Desert Bus for Hope is the internet’s oldest and most successful charity gaming marathon.

Created in 2007 by internet sketch comedy group LoadingReadyRun, since its inception, Desert Bus for Hope has grown from an event broadcast from a living room to a professionally organized fundraiser that has inspired hundreds of people all over the world to start their own gaming marathons. It takes an organizing committee of 12 people to plan Desert Bus for Hope, and a further 10 to 15 dedicated volunteers once the event begins.

So How does Desert Bus for Hope work?

Desert Bus is actually a mini-game from the never-released Sega CD game Penn & Teller’s Smoke and Mirrors. In it a player controls a virtual bus that drives an eight-hour-long strip of highway between Tucson, Arizona, and Las Vegas, Nevada, on an endless loop. The difficulty is that the bus lists slightly to the right and must be constantly corrected or it will crash. It’s the worst video game ever made, and we play it for as long as donations come in. In order to maximize the pain and suffering for the Desert Bus team, we have five drivers who must play Desert Bus for 24 hours at a time. In order to keep things interesting for our viewers we have live and silent auctions, celebrity guests and a lot of silliness.