'Pokémon Red' played by thousands at once

Seventy-five thousand Pokémon fans have been playing through a single copy of "Pokémon Red" together, with at least 300,000 unique viewers tuning in to watch the collaborative performance.

Running since February 13, livestream channel Twitch Plays Pokémon has been broadcasting an emulated version of Nintendo's 1996 release "Pokémon Red."
Tens of thousands of viewers are flooding the channel's chat box, typing in traditional Game Boy commands which are then plugged straight into the game via a custom program.
Sure enough, main character Red progresses through the game -- albeit in a slow and somewhat erratic manner.
Set up by an anonymous Australian programmer, Twitch Plays Pokémon has since spawned a number of offshoots.
A Google Doc charts progress and acts as a planning node for the game's next goal, Twitter account @twitchPKupdates keeps up a running commentary, a relevant subreddit acts as repository for events major and minor.
Then there are the spin-offs, with new "Twitch Plays..." variants for "Tetris," "Pokémon Blue," "Pokémon Crystal," "Pokémon FireRed," and one controlled by random computer inputs instead of the usual cacophony of human overseers.