freewheel Posted April 2, 2017 Share Posted April 2, 2017 After months of delay, here it is - the official Desert Bus endurance contest! What is it? Well, I'm a sadist. I want to torture people into enduring my horrific creation for as long as possible. So here's the deal: you have to play Desert Bus. Not just try it out, not just drive a few miles. I mean actually PLAY. To extract the maximum pain, there will be 3 objectives, and 3 prizes: Objective 1: Do a round trip of Desert Bus. Drive to Las Vegas and back to Tucson (drive time 16 hours). Prize 1: a set of DB buttons, an extra air freshener, and a limited-edition Desert Bus! Yes, the actual Matchbox buses that only the first 10 serial numbers came with. factory-sealed with official Desert Bus livery. There were fewer than 20 of these made and this is your last chance to get one! Objective 2: Do a round trip of Arctic Bus. Drive to Dawson and back to Whitehorse (drive time 16 hours, with ice). Prize 2: a set of the buttons, an air freshener, the limited edition bus, and one each of the cardboard promo cards (one of the game box, the other is the "George" ad from PRGE). Objective 3: Do both - that's right, 32 hours of total driving. Prize 3: the buttons, the air freshener, the bus, one each of the promo cards, AND the one-of-a-kind Desert Bus promotional banner that was at PRGE. This thing is HUGE - 3'x4' - printed on high quality vinyl, and grommetted in the corners for easy hanging. The ultimate collectible item for any Desert Bus or Intellivision fan! Now, how do you "win"? How do you prove you've driven 16 (or 32) hours? Well, there are no completion codes. But at the end of each 8 hour trip, there is a sign displayed for a bit. These signs are unique to each city - look at page 2 of the manual for what the Vegas sign looks like. You're going to need to plan for this. The signs are displayed for only a few seconds. So be ready with a camera (ideally have a friend nearby). Keep an eye on your odometer (360 miles for Desert bus, 532km for Arctic Bus) so you know when you're close. And take the picture, quick! Or have someone recording video for the last few miles. I don't care how bad the quality is, so long as it's recognizable. Now I know this is a bit hard, so if necessary I'll also accept a detailed written description of what you see - please make it as detailed as possible. Colors, overall graphics, any words on screen. The more detailed you can be, the more likely I'll believe you Just saying "there was a sign for Tucson" won't cut it. THIS IS IMPORTANT: send your results to me - via private message, email if you know how, or any other way. JUST DON'T POST THE ACTUAL PICTURES/DESCRIPTIONS HERE. We don't want other people benefiting from your hard work, after all! Minor details: 1. Shipping for the prizes is free. Even internationally. 2. To keep things fair, you can only win one prize. So if you win the big one, you're ineligible for the other 2. 3. In the event that multiple people complete an objective, the first person to send the proof to me will be the winner. I'll do everything in my power to announce once a prize has been won, so that people aren't wasting time (also so that people can consider trying for another prize, if they haven't been tortured enough). 4. I reserve the right to disqualify anyone for any reason, at my sole discretion. I also reserve the right to award prizes as I see fit, in the event that no one manages to fully complete things. Also, anyone involved in the game's development (testers, etc) are obvious ineligible for this contest. This is supposed to be for fun, so let's keep it that way. 5. The contest will be open until either a) all 3 prizes are won, or b) everyone gets sick of this in a few months and can't be bothered. At which point I keep the loot for myself. I'll post some pics of the prizes in the next day-three. I'm just slammed with work this winter, but I wanted to get this moving before the next PRGE There is a "4th prize" here, for the community - once this contest is done, I'll be releasing details of the various cheat/easter egg codes I've embedded into the game (apparently no one's found any?!). So that everyone can experience the whole thing without actually having to drive for 32 continuous hours. I have no idea if anyone is insane enough to take me up on this. But it's a chance to win some truly unique collector's items, so hopefully we have at least a few masochists out there. Any questions? Ask them here or via PM. Now start your engines! 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
freewheel Posted April 2, 2017 Author Share Posted April 2, 2017 Addendum. There's a bit more you can do to "prove" your driving acumen: In Desert Bus, there are occasional bugs that will hit the windshield. Write down the odometer when you hit them, and keep track of which leg of the journey you're on. Hint: there are several bugs, more than 2 but fewer than 10. Also, in Desert and Arctic, there are transitions to dusk and then night. Keep track of the odometer when those transitions happen, again with which leg of the trip you're on. If you can give accurate (+/- a mile or 2) details about those, I'm much more inclined to believe that you've actually driven Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Utopia Posted April 2, 2017 Share Posted April 2, 2017 I realize that this game was made and released was for a good charitable cause but isn't it enough for you that we actually purchased this crap in the first place! I'm so disappointed that I will not be eligible to enter the contest so best of luck masochists. (I mean contestants). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
