Desert Bus for Hope!
I've been looking forward to this weekend since about a year. Why? It's the third annual Desert Bus Hope! What is Desert Bus? Why it's the most awesome internet telethon ever! Basically a bunch of Canadians from Victoria BC are playing this extremely boring Sega CD game called Desert Bus. It was going to be a part of an unreleased Penn & Teller game. The joke here was in response to complaints of super violent video games in the early 90s, and the possibility of children emulating them. In the game, you drive a bus from Tucson to Las Vegas in about real time. The bus can only go at about 50 mph, so it takes about 8 hours. There is no one on the bus. The road is two way, but no cars are in the other lane. And it never curves. There are bus stops you can stop at and open the door, but no one gets on or off. About all the action is a bug splat 5 hours in. If you go off the roads the bus crashes. That's a bit deceptive, cause it sounds kind of interesting, but it's the most boring crash ever. It just kinda slows down to a halt, and you get tow back, in real time (for the telethon, if they crash, they just reset it). Once they get to Las Vegas, you score a point, and have the option of going back to Tucson. Half way on the way back, it turns to dusk then night. Basically, the game is boring as hell. But you can't just tape the buttons down and walk away, cause the bus list to the right.
So basically, the telethon is that they play for money. The more donations they get, the longer they play. I think they start with 1 dollar for 1 hour, then increase it by 7% thereafter. All of the donations go to Child Play, a charity dedicated to giving video games to sick children in the hospital. It's a delicious combination of generosity and torture. Of course, to keep there sanity, they do their best to entertain themselves and the viewers. Pretty much, they'll do stuff for more donations (well, within reason). The people who run this also run Loading Ready Run, an internet sketch comedy group that has produced 1 video a week every week for the last 6 years. They also do a fake news show and an riff opening video game cutscenes for the Escapist magazine (riff = what rifftrax and Cinematic Titanic do and MST3k did). Perhaps the most amazing thing about them is that they're all about my age or younger. I also find them pretty funny too. Check them out!
Anyway, I discovered this when they were doing this last year. I hear about a lot of people doing various video game marathons for money, but usually they aren't very entertaining, so I was fascinated with how entertaining these guys are. Anyway, I highly suggest you check them out! And donate some money too. Need more of a reason? Do it as a birthday present to me. It's my birthday this weekend, so the continuation of this is an awesome present! I gave em 50 last year, and I'm planning on giving them 30 this year. I'm waiting for a challenge round or something. I've been watching for about 2:30 hours now, and I'm planning on watching all weekend. And much of next week too. It's pretty cool, cause I've been writing this while watching it, so now that I've proven I can write and watch Desert Bus at the same time. Yay!
So go watch them! And donate! It's for the children! www.desertbus.org
So basically, the telethon is that they play for money. The more donations they get, the longer they play. I think they start with 1 dollar for 1 hour, then increase it by 7% thereafter. All of the donations go to Child Play, a charity dedicated to giving video games to sick children in the hospital. It's a delicious combination of generosity and torture. Of course, to keep there sanity, they do their best to entertain themselves and the viewers. Pretty much, they'll do stuff for more donations (well, within reason). The people who run this also run Loading Ready Run, an internet sketch comedy group that has produced 1 video a week every week for the last 6 years. They also do a fake news show and an riff opening video game cutscenes for the Escapist magazine (riff = what rifftrax and Cinematic Titanic do and MST3k did). Perhaps the most amazing thing about them is that they're all about my age or younger. I also find them pretty funny too. Check them out!
Anyway, I discovered this when they were doing this last year. I hear about a lot of people doing various video game marathons for money, but usually they aren't very entertaining, so I was fascinated with how entertaining these guys are. Anyway, I highly suggest you check them out! And donate some money too. Need more of a reason? Do it as a birthday present to me. It's my birthday this weekend, so the continuation of this is an awesome present! I gave em 50 last year, and I'm planning on giving them 30 this year. I'm waiting for a challenge round or something. I've been watching for about 2:30 hours now, and I'm planning on watching all weekend. And much of next week too. It's pretty cool, cause I've been writing this while watching it, so now that I've proven I can write and watch Desert Bus at the same time. Yay!
So go watch them! And donate! It's for the children! www.desertbus.org