500,000

What more can we say? Thanks you your amazing support, we have topped half a million dollars. 

We’re up in the stratosphere now, well beyond any past any past Desert Bus, and still going strong, at least for a few more hours.

Paul alone has brought in over $100k on his shift alone! That’s more than Desert Bus 1 and 2  combined. The benefits of running anchor it seems.

We have one last item to go under the hammer.

It is a jumbo (approximately 24″ × 36″) signed copy of the official DB7 poster, which comes with a certificate of authenticity.

Note that this item is a much larger version of the poster that is for sale in the LoadingReadyRun Store.

Honorary citizenships are a rare acclaim indeed. Only one Swede holds an honorary citizenship in Canada, and that is humanitarian Raoul Wallenberg, but we have to wonder whether our Governor General might consider another.

That would be none other than Markus “Notch” Persson, the mastermind behind the paradigm-shattering phenomenon that is Minecraft.

Notch, like his compatriots Mr. Wallenberg and Alfred Nobel, has ever been a friend to humanity. Perhaps never, however, has Mr. Persson’s philanthropy been more apparent than this evening when he donated a kingly sum of $10,000 (yes, ten thousand: a thousand ten times) for a… uh… pack of silica gel James found on the street?

Now, I know we all need H₂O to live, but, still, I wonder if SiO₂ might be my new favorite triatom.

I call it a “Troika“

For those who missed it, James (our ever-reliable leadoff driver) put on a masterclass in Desert Bussery.

James successfully “Troiking”

No, your eyes are not deceiving you. That is James, with Van Cliburn-esque dexterity, hitting a treble by playing Desert Bus, Desert Bus 2600, and Desert Bus iOS, simultaneously.

Here indeed is a virtuoso at the height of his powers.

Process Bus

Including late submissions, we received a total of 49 entries in Paul’s lyric contest.

And the winner, which has since been sung live on Driver Cam, is…

The other 48 entries follow. These were super good! Paul said judging was hard.

How about another eleventh hour

Donation Drive?

Sound good?

Good!

Donate increments of $6.20 until 5:30pm for a chance at

a Desert Bus 2600 Prize Pack

courtesy of the bods at Clever Machine Studios

In case you missed it on the stream, our comrades-in-arms at Amateur Pixels — who produced the mobile Desert Bus game (available on the Apple Store and Google Play) — dropped a bus-sized donation on us to the tune of $10,602 — a sum which represents their entire proceeds from the game over the course of the past year! Wow!

Aaron wrote into us to tell us about their astounding donation:

Hey guys,

Just poking in with some info about the Android/iOS app proceeds as Kathleen mentioned… The total for this year was $10602 – better than last year and we hope to keep it up for future years! That’s about 15000 players which is just insane! Some links to the game are:
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/desert-bus/id470288016
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.tueidj.DesertBus

Cheers, and congrats on another successful year,
– Aaron
– Amateur Pixels

Thanks Aaron! We’re infinitely grateful for your support!

OK, so it’s not quite numerically accurate, but, according to our live, real-time graph, with Paul expertly captaining the bus, we have just blasted past the final total for DB6, making this (unofficially) the most successful Desert Bus for Hope to date!!

Way to go!

We are so grateful to once again to have the support of Fangamer for Desert Bus for Hope 7.

Fangamer is supplying the official t-shirts for DB007 and all proceeds go to Child’s Play Charity through Desert Bus for Hope.

Fangamer creates hats and shirts, office swag, art, posters, pins, mugs—even an oven mitt designed after the Nintendo Power Glove. The stuff they sell is super cool, guys. But, they’re also about community. To that end, they host forums, podcasts and videos, hold Fanfests to celebrate classic games, attend cons and events, and contribute to charities like Desert Bus for Hope! In 2011, they actually embarked in a real life “desert van” to drive out of Tucson and race against the Desert Bus. How neat is that?

Remember that the Desert Bus for Hope 7 t-shirt is only available for pre-order until the end of the run. Check out these awesome shirts here: http://www.fangamer.net/products/desert-bus-7

If you thought we didn’t have time for another

DONATION DRIVE

Well, I guess you were wrong!

Until 4:18pm, donate in whole number multiples of $10.05* for a chance to win this ingenious Portal “99 Problems” lightbox. As chat has pointed out, because it comes with a dimmer switch, you can try a “lightbox intensifies” from the comfort of your own home.

*Oops! A previous version of this post said a different value. It’s definitely $10.05!