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Have you ever wanted to drive across the 360 miles of desert highway that connects Tucson to Las Vegas, but just can’t afford the expense, or find the time? Well, the Desert Bus iPhone app will help with the former, but not the latter.

Desert Bus is a 69p driving simulator appthat puts you behind the wheel of a bus that must make the epic trip, but with one important difference — the whole journey takes place in real time.

With no other traffic or corners to negotiate, Desert Bus is more an endurance test rather than a measure of driving ability, not least since it takes eight hours to complete the journey and the game cannot be paused.

The ‘game’ was originally developed as a bit of a joke by magicians Penn and Teller several years ago (hence the crude graphics), but has since gained something of a cult following.

This new iPhone version has been developed to raise funds for the Child’s Play charity in the US, which gives video games to children’s hospitals.

[Desert Bus]