I have covered Desert Bus in previous years to a more ongoing extent, but since someone always gave me crap about all my Desert Bus posts I decided to only make one post, and this is it. This year, the folks as LLR raised $380,445 (as of dec 29th). Extremely late post on my part, but I was pretty busy this semester, so it can’t be helped. As always, the event was quite entertaining, even if I didn’t manage to catch all of it. One event, six days, and they raised more then a quarter of a million dollars for charity. Lets hope they continue breaking their record year by year when then do this again!

Good Job guys, i will see you again next year.

Just wanted to post a quick update: Desert Bus has raised $90,630 as of the time of this post! They have been ‘Busing’ for just about 3 days, 14 hours. Sweet! Hopefully they will do better than last years total, $140k.

Only time will tell.
http://www.desertbus.org/

Once again, Desert Bus for Hope is on! And I knew about it before time this year, but I didn’t think to make a post on it before hand.
If you don’t know, Desert Bus for Hope is an annual charity event that raises money for children in hospitals for game that will raise their spirits and give them something fun to do. The charity is Child’s Play.

Here is an excerpt from the Desert Bus website:

What is Desert Bus for Hope? We are a charity fundraiser for Child’s Play. We raise money by playing the world’s worst video game, Desert Bus, in exchange for donations. The more money raised, the longer we play. That said, it would be pretty boring just to watch a bunch of people play the world’s worst video game. That’s why we have contests, live auctions, silent auctions, incredible prizes and a complete lack of self respect. We’ll also be accepting challenges to do all manner of silly things (Songs, Dances, Poems, Readings, etc) in exchange for donations.

If you want more information, please look over our FAQ, or ping us on twitter or Facebook.

As of right now, they have only raised $14k… but they are only 8 hours into it. They will be going for quite a while I’m sure, just like last year. Unfortunately I have other things I need to get done this weekend and next week, but i will be tuning in time to time to check up and enjoy the awesomeness that is Desert Bus for Hope.

I will keep you all posted! You can also check out my other Desert Bus coverage here.

Edit: They just broke $15k! Sweet!

Desert Bus for Hope has raised $73,736 this year, beating the record for last year which was $70,423!
They are still going too! Be sure to show your support by visiting the site and watching! If you can spare a few dollars, that would also be helpful.

I thought i would bring attention to a notable (and pretty strange) charity event called Desert Bus For Hope. The good people at LoadingReadyRun started this event in 2007 to raise money for the Child’s Play charity.
Here is a description: (From the website)

Q: What exactly are you doing?

A: Put simply? We sort of invented the internet telethon by accident – you give donations to Child’s Play, and we play Desert Bus.  It’s really boring and mind numbing and generally unpleasant. The more you donate the longer we play. To keep you and us amused, and to increase the donations we auction off  and give away prizes, have celebrity guests stop by, and become your monkeys. Want us to sing “Still Alive?” Sure, we’ll do it for a $20 donation.  We play 24 hours a day until you stop donating. Scary, isn’t it?

What is Desert Bus? (From Wikipedia)

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.The bus contains no passengers, and there is no scenery or other traffic on the road. The bus veers to the right slightly; as a result, it is impossible to tape down a button to go do something else and have the game end properly. If the bus veers off the road it will stall and be towed back to Tucson, also in real time. If the player makes it to Las Vegas, they will score exactly one point. The player then gets the option to make the return trip to Tucson—for another point (a decision they must make in a few seconds or the game ends). Players may continue to make trips and score points as long as their endurance holds out. Some players who have completed the trip have also noted that, although the scenery never changes, a bug splats on the windscreen about five hours through the first trip, and on the return trip the light does fade, with differences at dusk, and later a pitch black road where the player is guided only with headlights.

So far, as of this post, they have raised $32,802. Quite a fine amount, and they are still going strong – 1 day and 19 hours into it.

Check it out! Its a fine idea, but that game really would be torture…

Edit: $33k!