If you’re planning to be in Los Angeles, CA during E3 (June 5th – 7th), get your gaming hands ready! Qualcomm needs your help to set a Guinness World Record for “Longest Video Games Marathon Playing on a Tablet” using their Snapdragon processors. The Snapdragon Gaming World Record Challenge effort is in collaboration with AT&T, who has provided the Samsung Galaxy Tab™ 8.9 Tab for the gamers to play. Challengers will play Virtua Tennis Challenge, among other games.

If you’re at least 18 years old and a resident of California, you qualify to be a part of the Snapdragon Gaming World Record Challenge. Registration is open now, and will close at 5pm PT on Thursday, May 10th. Qualcomm will choose 120 participants at random and they will be notified on Friday, May 11 via email. There will be a qualification party on Tuesday, May 22 at 7 p.m. in Los Angeles. At the qualification party, participants will compete for top 50 places in a game to be specified at the event. The competition game will be announced that evening before game play begins. The top 50 gamers with the highest score will win an automatic seat to compete at E3 for $50,000 worth of cash prizes, tablets and more. Make sure to log onto our Facebook page and follow our Twitter feed for event photos and updates as the Challenge officially begins with the qualification party and continues through the Guinness World Record attempt onsite at E3. Can’t make the party? Keep up with all the action live on Stapdragon’s twitter and through the hashtag #SnapdragonWRC!

Starting at 2pm Pacific on Tuesday, June 5th, the Snapdragon Gaming World Record Challenge will officially begin. Gamers will be competing during the entire 26-hour challenge playing Virtua Tennis Challenge, among other games. The top 5 gamers competing in the challenge will win a cash prize as well as a Samsung Galaxy 8.9 Tab. The grand prize winner will get $25,000!

If you’re in LA for E3, but not one of the 50 competitors, you can get in on the action by stopping at the Snapdragon Gaming World Record Challenge booth in the Gilbert Lindsey Plaza in front of the LA Convention Center to compete in spot challenges and win prizes including cash gift cards, Qualcomm t-shirts, free game codes, and more. You can also be entered to win prizes by checking into the Snapdragon Gaming Challenge booth on Foursquare. Not in LA? Keep up with all the action live on Stapdragon’s twitter and through the hashtag #SnapdragonWRC!

See the official rules and sign up for this event on Qualcomm’s website.

Out now for Virtual Console, the revolutionary arcade racer Super Hang-On — and coming out this May 10th, two entries from the classic Wonder Boy franchise: Wonder Boy in Monster Land, and, for the first time ever outside of Japan, Monster World IV!

All three games are available for 900 Nintendo Points.

Super Hang-On

Based on the hit arcade racer originally released in 1987, Super Hang-On will put your street bike skills to the test. Tour through 48 challenging tracks set across four continents and explore the rush of true arcade gameplay as you blaze through checkpoints in a race to beat the clock and your competitors.

Wonder Boy in Monster Land

The once beautiful kingdom has been thrown into chaos by a ferocious, fire-breathing dragon and his monstrous henchmen whose aim is to create their own Monster Land. Unable to defend themselves from the onslaught, the people cry out for a hero to save them! As Wonder Boy, set out on an incredible journey across different environments and dungeons, collect powerful weapons and spells, and rid the land of evil!

Monster World IV

For the first time outside of Japan, experience the final chapter in the classic Monster World series! As Asha, a young adventurer, set forth into Monster World and defeat evil alongside your amorphous pet Pepe and magical Genie in order to save the troubled Elemental Spirits!

Gaming history buffs, take note — along with the original Phantasy Star, this is one of the first games to feature a female protagonist.

On the Block

1. Sonic Plush and Blanket – A two-in-one deal! Get a cute Classic Sonic plush holding a comfy Sonic blanket (not to be confused with a “comfy throw – the blanket with sleeves”.)

2. Sonic Hats – Get a sweet “Kick Some Robuttnik” hat along with a Sonic beanie, complete with ears. Make sure you wear it correctly.

3. Sonic  Backpack – Carry your laptop, books, or whatever you need in style with this Sonic backpack.

How it Works

1. You must be following us on Twitter to be eligible. (If you don’t have a Twitter account, you can create one by going to http://www.twitter.com and click the green “get started — join!” button in the center of the page.)

