One of the six parts of the unreleased Sega CD game Penn & Teller's Smoke and Mirrors created by Imagineering, starring the famous celebrity magicians and entertainers Penn and Teller, Desert Bus was used for a contest, where the winner got a prize if they played the game for too long. The game was used for an annual charity event called Desert Bus for Hope which raises money for Child's Play, an organization that raises money to donate toys and games for children's hospitals. I think this game was only intentionally made as a joke. Even Penn and Teller played that game just for the fun of it. The gameplay is nonexistent: you play as a bus driver who must drive a bus from Tucson to Las Vegas in real-time. While the intro theme is surprisingly cool, no music exists except for the intro theme. There's also only one bus, you can't choose a different bus as none exist either. This bus is extremely slow. It cannot go any faster than only 45 mph (72 km/h); however, this may be unintentionally noted that this could be a lie. The bus may only have one gear, nor could be due to the very high final drive ratio. There is even only a cockpit view, and you can't look out of the bus. Aside from driving, there is nothing else to do other than looking at a rock or a sign outside, pressing B to open and close the door, and pressing START to honk the horn. A pop up of a bug splatters the window at some point which can be disorienting and, despite it looking like a splatter, there is no sound effect to it. The distance to Las Vegas is 360 miles (579 kilometers). That means you have to drive for eight hours in real-time to get there! If you managed to get to Las Vegas, you just start all over again with sadly no goal, payoff, or reward. After going for all eight hours, you're given one point, which is extremely degrading and really an insult to injury. The highest-known probably-not-even-legit score is 99, which alone would require 792 hours/33 days of continuous gameplay! That's a little over a month! The bus is empty, there's nothing, nor no one interacts with it. In fact literally nothing stands in your way. There are no objectives, traffic, and hazards. The road never even turns. It is just one constantly straight line. Also, though the road is straight, the bus doesn't even stay straight without steering. Even when the bus does careen off the road, you are towed all the way to the beginning of the game, which also takes place in real-time. This means that if you accidentally hit the ground within six hours, you are towed back to the beginning for another six to eight hours. It would be best just to reset the game instead! If you also try to use a holder to keep the A button pressed down, the bus will still steer right, and it will careen off the road. You have no choice but to sit for the whole eight hours! While playing this game, there may be times that your Sega CD will overheat for playing this game for eight hours straight. No break times, let alone the option to pause the game. As mentioned before, the START button honks the horn. If you want to quit the game, you must reset the Sega CD. Like the rest of the game, Desert Bus was meant to be a prank to pull on your friends. Furthermore, it was a commentary on games that try too hard to be realistic, as all the "realism" in this game causes it to be extremely boring. It was ahead of its time making this criticism since realism in gaming was hardly even a trend at the time the game was made. One of the world's most boring games of all time overall.
