An all-'Zelda' weekend, with no guilt involved

Five college guys plan to spend their entire weekend playing Zelda--and they don't even have to apologize to their girlfriends.

That's because they'll be playing the Ocarina and wielding swords with a virtuous goal--raising money for Child's Play, a game industry charity that brings toys and games to children in more than 40 hospitals around the world.

(Credit: Zelda Universe)

The 72-hour Zelda Marathon, or Zeldathon, kicks off at 7 p.m. EDT Friday and will last through Monday--if at least one team member can keep his hand on a controller at all times. Sean Gonzalez, Pablo Penton, Bobby Martinez, and Andrew Julian will play from college radio station WRGP at Florida International University, where two of the players are DJs.

All the action will be Webcast here via live feed; the marathoners hope viewers will be inspired to contribute to the cause (via the ChipIn service on the donation page)--and not just with rupees.

"We all have free time at the moment and we figured it'd be good to try to raise money for Child's Play while also having a lot of fun," Penton said.

The idea, he said in Hylian (not really), came from other video game marathons, specifically the Super Mario Marathon.

The game guys do plan to get off the couch for bathroom and rest breaks, but say that at least one will always be actively Zelda-ing at any given time. They'll be tackling seven titles in the action-adventure series: The Legend of Zelda, The Adventure of Link, A Link To The Past, Ocarina of Time, Majora's Mask, The Wind Waker, and Twilight Princess.