How much patience have you got? Enough to play videogames relentlessly for hours on end? Well most gamers can probably say yes to that, but then it’s an entirely different matter when considering Penn & Teller’s cult classic Desert Bus. Dinosaur Games and Gearbox Software released the driving simulator for HTC Vive and Oculus Rift back in 2017, and now it looks like PlayStation VR owners will be able to while away the hours on the open road in the near future.
The information comes by way of PEGI (spotted by Push Square), which age rates videogames in Europe. Desert Bus VR has been rated 16, for PlayStation 4. It does note a release date of 31st December 2018, which has obviously now gone and there’s no sign of it on either the European or US PlayStation Store at present.
Originally part of an unreleased Sega CD title called Penn & Teller’s Smoke and Mirrors, Desert Bus was a mini-game that involved players being challenged to drive a poorly-maintained bus on the long journey between Tucson, Arizona and Las Vegas, Nevada.
Reimagined with improved graphics and gameplay, the essence of the original has still been ported into Desert Bus VR, and that is drive a dodgy bus for eight-straight hours in real-time, with only the empty open road for company. There is one small cravat, the steering and wheel alignment is off, which means you have to constantly fight the bus to keep it on the road. Fail in this task and a tow truck will come and pick you up, driving you all the way back to the start in real-time for you to start the process all over again.
Desert Bus VR is free via Steam and on its official website for HTC Vive and Oculus Rift, so it’s quite possible the PlayStation VR version will also be free, or at least very cheap considering the type of videogame it is. As further details are released regarding Desert Bus VR and its possible port to PlayStation VR, VRFocus will let you know.
Infamously awful videogame Desert Bus has developed its own following, largely thanks to a yearly charity event. The terrible nature of the title is now able to be experienced in glorious virtual reality (VR), with Desert Bus VR being released on Steam.
Desert Bus was originally part of an unreleased Sega CD title Penn & Teller’s Smoke and Mirrors, and was a mini-game that involved players being challenged to drive a poorly-maintained bus on the long journey between Tucson, Arizona and Las Vegas, Nevada. The journey is rendered in real-time, thus requiring players to play through the entire eight-hour journey through featureless desert scenery as the bus trundles, slowly, down the endless, straight highway with the only semblance of challenge being the fact that the steering of the bus constantly veers to one side. Each completed eight-hour journey gives the player one point. There is no pause function.
The title has been nigh-universally regarded as one of the world ever made, and was pulled out of relative obscurity by sketch comedy group LoadingReadyRun, who, since 2007 have run a livestreamed charity event called Desert Bus for Hope where the group, along with guests, play Desert Bus for as long as donations keep rolling in, with the aim of donating to the Child’s Play charity. The latest livestream raised over $650,000 (USD) for the charity.
Desert Bus VR is not only bringing the mind-numbing tedium of Desert Bus into VR, the developers behind the VR version, Dinosaur Games, is also bringing in some new features. Since misery loves company, a multiplayer option is available, up to three friends can board the bus and sit, wave or even torment the driver by throwing wads of paper, if the torment of playing Desert Bus VR wasn’t enough. Drivers will be able to open to door when stopped at a bus station, tap the air freshener to release a cloud of scent and honk the bus horn. There is also a selection of radio programs, including one featuring Penn Jillette, the actor and illusionist who helped create the original incarnation.
For those who wish to suffer, or send a excellent gag gift for Christmas, Desert Bus VR is available on Steam for HTC Vive and Oculus Rift, where it is free to download.
VRFocus will continue to bring you the latest news on new VR releases.
Penn & Teller’s Desert Bus VR is finally here, letting you take the wheel of a crappy old commercial bus for a mind-numbing 8-hour trip from Tuscon to Las Vegas. It’s not great (at all), but it’s built for a truly noble cause.
You may ask yourself: “why would I want to simulate driving an old bus at the top speed of 45 miles an hour through a depopulated desert road for 8 hours straight?” The quick answer: you wouldn’t.
Originally created in 1998 as a mini-game to the never-released Sega CD game Penn & Teller’s Smoke and Mirrors, Desert Bus is less of an actual game and more of a commentary in response to the famous ’90s brand of zealotry against video game violence that dominated political discourse at the time, spearheaded by the likes of Jack Thompson, Janet Reno, and Hillary Clinton to name a few. The 2D version was originally built to highlight the ridiculousness of the idea that popular video games of the time adequately prepared players for real-world interactions (martial arts in the case of Mortal Kombat, and shooting guns in the case of Doom) and that not all video games are designed to ‘corrupt the youth’. Despite its political beginnings and failure to launch due to the game studio’s bankruptcy, Desert Bus garnered cult-status as it was later released on a number of platforms.
The new VR version was brought to life by Borderlands developers Gearbox Software, making it their first VR production.
image courtesy Desert Bus for Hope
Now that times have changed and VR developers strive to make their experiences more realistic, it’s hard to say if the VR version is trying to revitalize Penn Jillette’s hypothesis. While I haven’t done the full 8-hour drive, I found it purposely misses out on some more common aspects of VR driving simulators in favor of presenting the player with a less realistic, but decidedly more boring experience.
