Final fantasy marathon going down this July

FF V completed in 12.32 hours
FF VIII completed in 18.25 hours

Time table UPDATED

Hello there everyone!

This summer me and some of my friends realised we had something in common – a decent ammount of freetime. Intending to do something about it, we will be holding a final fantasy marathon to entertain ourselves and hopefully an audience – that being everyone willing to watch from a safe distance via livestream.

So, about us then. We’re a group of 4 friends who’ve known eachother for the last few years, mostly via studies. We’re either students, or in my case, soon-to-be-student after having completed my compulsory military service in the swedish army (two weeks ago). This idea came about a few months ago, and we formed the group "Tantalus 4" for pure fun.

Tantalus 4 marathon rules:

Time limit: The goal is 10 days (240 hours)
Consoles: PS3, Nintendo DS (for FF III)
Style: Single-segment (saving allowed, but limited by time). Only one game at the time, and we count it completed once we have defeated the final boss.

Tantalus 4 marathon information:

Games: FF I, II, III, IV, V, VI, VII, VIII, IX, X, XII, XIII
Members: MasterSundberg (VI, VIII, XII), KingVikmo (I, II, IX, X), Emanuel (IV, V, VII, XIII), Rickard (III, VIII, X, XII, XIII)
Date: 22th July
Recording: The games will be live-streamed from our website. Also, broadcasts from other events/random stuff will be added.
Website: Tantalus 4 | Home (http://tantalus4.se)
Game order: 13, 2, 8, 5, 1, 12, 4, 10, 6, 7, 9, 3
Location: Sweden, MasterSundberg’s or Vikmo’s apartment

More info will be added as time passes. Stay Tuned!

So what do you people think? Will we make it or not? If you have questions or are interested, about anything, ask away or visit our website at Tantalus 4 | Home (http://tantalus4.se) It’s kind of plain, but works for our purpose.

Update 7 July

Everything is coming along. In the pipeline right now is final fantasy i, final fantasy iii, final fantasy vii and final fantasy viii. Everything is going well except a tight time-limit and me having trouble rushing viii before I get a decent str-junction.

Update 13 July

The game schedule is ready. It may still change, but this is the plan! We choose the current game-order because 1) We will need to rest and 2) Watching 6 2D-games in a row might get at bit tiresome. Also, we had to move the start-date a few days, mainly because it’s getting increasingly hard to keep the time plan. Most trouble right now are FF VI (No Joker Doom, no fun), FF VII (really unforgiving at low-levels before you get to the good parts of the speed-run) and FF IX (limit-glove and only do so much). Comments, tips and strategies are always welcome!

On to the good news! Things are moving forward. We feel a great deal of the games are under control, in the "under control"-section are FF I, FF II, FF III, FF VIII (though Griever’s shockwave-pulsar can be a bitch) and FF X (Rikku saves the day!). On the flip-side, we’ve hardly started on some games and other games are truly challenging.

Location: Johan’s or Joakim’s apartment.

Start: July 22, 12.00 Local time (GMT +1)

Game order: 13, 2, 8, 5, 1, 12, 4, 10, 6, 7, 9, 3

UPDATE: 19th july

The pressure is rising rapidly as July 22 approaches us. The marathon will start in 3 mere days, and I tell you, we really look forward to it with fear-mixed anticipation! Everyone is working furiously to get ready and pull stuff together. An apartment has been more or less re-organized and is now pimped with 2 televisions, a PS 3, two PS 2, a PS 1, 3 computers, a mixer-table and a nintendo DS.
The picture-in-picture view is ready, along with most of the games. Still in progress are FF IV, FF VII and FF XII.

Here’s the time-table!

V (E) 17 h [22th, 12 pm]

VIII (S) 24 h [23th, 05 am]

II (V) 20 h [24th, 05 am]

XIII (R, E) 20 h [25th, 01 am]

IX (V) 24 h [25th, 9 pm]

XII (S, R) 25 h [26th, 9 pm]

IV (E) 20 h [27, 10 pm]

X (V, R) 20 h [28th, 6 pm]

VI (S) 12 h [29th, 2 pm]

I (V) 13 h [30th, 2 am]

VII (E) 25 h [30th, 3 pm]

III (R) 20 h [30th, 4 pm]

Denotings: Rickard, Emanuel, Vikmo, Sundberg

Here it is! As you can see, Rickard and Emanuel will start playing XIII the 22th. It will of course change over time as we screw up/improve. The times are 01+ GTM.

UPDATE: 21th july

The countdown has begun my friends! In about 18 hours, we’ll try to complete a full final fantasy marathon, which to our knowledge will be a world-first (completing the full marathon, that is). The above time-table is out of date, the first game will be Final fantasy V – but more on that later. As for me? There is still much to do. Playing even more FF, preparing the apartment, the live-cam and pesky details such as food and caffeine.

See ya tomorrow!

Regards from MasterSundberg and the Tantalus 4 crew.

Update 3 July: Some additional information on the players and the rules. Some cosmetic changes were made.

Update 13 July: Additional information added. Game-schelude etc etc

Get a N.E.S for FF3. The DS remake is garbage.

