Gamers set to play to their strengths in record attempt

Some people prepare for world record attempts by working out every hour of the day.

However, four video gamers are preparing for their assault on the Guinness Book of Records by staying glued to their monitors for days on end.

The group will be attempting to break world records for marathon gaming at Twitch Games on Nicolson Street, playing the same game non-stop for more than two days.

They hope to last at least 51 hours, raising money for children's charity Games Aid in the process.

Alan Teader, 28, of gaming website www.sticktwiddlers.com, which is organising the event, said: "Each person is allocated a particular game and according to the Guinness regulations, for every hour that the person plays that game continuously they get a five-minute break, but apart from that you're not allowed to do anything else.

"There are records for all of them currently - they do vary, for example the soccer game I believe is 24 hours - and we're hoping to at least double a lot of them."

Twitch Games will be open throughout the event for people to drop in and donate. The shop's Alan McLevy said: "They asked if we'd host it and we said yes and welcomed them in with open arms. They were doing it for charity, they're really nice guys and they've got a lot of enthusiasm and we thought 'Let's go for it'."

The four aspiring record-breakers, who will travel to Edinburgh from all over the UK to take part, will take on the games Halo Reach, Fifa 2011, Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit, and Grand Theft Auto IV, and visitors will also have the chance to try breaking a record. The controller-free game Kinect Sports will be set up so that even people who have never gamed before can try their luck at achieving the fastest sprint time, furthest javelin throw or fastest hurdles time.

Mr Teader, a trainee teacher from Straiton, said: "If people come down to try and break one of the records they can make a small donation to the charity and then they can have a go."

Mr Teader said the team had been working hard to prepare for the event. "The biggest challenge is probably maintaining a reasonable level of hand-eye coordination.

"It's very easy to say 'Oh, it's only 50 or 60 hours', but when you put that into real terms, it's three days essentially that someone's going to have to be sat in front of a monitor. It's going to be difficult staying alert.

"We've been practising for it and we've been trying to stay awake, some of the guys have managed 60 hours, but that's doing other things and you can go to the toilet whenever you want, or watch a film or read a book."I think it's going to get quite monotonous."

The attempt will begin at 9am on March 25. To sponsor the team visit www.justgiving.com/sticktwiddlersworldrecord.