Because it doesn’t make the same effort to present the player with realistic driving, like one you might find in Euro Truck Simulator 2 (2013), it presents a bit of a bad argument if it’s truly trying to prove that games can’t provide you with the skills applicable to the real world. Jillette himself rehashes his hypothesis during an AM-style radio transmission that plays at the beginning of the drive, but doesn’t acknowledge that it’s a little less defensible in the era of virtual reality.
image courtesy Gearbox Software
Just like the original 2D version, in VR you can go only go left, right and speed up to a max of 45 mph. The wheel pulls slightly to the right, so you’ll have to recorrect every few seconds to keep yourself on the road. Going off the road will overheat the engine, and its game over. Making it all the way to your destination—some 360 miles away—awards you with a single point.
The VR version uses the HTC Vive and Oculus Rift’s respective motion controls, but annoyingly maps acceleration to the left trigger. Steering is done either manually or through trackpad/thumb stick, the later of which is way too jerky for comfortable play in VR. The render distance isn’t great either, making you feel like you’re more of a treadmill than in an actual desert. Although the bus itself is pretty attractive, it lacks some finer interactive touches you might find in a built-for-VR game like the car level from I Expect You to Die (2016).
Funnily enough, the game includes an online multiplayer mode which lets you ride along with others as either a driver or passenger. At the time of this writing I didn’t get a chance to play an online session, but I can imagine myself getting to know someone pretty well over the course of an 8-hour drive.
image courtesy Gearbox Software
While all of its flaws bear mentioning, it’s hard to knock a game that’s both entirely free and was built for charity, as Jillette helped renew the game for the volunteer organization Desert Bus for Hope that holds a titular annual event to raise money for the game-focused Child’s Play Charity. In a recent telethon-style event, the organization raised $650,250 with a total of 158 hours logged behind the wheel.
Even though it’s boring in all the wrong ways, if it can impact positive change in the world for even one person, it’s a resounding success that we can only hope to see more of in the future.
The game is out now for free on Steam for Rift, Vive and traditional monitors. You can download it here.
Offiziell ist das Minispiel zwar nie erschienen, es konnte aber durchaus eine Fangemeinde finden – was am ungewöhnlichen – um nicht zu sagen sadistischen – Spielkonzept liegt. In Desert Bus sowie Desert Bus VR begibt man sich auf eine lange Reise. Und zwar von Tucson nach Las Vegas. In Echtzeit. Satte acht Stunden dauert der Trip.
Desert Bus: Das Original
Eigentlich sollte Desert Bus in der Spiele-Sammlung Penn & Teller’s Smoke and Mirrors für das Mega-Drive-Zubehör Sega CD erscheinen, jedoch schloss das Entwicklerstudio vor Veröffentlichung seine Tore. Da das Sega-CD-System bereits tot war, fand man auch keinen Publisher mehr, um den Titel herauszubringen. Die CD von 1995 erhielt sechs Minispiele, die einen etwas schrägen Humor besitzen. Immerhin führen die beiden Entertainer und Zauberer Penn & Teller durch die Sammlung und haben auch selbst Auftritte.
Nun, Desert Bus ist laut dem Angry Video Game Nerd das schlechteste Spiel aller Zeiten. Worum es geht? Man steuert einen Bus durch die Wüste von Tucson, Arizona, bis Las Vegas, Nevada. Mit einer Höchstgeschwindigkeit von 45 mph. In Echtzeit. Was bedeutet, dass man satte acht Stunden lang auf der Piste ist. Die Grafik ist dabei langweilig und ändert sich kaum, es gibt keine Musik, keinen Verkehr und nur Wüste. Wer die Start-Taste drückt, um das Spiel zu pausieren, erlebt eine Überraschung: Man betätigt die Hupe, mit Pause ist nichts. Die Begründung: Desert Bus ist eine Alltags-Simultion und das Leben besitzt ja auch keine Pausen-Taste. Um das Ziel zu erreichen, musste man also acht Stunden lang am Stück durchhalten – wofür man einen Punkt bekam. Innerhalb weniger Sekunden muss man sich entscheiden, ob man zurückfahren möchte – wofür es den nächsten Punkt gibt. Bis zu 99 Punkte kann man so erlangen, allerdings müsste man dafür 792 Stunden am Stück spielen.
Desert Bus 22 Jahre später in VR
Nun ist Desert Bus wieder am Start, nur dieses mal in der virtuellen Realität. Das Spielprinzip bleibt gleich, man steuert den Bus durch die trostlose Wüstenlandschaft. Mit 45 mph ist man wie im Original acht Stunden unterwegs, bis man in Las Vegas ist. Dann darf man umkehren und wieder nach Nevada zurückfahren, wenn man will.
Einen Unterschied zum Original gönnten die Entwickler dem Spieler aber doch: Es gibt jetzt ein Radio, das man ein und wieder ausschalten kann. Desert Bus steht seit heute auf Steam zum kostenlosen Download bereit und unterstützt die Oculus Rift sowie HTC Vive.