freewheel Posted September 21, 2017 Author Share Posted September 21, 2017 So, nearly 6 months in and no one's shown the guts to complete the challenge. Which means I'm going to have to shut this down. I'd like to start opening up ROM sales to tweak a bit more for the charity, but once the ROM is out there, it'll be fairly easy for people to cheat and win the contest. Which isn't fair. Plus, I'd like to reveal some of the still-hidden cheat codes to everyone. So I'm going to open this up a little and make it easier. Show me that you've completed ONE run, and you can win one of the prizes. How to do that? In Desert Bus, give me the odometer readings when the 5 bugs hit the windshield. And in Arctic Bus, just grab a picture of the Dawson City splash screen. With that said, you have until Sept 30. Remember, shipping of the prizes is free, so you literally have nothing to lose (beyond 8-16 hours of your time). If no one's crazy enough to complete the task before then, the prizes will just have to go up for auction or something. Unless someone wants to sponsor a PRGE drive-a-thon. Maybe we could raise some money that way! A team should be able to easily do an 8 hour run during one of the Expo days, if one of the booths would lend a system + TV for it 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JasonlikesINTV Posted September 21, 2017 Share Posted September 21, 2017 Does pause (1+9) work on the console? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mthompson Posted September 21, 2017 Share Posted September 21, 2017 Does pause (1+9) work on the console?Theres no pause in real life, bub. :-) 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+BBWW Posted September 21, 2017 Share Posted September 21, 2017 I've done that in real life....not sure I want to relive it. :-) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JasonlikesINTV Posted September 21, 2017 Share Posted September 21, 2017 Theres no pause in real life, bub. :-) I dunno. Rev told me about these things that help you pause during long drives. I think he called them "truck stops". He seemed to know a LOT about them Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
freewheel Posted September 21, 2017 Author Share Posted September 21, 2017 Does pause (1+9) work on the console? Not sure if serious... A pause feature would kinda defeat the purpose of the torture test game. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JasonlikesINTV Posted September 21, 2017 Share Posted September 21, 2017 Not sure if serious... A pause feature would kinda defeat the purpose of the torture test game. I was serious, then I thought about it and realized it was a dumb question. Sometimes I'm slow Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+cmart604 Posted September 21, 2017 Share Posted September 21, 2017 I dunno. Rev told me about these things that help you pause during long drives. I think he called them "truck stops". He seemed to know a LOT about them I know right? He said something to me about making a coffee table book about his adventures at these "truck stops". Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ignorama Posted September 21, 2017 Share Posted September 21, 2017 (edited) Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo, do not shut it down, I do not even have my copy (it was shipped today) Edited September 21, 2017 by Ignorama Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
m-crew Posted September 21, 2017 Share Posted September 21, 2017 Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo, do not shut it down, I do not even have my copy (it was shipped today) If anyone can complete this challenge Ignorama's the one that's for sure. ??? Good luck Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ignorama Posted September 21, 2017 Share Posted September 21, 2017 If its possible to stop the bus to go to toilet I definitely would complete at least one 16 hours ride If you can't even stop for a minute it would be a horrible hard challenge Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
m-crew Posted September 21, 2017 Share Posted September 21, 2017 Lol , Well maybe wearing a diaper could solve that problem. ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+nanochess Posted September 21, 2017 Share Posted September 21, 2017 If its possible to stop the bus to go to toilet I definitely would complete at least one 16 hours ride If you can't even stop for a minute it would be a horrible hard challenge I would move the TV and Intellivision near my bathroom. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ignorama Posted September 21, 2017 Share Posted September 21, 2017 So the game is much harder than reality Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Intymike Posted September 21, 2017 Share Posted September 21, 2017 It's against the law. No bus driver is allowed to drive that long. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JoeM_Intellivision Posted September 21, 2017 Share Posted September 21, 2017 May take up the challenge/torture? The bathroom issue may be the hardest part lol. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JasonlikesINTV Posted September 21, 2017 Share Posted September 21, 2017 Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo, do not shut it down, I do not even have my copy (it was shipped today) If there's one thing I've learned about Germans, it's their love for simulated driving games 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Intymike Posted September 21, 2017 Share Posted September 21, 2017 If there's one thing I've learned about Germans, it's their love for simulated driving games And that's just the tip of the iceberg! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Steve Jones Posted September 21, 2017 Share Posted September 21, 2017 Are those games or training software? Do they really drive tractor simulators for fun? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ignorama Posted September 21, 2017 Share Posted September 21, 2017 (edited) Yeah I also do not understand it, but I think its kind of cool. And the publisher has an awesome Marketing, here just watch the Bus Simulator trailer, imo one of the most epic videogame trailers of all time. Who wants to be a stupid Dovahkiin if he could be an epic Bus-Driver? Edited September 21, 2017 by Ignorama Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JasonlikesINTV Posted September 21, 2017 Share Posted September 21, 2017 Looks like Grand Theft Law Abiding Auto V. Side note...the women of San Francisco are gorgeous. Must be all the Yoga Simulator 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
m-crew Posted September 21, 2017 Share Posted September 21, 2017 Side note...the women of San Francisco are gorgeous. Must be all the Yoga Simulator lol more Hot Yoga .... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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