We may or may not be a gaming centered charity marathon site. Well, actually, that’s exactly what we are. We’re all about putting in hard work (read: play games) for the greater good. But we don’t want to sit here and not share stories about others who do the same thing, who shed blood, sweat, and tears to put a smile on another’s face.
Last week the folks at LoadingReadyRun.com completed the third annual Desert Bus for Hope event, raising more money than you will ever see in your lifetime (or maybe not).
So what is this Desert Bus? Let’s let Wikipedia sum it up for us:
Desert Bus is the best known trick minigame in the package, and was a featured part of Electronic Gaming Monthly’s preview. The objective of the game is to drive a bus from Tucson, Arizona to Las Vegas, Nevada in real time at a maximum speed of 45mph. The feat requires 8 hours of continuous play to complete, since the game cannot be paused.
Once a player actually goes through the horrific torture of getting to Las Vegas, they score exactly one (1) point. The game will then ask if you would like to go back to Tucson, and if you don’t make the choice quickly the game will end. Desert Bus was but one mini-game in the Sega CD classic entitled Penn & Teller’s Smoke and Mirrors. Sounds like a blast.
Enter Desert Bus for Hope. During their event, they played the game for a total of 135 hours over the course of five days. How is this possible? Magic. The real kicker is that in total, over the five days and sixteen hours, they raised a whopping $132,608.94. There’s something to be said for that, and that something is: Holy Shit.
So congratulations to Desert Bus for Hope. Hmm…If this game can grab this amount of attention, maybe our next marathon should be of the Zork series…