Kotaku: desert bus

Desert Bus Charity Shatters $100K Goal

Owen Good — Sun, 29 Nov 2009 11:00:00 MST

Desert Bus for Hope, the fund drive dedicated to playing the world's most boring game, ever, logged more than five days behind the wheel and raised a staggering $132,568.94, more than 88 percent over last year's total.

The marathon, a project of the comedy troupe LoadingReadyRun benefiting the Child's Play charity, kicked off on Nov. 20; the final numbers were announced Friday after much rejoicing. And sleep.

DBfH started off its third annual fund raiser with 88 hours of driving booked by pre-event donations. Subsequent donations added another two full days, no small feat considering each successive hour had to be "bought" by donors committing 6 percent more than was raised in the previous hour.

The team collected more than 10 "points" although the actual final score wasn't reported. One hundred thirty-six hours computes to 17 points overall but the bus crashed at least once. The game tows a crashed bus back to its point of origin in real-time, but the DBfH guys just restart the game rather than wait it out, because the point is for them to actually be driving all of that time.

Last year's drive netted about eight points, I think. Remember, the big joke of Desert Bus was that one completed eight-hour trip ticked up your score counter (a five-digit odometer) by just one.

Congratulations to LoadingReadyRun, its many sponsors, and all who gave to the cause.

Desert Bus for Hope [site]

Child's Play Drivers Pile Back on the Bus

Owen Good — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 19:00:00 MST

Take a seat and don't stand forward of the yellow line - Desert Bus for Hope kicked off its third marathon o' masochism, and looks to top the $70,000 it raised last year for the Child's Play charity.

Online sketch comedy team LoadingReadyRun is back behind the wheel, promising to play the most boring video game ever designed - Desert Bus, from Penn & Teller's Smoke and Mirrors for Sega CD - in return for your donations. Desert Bus is a simulator that depicts driving a bus between Tucson, Ariz. and Las Vegas in real time. The game cannot be paused.

The first hour of driving - which begins this very minute at LoadingReadyRun's bus campaign HQ in Vancouver - requires only a $1 donation. But additional hours require donations that increase by 7 percent every hour. You keep donatin' and they keep drivin'. As of writing, they had already collected $5,640 before even cranking the bus' engine, buying a total of 88 hours so far. By their scale, a million dollars donated would double that playing time.

The bus crew played the game over five days last year, raising $70,000 in the process. Penn Jillette referred to the marathon in the latest edition of Game Informer, marveling that the team was able to pile up a score of "eight points." You get one point per completed trip between the two cities.

You can follow the action on two live streaming cams: The driver cam, and the bus cam. Donation info is at the link below.

Desert Bus for Hope [site]

Desert Bus Creators Take on Jack Thompson

Owen Good — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 09:00:00 MDT

This trailer for Penn & Teller: Bullshit - an unabashedly biased take on the talking points of various agenda pushers - puts our favorite disbarred lawyer in the crosshairs in the upcoming season.

Looks like they're going after the idea that video game violence begets real world violence, specifically Thompson's claim that games represent "the greatest attack on children since polio." Shouldn't take much for this Mythbusters-with-a-middle-finger to knock that one down.

The rest of the minute long trailer says bullshit four times and also features audio of women orgasming, or at least faking it, and saying "female ejaculation." So, consider it NSFW. P&T:BS resumes its next season Thursday on Showtime. Not sure if Jack's in the premiere episode or what. Update: Newly-minted commenter MontagueMusket points out the JT episode will be July 9, according to Wikipedia.

Penn & Teller: Bullshit Starring Jack Thompson [GameStooge, thanks Jonah Falcon]

Desert Bus Rides Again, Already Raking in the Dough

Owen Good — Sat, 29 Nov 2008 16:00:00 MST

We've had a little bit of game marathon fatigue up here in the Tower, but Desert Bus for Hope, as something of a granddaddy of all of these — not to mention the absolutely absurd and painful game they chose — gets a pass from me.

It began yesterday and, already into its 21st hour as of this posting, Desert Bus for Hope 2: Bus Harder has raised more than $10,000, meaning the drivers are already in for at least four days of torture. Last year's drive raised more than $20,000, so hopes are high this will beat the previous mark. The beneficiary is Child's Play, which buys toys and games for kids in the care of 40 children's hospitals nationwide.

The way it works, donations buy time that the players must spend driving in Desert Bus — the infamous minigame in Penn & Teller's Smoke and Mirrors for Sega CD, which simulates a bus trip from Tucson, Ariz. to Las Vegas, in real time. This sounds like one of those ideas I wish I'd thought of, then would probably regret once I started playing. But still, if they ever put this game on PSN or XBL, I'd be powerless to resist downloading it, even at $10.

The site features a clock and a cam and a running tally of donations, plus a bunch of amusing 'shoops (or LOLBuses, I guess) for every $1,000 they raise.

Desert Bus for Hope [site]

Desert Bus Charity Drive Tops $12,000

Michael McWhertor — Mon, 26 Nov 2007 15:40:23 MST

When we first posted about the Desert Bus For Hope drive, in which a few unlucky charitable types would be forced to play through the bore-torture game Desert Bus for days upon end for a good cause, donations were at $2,000. As of this post, the outpouring of money from sadistic do-gooders is over $12,000. And that's Canadian dollars, too! The good kind! Donations don't appear to be slowing down either, so make sure to do your part to keep that bus a-rollin'.

If you haven't cursed the fate of the already long-suffering bus driving team members shackled to their computers, go on and drop 'em a couple bucks in the name of Child's Play. They'll hate you for it!

The Support Has Been Amazing! [Desert Bus For Hope]

Gamers Forced To Play Desert Bus For Charity

Michael McWhertor — Fri, 23 Nov 2007 17:00:00 MST

The gang from LoadingReadyRun are enduring many, many, many hours of "playing" the commercially unreleased Desert Bus, a sadistically monotonous driving game from Penn & Teller's Smoke And Mirrors, all in the name of charity. Originally planned for release on the Sega CD and 3DO, Desert Bus requires eight-full hours of play to complete, with no pausing and absolutely no reward (save for a single point). Masochistic players drive a slightly unbalanced bus in a straight line, from Las Vegas to Tucson, experiencing virtually no changes in the scenery. For eight hours. Then they go back. Another eight hours.

The Desert Bus For Hope web site is taking donations which will increase the number of hours the team is supposed to play, giving all funds to Penny Arcade's Child's Play charity. Feel good by doing a little bit of evil to someone this holiday season. Thanks for bugging us, Dave!

Desert Bus For Hope