Game on as Mansfield man treks up a mountain to play his favourite video game
Most video game fans play from the comfort of their sofa but a Mansfield gamer decided to mark the 25th anniversary of his favourite game by hiking to the highest point in the peak district to play.
Tom Allen, aged 32 of Carlisle Mews, has been playing military science fiction game Halo since he was 10-years-old and wanted to mark the milestone moment by doing something a bit different.
Armed with power banks, controllers and beers to toast the occasion Tom, who works in IT support, trekked up Kinder Scout, standing at 636 metres, with friend Thomas Finlay to play the entirety of the game.
Tom said: “I’ve spent so many hours over the years playing the game and I just thought let’s do something different, something memorable to mark the 25th anniversary of the game.
"My friend has never played the game so I thought it would be funny if the first time he played it was up a mountain.
"We carried a huge power bank, controllers and beer and played through the entire game and then watched the sunrise.”
The pair carried their bags weighing around 25kg up the mountain and spent around four hours playing the game, trying their best to conserve power.
Tom said: “I’ve done a lot of hiking and this was definitely the heaviest bag I had ever carried.
"Finlay had come all the way from Essex to do this so I bet he only ended up getting an hour of sleep, he really enjoyed it though although I did have to skip through some pretty important sections of the game so we didn’t use all the battery so I told him it probably wasn’t the best way to be introduced to the game but it’s definitely something he’ll remember.”
Tom still has video footage of the first time he played the game, that has gone on to become a cultural phenomenon.
He said: “I just love everything about it, it has a really good story, there’s an element of mystery to it and you get to do stupid, whacky stuff in it too.”
Watch footage of Tom’s gaming trip here