Power Hour
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Power Hour, or its variation Centurion (a.k.a. Century Club), is a type of drinking game where every player drinks one shot of beer every minute. In Power Hour this happens for 1 hour, with a shot size of 1.5 fluid ounces (US), or 45ml, totalling 90 fluid ounces (US), 7.5 12 fluid ounce (US) measures, 2.66 litres, or 4.68 Imperial pints. In Centurion this happens for 100 minutes, with a shot size of 35ml, totalling 3.5 litres, or 6.16 Imperial pints. All players that successfully complete the total number shots without retiring are winners. The game is simple and may appear easy, but players often have difficulty completing it.
Music may accompany each minute of the power hour, with songs changed at the 1:00 mark. This way, a dedicated timekeeper is not required. Themed power hours are not uncommon, including songs only from the 70s, 80s, 90s, or even Christmas songs. More advanced versions of power hours include videos to accompany the music. These are known as music video power hours and are watched on a normal DVD player. Other variations of DVD power hours include DVDs with movie clips (usually scenes with musical background), TV show introductions or other entertaining minute clips. Recent developments to DVD power hours include dubbing over movie scenes with alternative audio, or interleaving video clips' audio with a more entertaining, ironic, or juxtaposing song.
In the Midwest and Great Plains regions of the United States, the power hour is the first hour of one's 21st birthday, during which one goes out and attempts to take 21 shots of liquor within the hour (a seemingly simple, yet dangerous and quite possibly fatal if done with alcohol such as vodka or whiskey).
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[edit] Rules
- A timekeeper has the very important role of instructing everyone to take a shot each minute. Any timekeeping device may be used.
- Vomiting or abandonment of the goal usually result in elimination. In some cases the re-drinking of vomited liquid is acceptable behavior to stay in the running.
- Players may be allowed bathroom breaks, but must "catch up" after - or even before - taking the break.
- As a tie-breaker, if more than one person reaches the end, places are decided by either continuing the game until all but one player drops out (at one ounce per minute), or by having all remaining players try to drink a pre-designated amount of beer the fastest.
- Some power hours are played with specially programmed CDs, possibly including introductions and smooth fading, or a computer media player that plays songs for only a minute. When the song changes, everybody knows they must take a shot of beer. To listen to these power hour mixes online see Play Power Hour For software details on downloads, see Power Hour VX the original creator of Power Hour and Century Club PC Timers or myPowerHour which works with both Winamp and iTunes (Windows), Power Hour for Mac OS with iTunes, iPowerHour for Windows with iTunes (Windows). The GMan's Power Hour Plugin for Winamp (Windows). These application will change the song in the current playlist every 60 seconds along with other features. The stand alone program Hour-of-Power is free offering similar features.
- An extended variation of the game is known as the century club, where the game is extended to one ounce of beer per minute for 100 minutes. This is also practised at the University of Auckland Tamiki Campus, where it is known as the Tamaki Ton. At the University of Otago it is known as the Hundy Club. This practice is also known as a Centurion; an Elite Centurion lasts 150 minutes. Alternately, Century Club can also refer to an extended drinking challenge in which the goal is to drink 100 beers in under 72 hours. For a player to drink over four cases of beer in three days is both difficult and dangerous. Power Hour VX also supports this game length in their software: View Power Hour VX and in a DVD Version at DVD Party Games
- In an effort to increase the difficulty of the power hour, it can be augmented into a Super-Power Half-Hour, which is a shot every 30 seconds for 30 minutes. Along with increased difficulty, the increased pace also makes it more dangerous. This can then be extended into a Monash University Centurion, which is one shot every 30 seconds for 50 minutes. This logic can be taken to an extreme with an Ultra-Power Quarter-Hour, which is a shot every 15 seconds for 15 minutes (although practically speaking this would almost certainly require a dedicated pourer to aid the drinker).
