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posted by Fnord666 on Friday December 01 2017, @04:20AM   Printer-friendly
from the Tucson-or-bust dept.

The world's slowest, most boring bus simulator finally has a VR version

After roughly 22 years, one of the worst video games of all time, Desert Bus, finally has a sequel. In very good news for anybody who hears "notorious game's sequel" and flinches, this new take, dubbed Desert Bus VR, is now completely free to own for PC gamers, whether they own a virtual reality headset or not.

[...] The original Desert Bus would have launched in the mid-'90s as a mini-game tucked into Penn & Teller: Smoke & Mirrors, a comedy-minded Sega CD game that never saw an official commercial launch. Years later, the finished game leaked as a download, which meant fans could finally see its many weird mini-games, including this dreadfully boring bus simulator. The latter has since been popularized by the Canadian comedy troupe Loading Ready Run, whose annual "Desert Bus For Hope" campaign raises charitable donations by live-streaming actual Desert Bus gameplay for hours on end.

Comedian Penn Jillette appears in this VR version via narration, where he describes the original '90s game as a reaction to former US Attorney General Janet Reno's claim that video games were "murder simulators." To mock her claim, he and the original game's design team simulated the monotony and boredom of driving a giant, empty bus down a straight road for hours at a time. The game is tuned so that it requires playing the same amount of time it would take to drive from Las Vegas to Tucson, Arizona, at roughly 40mph. (If you're wondering, that's about eight hours.)

Desert Bus For Hope.

Also at Engadget and Road to VR.


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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 01 2017, @05:18AM (1 child)

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 01 2017, @05:18AM (#603807)

    The game is tuned so that it requires playing the same amount of time it would take to drive from Las Vegas to Tucson, Arizona, at roughly 40mph.

    "Playing" might be overstating it.

  • (Score: 2) by julian on Friday December 01 2017, @05:49AM

    by julian (6003) Subscriber Badge on Friday December 01 2017, @05:49AM (#603818)

    I've been waiting for this!

    -No one

    AVGN did an episode on Desert Bus [youtube.com], if you're not familiar with the title.

  • (Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 01 2017, @06:22AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 01 2017, @06:22AM (#603822)

    I've played Desert Bus. It's a lot harder than it sounds, especially if you're standing up at an arcade playing it.

  • (Score: 2) by stretch611 on Friday December 01 2017, @07:30AM (4 children)

    by stretch611 (6199) on Friday December 01 2017, @07:30AM (#603827)

    Unless there is a linux version, I won't play it. :)

    --
    Now with 5 covid vaccine shots/boosters altering my DNA :P
  • (Score: 2) by Bot on Friday December 01 2017, @08:30AM

    by Bot (3902) on Friday December 01 2017, @08:30AM (#603834) Journal

    meatbags: the only sentient race who DoSes itself. And puts down $$$ for it.

    --
    Account abandoned.
  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 01 2017, @10:55AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 01 2017, @10:55AM (#603857)

    If the VR bus goes off road, it will be towed back?

    The wikipedia page is definitively a worth read https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penn_%26_Teller%27s_Smoke_and_Mirrors#Desert_Bus [wikipedia.org]

    I like the way the seats look [arstechnica.net] in VR. It even looks like some inconsiderate left some trash on one of them.

    I can't wait for an Android version, so I can join as a passenger using my cheap vr headset.

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