A GROUP from Bournemouth have completed a ‘Zelda Marathon’ to raise money for charity.

Six avid gamers played games from the Zelda series 24 hours a day for nine days to raise funds for GamesAid, a UK video games industry-based charity, which distributes donated money between several charities.

Michael Warner, Lewis Deacon, Paul Hughes, Henry Lyons, Andy Talbot and Richard Tyrell all gave up their time to take part.

Lewis, 25, a BT engineer, said: “None of us had done anything like this before and it was Michael who came up with the idea and bought all the games for it.”

“It went really well and we managed to raise £1,300 so far for Games Aid.

“We’ve seen other events like this, such as one for Mario in America.

“The idea was to play all the Zelda games, but as some of us hadn’t played the series before, I think that task was a bit too big for us.

“So we played all the major titles and then finished with the latest release, Skyward Sword.”

Footage of the gamers on their games marathon was also streamed online, so that viewers could watch as well as donate money and set tasks for them.

The challenge also coincides with the 25th anniversary of the Zelda franchise.

For more information, go to: zeldagamesaid.co.uk