The third annual Desert Bus for Hope

by John Davison
November 25, 2009 17:34 PM PST

Comedy troupe plays brutally boring game at great length for charity.

Starting four days ago, Victoria-based comedy group LoadingReadyRun began their third annual Desert Bus for Hope charity video game marathon. Last year's marathon collected $70,423 over five days, and all proceeds were donated to Child's Play, a Seattle charity that donates over a million dollars to Children's Hospitals worldwide each year. This year LoadingReadyRun hopes to raise even more.

Desert Bus for Hope is a video-gaming marathon broadcast live on the internet by LoadingReadyRun, a sketch comedy group from Victoria, BC. In the Sega CD game "Desert Bus", the player controls a virtual bus that drives an eight-hour-long strip of highway between Tucson, Arizona, and Las Vegas, Nevada, on an endless loop. The game is a "verisimulator" - a tongue-in-cheek parody of other simulation games which attempts to approximate the real-life situation of driving a coach bus as closely as possible, including the associated tedium. The player is required only to ensure that the bus stays on the road: if they crash, they are towed back to the start and have to try again. Originally part of "Penn & Teller's Smoke and Mirrors", Desert Bus is considered by many to be the most boring video game ever created.

Viewers are asked to donate money via the desertbus.org website, and as the dollar total rises, so does the length of time the team must continue driving the bus. According to Paul Saunders, one of the founding members of LoadingReadyRun, "The mixture of generosity and spite is a really powerful thing." Viewers are encouraged to participate by e-mail or by live internet chat, where they can ask questions of the crew, make requests, bid on donated prizes and become an active participant. To view the telethon, donate money, or find more information, please visit www.desertbus.org.

GamePro applauds the LoadingReadyRun guys for their dedication. If you have never experienced the game that they're playing, this is the most action-packed screen shot of it we could find.