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'Desert Bus' video game charity kicks off its 10th year
It's a big moment for video game charities: Desert Bus for Hope has launched its 10th annual campaign. As is their custom, the volunteer team will play the Desert Bus mini game from Penn & Teller's Smoke and Mirrors for as long as they can in the name of the Child's Play hospital charity. This year, they're aiming for at least 111 hours -- the more money you donate, the longer they drive on that incredibly boring virtual road between Tucson and Las Vegas. And this year, there are quite a few reasons to check in beyond the usual on-camera antics.
Watch people play 'Desert Bus' for days in the name of charity
Penn & Teller's Desert Bus mini game is legendary for its tongue-in-cheek monotony (you drive 8 hours to score a single point), but it's also a force for good: the Desert Bus for Hope campaign has raised $2.4 million for the Child's Play hospital charity over the years. Well, the volunteer group is at it again with the just-launched Desert Bus 9... and this may be one of its most ambitious fundraising efforts yet. The team is planning to stream live gameplay from the notorious Sega Genesis title for as long as donations allow, which could be quite a while when last year's effort lasted for 158 hours -- that's nearly a full week. If you like the idea of an epic video game endurance test helping a noble cause, tune in below and consider sending some cash to Desert Bus for Hope at the source link. [Image credit: Andrew Ferguson]
You can play Penn & Teller's wonderfully uneventful 'Desert Bus' in VR
Ask veteran gamers about the least eventful title you can play and they'll probably mention Desert Bus. The legendary minigame from the unreleased Penn & Teller's Smoke and Mirrors has you driving from Tucson to Las Vegas on a featureless road... in eight hours of real time. That may not sound like much fun, but it's considered a classic challenge -- and now, you can play it in virtual reality. Shiny Shoe has released Desert Bus VR, a recreation that lets you experience the purposefully unexciting trip through an Oculus Rift DK2 headset. You can now see the bus door when you stop for passengers that never come, or look behind you when you're towed back home after a crash.
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.