2. At random times on Friday, we will announce the prize we are giving away, a word or phrase, and what number of response you need to be to win. Send us a direct message (DM) via Twitter and be that number to win the prize. (@ replies do not count as entries!) We only accept one direct message per person per prize!

Example:

We tweet “GIVEAWAY: Sonic T-shirt, size L. Be the 15th person to DM “Sonic Adventure” to win!”

You see this, and want to win it, so you send us a direct message that says “Sonic Adventure”. If you are the 15th person to do so, you are the winner!

Quotation marks do not matter, capitalization does not matter, but spelling does matter!

3. All followers are eligible to win all prizes, unless a restriction is noted. Restrictions are usually due to the prize being region-locked. For example, US games that won’t work on UK gaming systems. There may also be age restrictions due to the rating of the game.

4. We will announce the winner on our Twitter feed once eligibility is confirmed.

Other Assorted Information:

• Free Stuff Friday duties alternate between the London and San Francisco offices and are done during business hours (usually mid-morning) in our respective time zones.
• No, you can’t know what number message you were – so please don’t ask! We will tell you that the information is classified!
• If you have questions during the giveaway, please contact us with an @reply. As you can imagine, we get a whole lot of direct messages during the contests and there  is a very good chance we will miss your question if it is sent as a DM.

How to Send Direct Messages on Twitter

Due to a change in our account status with Twitter, you should be able to send us direct messages without us following you. However, third-party applications may not allow you to.

There are a few ways to send us a Direct Message on Twitter. The easiest way is:

1. Log in to your Twitter account.
2. Click on the person icon and select Direct messages from the drop down menu.
3. You’ll see a pop up showing your Direct message history. Click the New message button, highlighted below.
4. In the address box, type the name or username (SEGA) of the person you wish to send a message to.
5. Enter your message and click Send message.

You may also select the “direct messages” tab from your Twitter homepage, and select SEGA from the drop-down menu at the top of the page. Again, if you don’t see our name there, it’s probably because we’re not following you. Let us know, and we’ll follow you. If you still have questions on sending direct messages, please visit Twitter’s Help Section.

There are also many Twitter clients that you can use instead of using the website. These include TweetDeck, Twitteriffic, Tweetie, and Twhirl. Each of these programs works differently, so you’ll want to figure out how to send a direct message on the program you use. If you want to send us a test message, we’ll let you know if we received it or not. Please make sure your message says “test” somewhere.

Like piloting gigantic robots and smashing the living daylights out of other gigantic robots?

Who doesn’t? Well, if for some reason you’ve been holding off on the XBLA version of SEGA’s 1998 (Arcade) / 1999 (Dreamcast) mecha fighting game, you win! You win half-off, that is: Cyber Troopers Virtual On Oratorio Tangram is 600 MSP on Xbox Live Arcade from now until May 9th.

Featuring leaderboard replays, one-on-one network play, party lobbies, and gigantic battling robots, the mouthful of a game is also one-of-a-kind, and a classic example of SEGA’s arcade technology bringing to artificial life Japan’s love of stylized, gigantic robot warriors.

Strap in and give this game a shot, for half-off!

For more on this game — including some notes about the art styling for the game’s featured ‘bots — check our original write-up here.

 
XBLA Store Links:

Cyber Troopers: Virtual-On Oratorio Tangram (North America)
Cyber Troopers: Virtual-On Oratorio Tangram (Europe)

Today, SEGA announced the release of a major update for Sonic and SEGA All-Stars Racing for iOS. Along with a number of new features and a new track, Sunfair, two new challengers have entered the race: Knuckles the Echidna and Shadow the Hedgehog. To take them for a spin, flag down a copy of Sonic & SEGA All-Stars Racing today for $1.99 on the App Store.

Along with the new racers and track, Sonic and SEGA All-Stars Racing has been updated to support HDMI and Airplay video-out modes, iCloud data saving and sharing, and in-game commerce support. Players can also now keep tabs on who they’re speeding past as the mini-map now displays character faces in single-player mode and Game Center profile pictures in multiplayer. For a full list of newly-added features, check out the game’s official page on the App Store.