There Goes That Desert Bus

It’s that time again, folks.

The fine Canadian comedians of Loading Ready Run have taken to the road once more. In a manner of speaking. The 4th Annual Desert Bus For Hope, I believe subtitled “A New Hope”, is underway. They’ve already been playing the world’s most boring video game for 9 hours as of this writing.

For those of you who don’t know, this annual event is similar to the Extra Life challenge, in that intrepid gamers take on a marathon session for charity. Desert Bus, however, lasts much longer than 24 hours. It lasts as long as the donations do. And the crew at Loading Ready Run play only one game: Desert Bus, an unreleased game on Sega CD that was part of Penn & Teller’s Smoke & Mirrors. You drive a bus from Tuscon to Las Vegas. There’s no traffic, very little scenery and the bus occasionally veers a bit to the right, so you can’t tape down a button to do something else in order to complete the journey.

Sound like fun? It isn’t.

Last year they raised over $140,000 for the Child’s Play charity, which benefits children’s hospitals with donations of toys, games, books and cash. This year I’d love to see them break the $200,000 mark. That means they’d be playing Desert Bus for at least a week straight.

Visit their site or the special feature over at the Escapist. Give what you can. Check out the things they do to amuse themselves while they play this tedious excuse for a video game. There are auctions, special guests and more than a few surprises.

And remember, it’s for the children.