Thinking of buying that certain someone special an Atari 2600 for Christmas? Or a TurboGrafx-16? How about you support a great cause while you do so?

The last time I was back home in Connecticut, my parents and I pulled out a whole mess of doubles out of the ol' Game|Life Archives, and we're selling them on eBay and donating 100% of the proceeds to Child's Play. Every dime you spend on these classic pieces of history will go straight to children's hospitals around the world. What better reason to get into a bidding war with someone over this old Atari 2600?

Five consoles total are up for auction: An Atari 2600 with 52 cartridges and all the necessary hookups, a TurboGrafx-16, an Atari 5200, a Sega Genesis 2, and an Odyssey 2. Each system comes with at least a couple of games and has been tested and works!

Also, if you're in the San Francisco area, remember that Wednesday night is Funde Razor, a Rock Band party where you can donate even more cash to help sick kids and their families.

Image: Wired.com

25 years ago today, a 15-year-old from New Jersey dropped a quarter that his mom lent him into an Asteroids machine. Days later, he'd set the world record score on the game -- a mark that still stands to this day.

Think Billy Mitchell is bad-ass? Scott Safran sat in front of an Asteroids machine for three goddamn days, taking only short bathroom and food breaks, setting a world-record 41,336,440 points. In the next quarter-century, the closest anyone has ever gotten is a 15 million point, 27-hour attempt at the record.

Read the full story on the front page today.

This Day In Tech: Teen Sets Asteroids Record in 3-Day Marathon [Wired.com]

Image: mr_skullhead/Flickr

On this week's episode of 1up's classic games podcast Retronauts, nobody could think of a good topic, so we asked readers to write in with suggestions for things we should talk about.

Some of them were okay! Others, not so much. See if yours was chosen! (Hint: If your idea had anything to do with Mother 3, it was not.)

Retronauts Episode 57 [1up]