Wikipedia Wednesday: Penn & Teller's Smoke and Mirrors

Roger Ebert recently stepped into a big pile of shit when he made a blog post saying that video games can never be art.  Millions and millions of keystrokes have already been spent debating this extremely short-sighted viewpoint (which is all the more disappointing since I am a big fan of Ebert's writing), so I will not go too deep into it.  Instead, I will use this opportunity to segue into the subject of this week's WW, the first one thus far about a video game.  I think that even though Roger Ebert would not consider this hilariously bizarre game to be art, he would at least appreciate the intent behind it.

Article

Penn & Teller's Smoke and Mirrors is an unreleased video game that was planned for release initially on the Sega CD in April 1995 and to be followed by PC and 3DO versions later that year. The game starred the comedy-magician duo Penn & Teller. The publisher Absolute Entertainment went out of business before they could release the game, yet the game was featured and previewed in various gaming publications such as Electronic Gaming Monthly and reviewed by VideoGames magazine.

A Wikipedia article about an unreleased video game?  Have I run out of ideas already?  Short answer: yes.  Better answer: just read the rest of the article.  I don't think I've ever encountered a game like this one.

The game is composed of several minigames and an adventure/platform game starring Penn & Teller. All the minigames were made for the sole purpose of enabling the owner of the game to fool their friends by many different means. The game is composed of a lot of "scam minigames" and virtual tricks. Penn & Teller's Smoke and Mirrors is unofficially the video game equivalent of Penn & Teller's Cruel Tricks for Dear Friends video, which had the same purpose, and used properties of the video medium itself for the tricks.

Basically, it's a game you can use to punk your friends.  There is a "real" game that is supposed to be the meat of the thing (the platform adventure) but the prank minigames are the real treat here.  By far the best and most famous of these minigames is Desert Bus.

The objective of the game is to drive a bus from Tucson, Arizona to Las Vegas, Nevada in real time at a maximum speed of 45mph. The feat requires 8 hours of continuous play to complete, since the game cannot be paused.

The bus contains no passengers, and there is no scenery or other traffic on the road. The road between Tucson and Las Vegas is without exception completely straight. The bus veers to the right slightly; as a result, it is impossible to tape down a button to go do something else and have the game end properly. If the bus veers off the road it will stall and be towed back to Tucson, also in real time. If the player makes it to Las Vegas, they will score exactly one point.

Maybe it's because I'm a sick and cruel person, but I love the idea of Desert Bus.  I think you can safely argue that it's the most boring video game of all time.  The fact that it was made for the sole purpose of playing a prank on someone makes it even better.  "Hey, wanna try my new game?  It's called Desert Bus.  You're gonna love it.  I'm gonna go get a burger - I'll be back in 10 minutes."

It was actually Desert Bus that introduced me to this game.  I learned about it through a charity event called Desert Bus for Hope, which is described in the article:

On November 23, 2007, comedy group LoadingReadyRun started a marathon game session of Desert Bus called Desert Bus for Hope to raise money for the charity Child's Play. The four-man team took turns playing the game continuously, with more hours added as more donations were made. As of the end of the event on November 28, 2007, $22,805 had been raised, including donations from Penn and Teller themselves. The total play time for the effort reached four days and 12 hours. James Turner of LoadingReadyRun.com has played over 30 hours during the marathon session and holds the record for the longest session with breaks. LoadingReadyRun had earned 6 points until they crashed.

These insane people have now raised over $200,000 over the past three years.  In 2009 they raised $140,000 after a 5 day, 16 hour marathon, a feat which earned them a whopping 14 points in the game.  I love the fact that Penn and Teller even put in a donation.

Two of the other minigames (Mofo the Psychic Gorilla and What's Your Sign) rely on sneaky input from the owner of the game to make the player think that the game has psychic abilities.  Clever gags aside, these minigames are most notable for the use of secret menus in which Penn and Teller present short videos about the tricks involved.  In the What's Your Sign game's secret video, the duo even go as far as to bash astrology.  I can definitely get behind that.  There is also a minigame called Buzz Bombers that is set up such that the owner of the game always wins.  It even has a secret command to enter that lets the person in charge of the scam switch controllers in case the opponent gets suspicious and wants to trade.

The last of the minigames is almost as hilarious as Desert Bus, and relies on the mark's ignorance of technology to be effective.  It is called Sun Scorcher.

Sun Scorcher is a Space Invaders like game in which a player controls a spaceship that has to destroy alien invaders and the mothership. The prank in this game makes fun of video disclaimers as well as advertising buzzwords such as "Blast Processing" used during the 16-bit era. The game claims to have "thermographics" which are released by the mothership. A disclaimer (that you can't skip past) appears beforehand; and a dramatic voice states that these thermographics make the screen dangerous to touch, and even in their introduction Penn and Teller claim it is dangerous. The prank involves entering a code before playing, which causes the TV to cut to static after the third time the thermographics appear - suggesting the game has broken the TV. The owner is also meant to act as though their hand has been burned. Like the other pranks, there is a practice mode, and Penn & Teller give some hints on how to milk this trick for maximum effect.

God how I wish I could have pulled this prank on someone back in 1995 (the year of the game's non-release).

There is also the main game, in which Penn and Teller defeat enemies and solve puzzles to expose a pair of "real" magicians as frauds.  It is mostly notable for featuring guest appearances from Debbie Harry and Lou Reed.

I am deeply disappointed this game wasn't released (the publisher went out of business right after sending out review copies).  It might have spawned a whole genre of prank gaming.  Or maybe not.  Either way, I love the idea of using a video game to punk someone, and I would love it if there were other games out there like this.  If any of you know of any suggestions, please comment.