- Century Club is also practiced monthly at Drexel University, following the completion of the 100 minutes players who wish to be crowned champion compete in a Last Man Standing portion. When any player quits they must 'ring out' much like Navy SEAL candidates announcing their failure.
- A common way of augmenting the game is to play a tribute game in honor of some hero relating to a number for example a Great One would be 99 shots, a Tim Brown would be 81 (also could be called a Kobe) and for the very ambitious a Splendid Splinter would be 406 shots (much like hitting .406 for a Major League Baseball season, this is a task most of us won't achieve in this life).
- In an atomic century, each tenth shot is augmented by a shot of tequila or another liquor. This level of alcohol consumption is above the LD50 for humans and potentially fatal.
- The Beer Babe official character of Power Hour VX and Buzz Boost, also offers free Power Hour Mixes to listen to online from her official myspace page.
[edit] Notes
Many power hours actually contain 61 shots (91.5 fluid ounces (US)) of beer. A first shot may be taken at 0:00:00 and the final shot at 1:00:00, for a total of 61 shots.
In January 2006, central Illinois comedy rock band White Trashistan (pronounced "White Trash-i-stan") completed their own Power Hour CD. This is believed to be the first ever Power Hour CD to be performed completely by one band. [1].
[edit] Variation with liquor
In some circles, power hour refers to taking shots of liquor (vodka, tequila, rum, etc.) every ten minutes for one hour (6-7 shots total depending on how it starts and ends). This game version is a little less focused and doesn't require as much attention to the time and is more comfortable in some settings.
[edit] Physiological effects
Like many other drinking games, alcohol poisoning is a legitimate danger to players of power hour or its variants. Typical beers have one unit of alcohol (0.25 ounces of alcohol, or 7.4 ml) per 8 ounces, meaning that a player completing the power hour would ingest approximately 7.5 units of alcohol, or 1.88 ounces (55.5 ml). Assuming a typical metabolism rate of .4 ounces of alcohol (12.7 ml) per hour, a person's blood alcohol content upon completing the power hour would be 0.142, well over the american legal limit defining intoxication and considered "serious intoxication." Completing the century club would raise the player's blood alcohol content to .227; the LD50, or lethal dose for 50% of humans, is .400. Any drinks had before starting or after completing the game would raise the player's BAC to even higher levels.
While habitual drinkers may be more comfortable dealing with the effects of alcohol, they do not metabolize alcohol any faster than nondrinkers, and therefore are just as much at risk of adverse effects when playing.
[edit] See Also
[edit] External links/Resources
- http://www.powerhour.tuckwat.com myPowerHour - Download to play Power Hour with iTunes or Winamp - Free download (Windows).
- http://www.playpowerhour.com Play Power Hour - Listen to Power Hour mixes online for free.
- http://www.PowerHourVX.com Power Hour PC Version - Download Power Hour PC Game to your computer. Program timer tells you when to drink, how many shots are left, and entertains you with famous beer quotes, jokes, and more...
- http://www.dvdPartyGames.com Power Hour and Century Club DVD - Plays in any system that supports DVD's: Xbox, Playstations, Auto DVD Decks, Computers, DVD Players, Laptops, etc. All teh features of Power Hour and Century Club drinking games in a DVD Version!
- http://www.BuzzBoost.com Buzz Boost Drinking Games - This company recently aquired Power Hour VX Drinking games which creates pc, dvd, and cell versions of Power Hour, Power Half Hour, Century Club, Double Trouble, and other fund drinking games.
- http://hour-of-power.com/ Hour of Power the MP3 drinking game (another variation of the game, and free download)
- http://www.geocities.com/powerfulhour/ The Power Hour (And Related Drinking Challenges) - A complete guide to Power Hour strategy, variations, and some BAC analysis.
- http://www.power60minutes.com/ - Play online to different genres of music including rap, techno, mixed etc.
- http://www.centuriongame.info/ - Play online in an interactive flash application. Mini-games and documentation.
- http://www.ipowerhour.com/ - Works through iTunes creating a power hour out of any of your playlists.
