chompy

Normal Package Punk Shock? Wow.

She was released in the US at Five Below stores. She's rather common now.