Just in time for Desert Bus for Hope's fifth annual charity drive, the infamous mini-game from Penn & Teller's Smoke and Mirrors for Sega CD is now available on Android and all iOS devices. It is, by all appearances, a straight port of the unforgiving original, which requires you to drive eight hours in real time to achieve a single point.


The release coincides with LoadingReadyRun's well known fund raiser for Penny Arcade's Child's Play philanthropy, which provides video games, consoles, handhelds and other toys to children's hospitals. Amateur Pixels is behind the port. Desert Bus for Hope has, as of this morning, raised more than $240,000. Proceeds from the sale of the app will also go to support the charity drive.

For those who never played the game, realize that to successfully complete a single run, covering 360 miles, at 45 mph, between Tucson, Ariz. and Las Vegas, you will need to battle boredom and the bus' balky alignment for a solid eight hours. No pausing. That will absolutely outlast your device's charge, so make sure it stays plugged in.


Another protip: Go into airplane mode if it's on a phone. Any incoming call takes you out of the game, which means the bus crashes while you're away. And if you crash, you're towed back to Tucson, also in real time.

To follow Desert Bus for Hope's progress, or to donate or participate in its auctions, check out this link. It's a great cause and one of video gaming's best holiday traditions.

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Desert Bus [iTunes]

Desert Bus [Android App Store]

You can contact Owen Good, the author of this post, at owen@kotaku.com. You can also find him on Twitter, Facebook, and lurking around our #tips page.