To answer your question!
We have a DS and not a NES, besides, we haven’t been able to get our hands on a English ff III, if it even exists (since it was originally released in japan).

Its not in English, but its better than the ds shite.

Its not in English, but its better than the ds shite.

Agreed.

Why is X-2 skipped? It’s better than half of those games.

Yeah, I will have to agree that X-2 should be on that list.

Though not main line Tactics is amazing and should be on list too.

Of course I am just kidding, but still.

Yeah, I will have to agree that X-2 should be on that list.

Though not main line Tactics is amazing and should be on list too.

Of course I am just kidding, but still.

Do you know that your name backwards spells ‘I’m a nazi’??

Now that you know I am going to have to kill you…

Now that you know I am going to have to kill you…

I’m already dead

Ok, good, because I really didn’t want to.

Actually, we originally wanted to play X-2 as well. However, in the end we decided to prioritize what we feel are the main games in order to keep the time down- the original 1-13, not counting any sequels or spin-offs.

Much love, MasterSundberg

Ok, good, because I really didn’t want to.

🙂

Actually, we originally wanted to play X-2 as well. However, in the end we decided to prioritize what we feel are the main games in order to keep the time down- the original 1-13, not counting any sequels or spin-offs.

Much love, MasterSundberg

Switch out 3 for X-2, then you have a valid marathon.

3 on the DS took less than 8 hours to beat….

We might still reconsider, it all depends on how prepared we feel and what the estimated completion-time is when the time draws close. Right now we’re running with the logical choice of games, we would rather ADD X-2 if there’s time, instead of removing one of the true main games.
We will be adding a estimated play-time for each game over time… and on that matter, the "best" X-2 speedrun-time is about 4 h. It’s pretty fair to compare it with FF III 🙂

Much love, MasterSundberg

4 hours? Impressive. I heard the fastest time for FFVII was 7 hours, that was like HOW???

4 hours? Impressive. I heard the fastest time for FFVII was 7 hours, that was like HOW???

Esay, just don’t bother grinding.

4 hours? Impressive. I heard the fastest time for FFVII was 7 hours, that was like HOW???

Speed demos archive (http://speeddemosarchive.com/FinalFantasyX2.html) has the answer! Some of the speedruns are really impressive (FF vi for example).

I’m downloading the FFVI speed run now. I’m interested 😛 Thank you.

UPDATE: 19th july

The pressure is rising rapidly as July 22 approaches us. The marathon will start in 3 mere days, and I tell you, we really look forward to it with fear-mixed anticipation! Everyone is working furiously to get ready and pull stuff together. An apartment has been more or less re-organized and is now pimped with 2 televisions, a PS 3, two PS 2, a PS 1, 3 computers, a mixer-table and a nintendo DS.
The picture-in-picture view is ready, along with most of the games. Still in progress are FF IV, FF VII and FF XII.

Stay tuned!

Double-posted. My mistake

:popcorn:

The time has come at last! The marathon will start in about an hour, see you out there.

-The tantalus 4 crew

Games completed:

FF V: 12 h and 32 min
FF VIII: 18 h and 25 min
FF II: 10 h and 47 min

Next up is FF XIII, which is currently being played

I’m watching you guys play FFXIII.
Good job.

I’ll be watching from time to time.

Watching you play FFX. This is crazy, you guys are really going to pull this off.

Yeah! We’re still going strong, with only 3 games left now. Current status is

FF V: 12 h and 32 min
FF VIII: 18 h and 25 min
FF II: 10 h and 47 min
FF XIII: 35 h and 14 min
FF IX: 27 h and 17 min
FF XII: 23 h and 6
FF IV: 19 h 6 min

We’re 4 h and 33 min ahead of schelude.

so is one playing and everyone else watching or you have a few tvs and ps3s?

Hello people!

The tantalus team is sorry to announce that it’s true – the marathon failed.
We’d like to thank everyone for watching and supporting us through it all, it was a blast! We love you all for the company and positive comments 🙂 It was a strange event, yet amazing. For a brief time, FF literally consumed our lives, and we loved it. Even better, people enjoyed watching us play!

With this behind us, we in the tantalus team will consider arranging another FF-marathon in June 2011.

Here are the final times:

Final fantasy I: 8 h 16 min
Final fantasy II: 10 h 47 min
Final fantasy III: 25 h + (never completed)
Final fantasy IV: 19 h 6 min
Final fantasy V: 12 h 32 min
Final fantasy VI: 19 h
Final fantasy VII:20 h 27 min
Final fantasy VIII: 18 h 25 min
Final fantasy IX: 27 h 17 min
Final fantasy X: 20 h 31 min
Final fantasy XII: 23 h 6 min
Final fantasy XIII: 35 h 14 min

We did not get a "final" time, since we eventually had to break. Final fantasy III was the last game we played, and the major reason we failed. Unforeseen problems in the late game made it impossible to proceed and finish it within the time limit.

Thanks again for watching and supporting. Stay tuned for more updates on facebook and our website.

Much love /The tantalus 4 team