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'Desert Bus' video game charity has raised nearly $80,000
Each year a group of selfless volunteers agrees to play what some call the world's most boring video game for hours on end in an attempt to raise money for the Child's Play hospital charity. Now in its 13th year, the Desert Bus for Hope fundraiser kicked off today. In its first five hours, it has raised nearly $80,000.
Desert Bus for Hope rides again, charity drive begins today
The eighth Desert Bus for Hope charity drive officially kicks off today. We've been fans of the marathon for many years here at Joystiq, but in case you don't know what it's all about, here's the rundown. The folks at LoadingReadyRun sit down to play Desert Bus, one of the most mind-numbingly boring video games ever created, in which players drive a bus from Las Vegas to Tucson ... in real-time (a feat that takes 8 hours). Nothing happens. Just a long stretch of desert road and a bus that lists just enough to make sure you keep paying attention. The more money the charity makes, the longer these brave souls have to keep playing. Proceeds go to Child's Play. In other words, you pay to watch people suffer, and the money goes to a good cause. Everyone wins! Not only that, but you'll have your shot at winning some prizes (including lots of games donated by Joystiq). Okay, not everyone wins – someone still has to play the game, after all.
Child's Play raises $2.5 million in 2013, $520K from Desert Bus
The 7th annual Desert Bus for Hope charity gaming marathon raised $522,348 for Child's Play, an organization that provides games, consoles and toys to sick children in hospitals and therapy facilities worldwide. Since 2003, Child's Play has raised more than $20 million, and this year alone it saw $2.5 million in donations. Online comedy group LoadingReadyRun started the Desert Bus gaming marathon in 2007, and it has since raised more than $1.7 million for Child's Play – making it "the most successful charity gaming marathon in the world," its description reads. Those who watched Desert Bus 7 can help make next year's marathon even better by filling out a brief survey.
Desert Bus 6 now accepting donations on its road to Hope
This year's Desert Bus for Hope gaming marathon is now open for donations. In little over 10 days, the bus will leave its virtual depot and take a road trip across several games in an effort to raise money for Child's Play.The full schedule of this year's fundraising festivities isn't online yet; look for that on Friday. Prizes – sometimes not very good ones – will be given out throughout the event and interviews will be conducted with call-in guests. If you'd like to donate some of your simoleons, you can do that by heading over here.
Desert Bus comes to a stop, raises nearly $400K for Child's Play
In perhaps the most compelling proof yet that we humans will happily donate money to see other humans suffer, the team at LoadingReadyRun announced that this year's Desert Bus for Hope marathon earned a whopping $378,895 for the Child's Play charity. All it cost the crew was 150 hours (a little over six days) of playing the stupifyingly boring "Desert Bus" minigame from unreleased Sega CD game Penn and Teller's Smoke and Mirrors. So LRR gets nearly $400K for playing a dull game, yet we listened to Great Uncle Jerry's post-Thanksgiving lecture on the ethical failings of the BCS system, and nobody gives us a dime? Where's the justice?
Desert Bus classic gets an iOS port, for charity's sake; AaAaAA!!! coming too
Penn and Teller's Smoke and Mirrors is one of the weirdest cult titles in all of video gaming -- it's an old game for Sega CD that was more of a prank than anything else. While it did teach you to do a few tricks, the most famous minigame in the entire package is called Desert Bus, a weird little game that's designed to more or less accurately replicate a bus trip between Tucson and Las Vegas. In other words, you need to drive a bus along a highway at 45 mph for about eight hours, at which time you get a point, and can opt to drive back for another one. It's silly and kind of mean and very strange -- all the things you expect from Penn and Teller. Every year around this time, a group of folks actually plays this game, streaming it live on the Internet for charity, and this year they're going one step further: the title's actually been released as a port for iOS, and all profits from the game itself will go straight back to Child's Play, a group that helps put video games in hospitals for sick and recovering children to play. I don't actually recommend buying the title for anything but charity: the bus lists to one side as you play, so you literally have to "drive" for eight hours if you want to beat the game. But it's only a buck for a universal version, and since all of the proceeds go to a good cause, I recommend it anyway. In other, more traditional port news, the really excellent but strangely titled AaaaaAAaaaAAAaaAAAAaAAAAA!!! - A Reckless Disregard for Gravity is also getting an iOS port -- and yes, that is its name. The game has you falling through space, trying to hit various objects and miss others, and it was a whole lot of fun when it came out on the PC a couple of years ago. There will be new features and content, but the developer hasn't announced a release date yet, so stay tuned. AaAaAA!!!, as it's called in shorthand, has a weird title but is a lot of fun, so we'll keep an eye out for it on iOS.
Desert Bus auction items will haunt your dreams and your wallet
You might have been under the impression that Desert Bus for Hope was all about torturing the members of Loading Ready Run, but that's not all. It is also, as we have discovered, about auctioning off some incredibly cool – and incredibly nerdy – stuff. You want a plush Zergling? Sure. Custom made Desert Bus choose-your-own-adventure books? Of course. Gorgeous poster of Portal's Chell in the style of Art Nouveau? The image above tells you all you need to know. And, as we learned on last week's episode of the Joystiq Show, they even have copies of Daikatana signed by John Romero himself. The auctions should start going live once the Desert Bus marathon gets rolling today, so keep an eye on the auction page if you want to snag some of this great stuff, the proceeds of which all go to Child's Play.
