Based on this new game by DJ Omnimaga, I decided to make a spiritual successor to Desert Bus. If you're unaware, it's an unreleased game in which you drive a bus from Tuscon to Las Vegas...for 8 straight hours. No traffic, no turns, no pause feature, no nothing, you have to just drive for 8 hours.

In this game, you're that same guy in that same bus, but along the way, you crashed into a tree, and are waiting for the towing company to arrive (which will take 8 hours). During the wait, you have nothing to do but stare at the wreckage. Also, it's a hot day, and you tire easily, so you must drink enough water to stay awake the whole time, too. Press any button but CLEAR to drink water.

Oh, and it really does take 8 hours to wait. Try it! See how big of a score you can get!




Download link here.

Oh gosh that's a terribly fun game. Also, nice sprites. Very good job.

One must ask therefore what Desert Bus I is, I think. And does this require that you repeatedly press and release a key, or can I rest a book on a key on my calculator for eight hours while I go about other tasks in order to win the game?

I'll also add that the first game has the bus veering off the road every so often, and you have to press a button to turn back... Or else you crash and get towed back to Tucson... In real time.

Anyway, this looks like a nice game that I certainly will try when I have 8 hours to waste (i.e. 4 weeks from now)

Here's a video of the Desert Bus game for the Sega CD (AVGN calls that game the most sadistic thing ever):


Unless JWinslow23 made gameplay different than the TI-84+CE Hybrid BASIC version I made (I know he changed all graphics), yes it requires pressing a key every few second. You can't hold it down. (this is why I chose 2nd instead of the up arrow in my version). This is also why there's no Pause/Save feature in the game.

I made it so you have to keep looking at the wreckage, yet due to you getting extremely hot extremely fast, you nod off quickly, so you have to hold a button to keep from doing that. I made it so holding any button but CLEAR makes you "wake up" a little bit. But hold the button too long, and you become blind from looking at the sun for too long and the game is over.

I mean, even if you survive being blind, how will you sign the towing company's papers?

Oh, and if you do make it past the 8 hours, you can press CLEAR to exit the game, or ALPHA to try again to earn more points. Forgot to mention.

Soon, I hope to add something to keep you entertained a little over halfway in. The original Desert Bus had a bug that splatted on your windshield after 5 hours, so obviously I need to do something in my game to keep you occupied after 5 hours, too. I wonder...

I'm glad that the calculator community has started to innovate upon the revolutionary Desert Bus, and building upon the spirit that Desert Bus started of making the most of limited hardware. Who knows what's next?

I think dying from water poisoning would be a better option than going blind. What would the second stint watching a bus represent, though—surely it hasn't crashed a second time?

Yeah this is why I never implemented scoring and multiple levels in my version of the game, because I figured it wouldn't make any sense to crash the bus over and over then wait for the towing truck to arrive. My game also doesn't have the going blind thing, but I could add something like that as a challenge.

Nah, that's what makes the most sense about this game. There's no buses in deserts (not that I've seen), and no trees either. And obviously the towing company goes faster than 45 miles an hour...and are not 360 miles away .

I like to think of it as, the second time, that's the tow truck that crashed into a tree on the way back from where you were going. And the third time, etc.

Bump.

It's been 5 hours in the sun, I think I'm starting to hallucinate...


...it'd probably be a good idea to update the game if you haven't already.