At 4:58 a.m., Jim and I enjoy a nutricious breakfast before getting started. Jim is in charge for the first hour; he wants to play WWE: Day of Reckoning. We’re off and running.

There was a bit of self doubt as the alarm went off at 4:55, but now the adrenaline is starting to kick in. I think my six hours of sleep last night ought to be enough to hold me over for 24 hours. I guess we’ll see.

What’s it like to compete in a fake sport? I imagine much more interesting than playing the video game. The problem with pro “wrestling” is that the players aren’t really fighting. They’re stunt men, and they’re expending enormous effort trying NOT to hurt the other guy. In video pro wrestling, there are no such concerns, which makes it bizarrely surreal. You mean I’m supposed to “fight” this guy? What about all those moments during a wrestling match when one wrestler lies on the floor “stunned” so the other guy can sling him over his shoulder, climb up on the turnbuckle, and then take him down with a double-twisting flip? How does the game action work then? Turns out, you really are stunned, so the other guy can simply have his way with you — you have no defense. What’s the point of playing a game if you can’t actually control your character? I think I’ve successfully talked Jim into playing a new game.

After several humiliating defeats in WWE: Day of Reckoning and Super Smash Bros, we finally started to play some games on MY turf: Madden 2005 and Tony Hawk’s Underground. Surprisingly, even though Jim doesn’t even know the rules of football, he did manage to keep up with me for a while, but eventually I managed to prevail. Here’s Jim after a hard-fought loss to the Atlanta Falcons on a cold Charlotte December:

My left index finger is now definitely starting to feel the wear after 4 hours of gaming. Jim claims he’s starting to feel soreness in the right thumb. Typing is quite difficult in this condition, but I’ll attempt to soldier on in the interest of keeping an accuract record of our epic struggle.

UPDATE: Argh! I left the camera on and now we’re out of battery power. It might be a few hours before there are more pictures; I’ve got them in the charger now.

At what point in the morning is it appropriate to switch from Pop Tarts to chips and guacamole? Please respond quickly — it’s very important!

Here’s the injury report after 8.5 hours of solid gaming.

Aside from a vague feeling of dizziness and an overall numbness in the fingers, I’m not doing too bad. Now the biggest pain is in my right ring finger — it’s being strained by the shape of the Ninendo controllers. I can include a photo, because I just realized my wife’s camera’s here and fully charged:

The way I have to hold the Nintendo controller forces me to stretch the fingers uncomfortably. I may have to modify my grip in order to continue.

I do have to say, the guacamole’s quite good at 11:30 in the morning. I dripped a big glob of it on my pants, but a paper towel took care of that.

Jim’s most definitely superior to me in all “combat” games. Those sorts of games these days involve a vast array of tricks — key combinations to release “special” moves, which I really have no knack for.

I’m holding my own in Football and in Tony Hawk, though.

I was eliminated from a 32-character tournament in Super Smash Bros, and now Jim’s finishing off the field. Just look at this concentration:

My fatigue seems to be going in waves. Not much soreness at all now; at this point the energy expenditure is more mental than anything else. We polished of an entire bag of Tostitos an hour or so ago; perhaps that has something to do with it. I was able to modify my grip on the controller so that there’s practically no fatigue on my right ring finger anymore.

So far I think my favorite game has to be Madden 2005. Does that have anything to do with the fact it’s the only game I can consistently defeat him in? Of course not — I would never be so vain as to put my success over the chance for my son to feel “empowered.”

I had to change the title of this post to “almost halfway there”: I forgot we started at 5:00, not 4:00. Still 13.5 hours of this to go!

When you’re on the 14th hour of solid video gaming, one of the first things to go is your writing ability.

Jim shows the meal of choice for hungry gamers: Nachos with three types of dip.

This meal includes all four food groups: Red, White, Green, and Yellow.

With just over five hours to go, I’ve hit the point where I need to warm up this morning’s coffee to stay alert. I think I’ll make it, but it won’t be pretty.