Daily Loaf

In 1995, Sega CD planned to release Penn & Teller’s Smoke and Mirrors, a video game featuring a slew of mini-games invovling P&T’s distinctive brand of humor and magic. Sadly, the developer went under before release and the game never made it to market.

Thankfully, the source code was released years later, allowing folks to use all the mini-games to fool and amaze their friends. All except for Desert Bus, that is.

Now the most well-known of the mini-games, Desert Bus is simple: all you have to do is drive a bus from Tucson to Las Vegas, with little scenery and few controls. In real time. At the max speed of 45 mph, it takes about 8 hours to make the trip. That’ll earn you one point.

The steering pulls to the right, so you have to pay attention or else you’ll veer off the road and have to be towed back to Tucson. Also in real time. Depending on where you crash, that could be six or more hours of just sitting back and watching the nonexistent scenery go by as the tow truck does all the work. There are bus stops, which you can pull over at if you like, but no one ever gets on. Did I mention that the game cannot be paused?

In 2007, tech-geek Canadian comedy troupe LoadingReadyRun used a Desert Bus marathon as a fundraiser for Child’s Play, a gaming industry charity dedicated to donating toys and games to hospitals. Over Thanksgiving weekend this year, they ran the same marathon and raised over $69k through 125 hours of continuous Desert Bus action.

I guess it was worth it, you know, for the kids and all. Here’s a site that has the full Smoke and Mirrors download.

Audio: listen as Penn discusses the legend and making of “Desert Bus:”  Penn discusses \”Desert Bus\”

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