Desert Bus for Hope 2010 promises more punishment for charity
It's that time of year again -- when a profoundly boring unreleased game is played for days on end in an effort to procure other, better games for hospitalized kids. Desert Bus for Hope is a marathon in which the members of LoadingReadyRun play "Desert Bus," a minigame from the canceled Sega CD game Penn & Teller's Smoke and Mirrors, over and over again in shifts, beginning tomorrow, November 19 at 9PM ET. This year, instead of enduring the monotony of Desert Bus (in which players drive a bus from Tucson to Las Vegas, never going faster than 45 miles per hour) for four hours at a time, the members of LoadingReadyRun plan to play in twenty-four-hour shifts. And they'll keep playing as long as donations to Child's Play continue to come in. In addition, fans will be able to donate money to throw "virtual pies" at the team in an online minigame that will be hosted by The Escapist. One lucky LoadingReadyRun cast member will even get a real pie in the face. We'd say we also look forward to the charity event that will directly follow this one. You know, the effort to raise funds for Loading Ready Run's psychiatric treatment -- but they're Canadian. Their Desert Bus-related PTSD will be treated for free.
Child's Play charity raises more than $1.7 million in 2009
Though the guys over at Penny Arcade would probably find more eloquent ways to articulate this piece of news, we'd like to simply say: Holy crap, you guys. The annual Child's Play charity drive raised over $1.7 million in donations in 2009. Despite the fact that everyone lost their jobs, and the stock market ate all our monies, you still found a way to dig deep and give games to sick kids. This is us high-fiving you. (Smack!) To learn more about the charity, check out the latest episode of PATV. Not only does it give a nice history of the foundation, it also does a great job of showing you where your donations end up.
Desert Bus for Hope raises more than $132,000 for Child's Play
After five days and 16 hours of playing the world's most boring game, the Desert Bus for Hope crew has reached its final stop for the year, bringing in a staggering $132,392.94 to benefit the Child's Play charity. With the third iteration of its annual marathon play session of "Desert Bus" -- a mini-game from the unreleased Penn and Teller's Smoke and Mirrors -- comedy troupe LoadingReadyRun raised nearly $110,000 more than its first year. If you want to see just how brutal the experience was, you can try the game for yourself right here. It's just the latest piece in a long line of evidence proving that a bunch of good-hearted gamers and Canadians with a brutal, masochistic streak can accomplish just about anything. Congrats, everybody.
Episode five of A LIfe Well Wasted explores 'Help'
As we diligently promised so many months ago, we're writing another post with the intention of informing you that Robert Ashley's pseudo-monthly gaming podcast, A Life Well Wasted, has just released a new episode. Titled "Help," Ashley's fifth full show profiles a "successful" pinball maker, talks to a man who pledged to give up gaming of all types for one year (and how he lived to tell the tale), and discusses Desert Bus for Hope with the yearly charity event's creators. We'd normally suggest you run over and grab an Olly Moss poster for the episode to support future productions, but it turns out that all 200 of them already got snatched up. If you've yet to check out the episode, head over to the website and have a listen.
Help the Desert Bus for Hope at 2 p.m. EST and win terrible games
Today at 2 p.m. EST, Joystiq's own preternatually handsome Justin McElroy will be visiting the brave men and women of the Desert Bus for Hope, and you should tune in! For starters, you'll get to watch former people who have been turned into little more than husks by extended exposure to one of the worst games ever draw strength from the timeless good looks and boundless compassion of Mr. McElroy. But, almost just as importantly, you'll also have a shot of winning a box of terrible games. The Desert Bus team will select one person who donates here between 2 and 3 p.m. at random, and we'll send that unlucky SOB a box full of unpleasant games and other random swag. It's better than nothing but just barely. Besides, you're helping sick kids while treating your ears to a heaping dollop of everyone's favorite Thanksgiving treat: Justin McElroy. isn't that enough for you?
Desert Bus for Hope 3 pulls onto the road tomorrow
Can something still be considered a game if you know you're going to lose? That's the exact question the brave crew of the Desert Bus for Hope will have to answer as it sets off on its third annual excursion tomorrow. As they play the Desert Bus mini-game from Penn and Teller's Smoke and Mirrors for days on end to raise money for Child's Play, sick kids will win, we the viewers of their live video stream will win, but the bleary-eyed LoadingReadyRun driving team will absolutely, positively lose. If you'd like to help their sacrifice not be in vain (while at the same time prolonging it), you can donate on their homepage. [Thanks, Koehler83]
Wherein Joystiq helps sick kids by punishing Canadians
The best way to wield the hulking girth of the Joystiq Biomass is to help people. The second best way? Helping people by hurting Canadians. It's so rare that the opportunities to do that present themselves, we wanted to draw your attention one last time to LoadingReadyRun's "Desert Bus for Hope," wherein the British Columbia-based troupe raises money for the Child's Play charity by playing the world's most boring game.They've been at it for four-and-a-half days now, and have raised a staggering $55,000. Sadly, though, it could all come to an end around 11 p.m. EST tonight unless you act now, give all you can give, and help keep those Canadians stationary. Go, Joystiq Biomass! Attack!
Desert Bus for Hope 2 rolls on for Child's Play
As a reminder to those of you who like either helping sick kids or bearing witness to the most boring things in existence, the crew from LoadingReadyRun has just launched the second annual "Desert Bus for Hope" campaign. You can watch as they raise money for the Child's Play charity by playing the astonishingly boring "Desert Bus" mini-game from the unreleased Penn and Teller's Smoke and Mirrors. How long they'll play is entirely up to you.They're already guaranteed a 71 hour run, but by giving cash you can force them to go even longer. If there's a better way to spend your money than helping charity while simultaneously making a group of grown men die a little bit inside, we haven't heard of it.
