Penn & Teller's Smoke and Mirrors
Encyclopedia
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. Skyworks Interactive, Inc. owns the rights to all unreleased Absolute games, except for certain handheld console versions of Super Battletank, A Boy and His Blob, and Turn & Burn, which are owned by Majesco Entertainment
. However, since Penn & Teller were owed money when Absolute Entertainment went out of business, any rights pertaining to their intellectual property, likenesses and performance within the title were revoked.
The game re-surfaced years later when Frank Cifaldi, editor of Lost Levels, a website dedicated to unreleased video games, received a copy of the game from a reviewer who had covered it years ago. The game is composed of several minigame
s and an adventure/platform game
starring Penn & Teller
. All the minigames, with one exception, were made for the sole purpose of enabling the owner of the game to fool their friends by many different means, making them "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.
in the package, and was a featured part of Electronic Gaming Monthlys preview. 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, contains little scenery (an occasional rock or stop sign will appear at the side of the road), and there is no traffic. 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, he will score exactly one point. The player then gets the option to make the return trip to Tucson—for another point (a decision he must make in a few seconds or the game ends). Players may continue to make trips and score points as long as their endurance holds out. Some players who have completed the trip have also noted that, although the scenery never changes, a bug splats on the windscreen about five hours through the first trip, and on the return trip the light does fade, with differences at dusk, and later a pitch black road where the player is guided only with headlights.
Penn says, "The best part of that I think was an idea that was not mine, not Teller’s, and not Barry Marx, who designed the game with us. It was an idea by Eddie Gorodetsky
, one of the producers on Two and a Half Men
, really funny guy. I think that Eddie G. is one of the funniest guys in the world."
Penn Jillette
commented in his radio show
that the overly realistic nature of the game was in response to Janet Reno
and the controversy
surrounding violent video games at the time. He also stated that there would have been a prize for the person or group to get the highest score in the game, also substantiated by the various "Desert Bus" contest materials prepared for the release of the game. Penn said that the prize "was going to be, you got to go on Desert Bus from Tucson to Vegas with showgirls and a live band and just the most partying bus ever. You got to Vegas, we're going to put you up at the Rio, big thing, and then, you know, big shows.", although this contest did not happen. Some have played the game using a tool-assisted emulator, managing to obtain 99 points, the maximum the game allows. A run of this length would have taken over 41 days to complete in real time.
Like the other "scam" minigames, Player 1 will always win the level (he will always have more points). Player 1 controls various cheating features with simple button combinations. One additional feature is a button combination to change the controller that is "in charge" of the "scam", which is useful if the "mark" gets suspicious and wants to switch controllers.
To finally reveal the prank, the player has to press all three buttons on the controller, which reveals a movie scene that gives the secret away. Penn & Teller claimed this is perfect payback to friends "who come over to your house, eat your food, drink your soda, play your games and always beat you."
Kinetics, or CROCK), Penn and Teller claim not only to be able to guess the player's sign, but also his birthday based on a series of responses he gives to questions. These questions ask the player to give a response within a range (e.g., "Sunglasses, on one side of the bar—hate them, never wear them. Other side: I'm Lou Reed
, I never take them off.") In reality, the owner of the game enters the person's date of birth earlier via a secret menu. The secret menu also features an introductory film in which Penn & Teller let their feelings on astrology be known, stating it's only good for giving astrologists work and allowing people to not take responsibility for their actions. Penn, who is juggling, goes on to work out using the laws of physics and mathematics that Mars has as much gravitational pull on his body as the balls he is juggling.
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 the player 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 his 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.
At several moments, the player can call in stunt doubles to perform action scenes for you. The drawback is that all they can do is punch and kick, so the player eventually has to replace them to pick up any items they pass. Debbie Harry
(Penn's girlfriend at the time) and Lou Reed
(one of Penn's idols) both appear in the game. In fact, every shop the player encounters is either called "Debbie's" or "Harry's". Lou Reed appears in Impossible Mode, killing the duo with a blast of lightning from his eyes. A video of Reed then appears commenting, "Impossible doesn't mean very difficult. Very difficult is winning the Nobel Prize
; impossible is eating the Sun."
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 twelve 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.
LoadingReadyRun officially started their second marathon run of Desert Bus (dubbed "Desert Bus 2: Bus Harder") on November 28, 2008. The total play time reached five days, five hours, and five minutes, and raised a total of $70,423.79.
The third marathon run started on November 20th, 2009. Over $9,500 was donated within the first hour. Just shy of 24 hours of starting the third run, the total for the first year was passed. Driver James Turner bussed for twelve hours as part of a challenge he placed a few months before the start of the event. If $10,000 was raised before the end of his first shift he would drive for twelve hours straight. The drivers reached a record-breaking fourteen points until they crashed. The marathon finished after five days and sixteen hours, having raised a total of $140,449.68. They have now raised a total of $233,678.47 over the past three years.
A fourth year began on November 19, 2010. The event raised $50,000 after two days and $100,000 after four. The marathon managed to raise $207,540.06 alone.
The fifth year began on November 18, 2011 and the crew started bussing with over $10,000 raised before the game was turned on. By the 24 hours mark the event already raised $43,000, and over $100,000 after two days. The marathon raised $376,253.01 alone, with a lifetime total of $819,330.01.
IBM PC compatible
IBM PC compatible computers are those generally similar to the original IBM PC, XT, and AT. Such computers used to be referred to as PC clones, or IBM clones since they almost exactly duplicated all the significant features of the PC architecture, facilitated by various manufacturers' ability to...
and 3DO
3DO Interactive Multiplayer
The 3DO Interactive Multiplayer is a video game console originally produced by Panasonic in 1993. Further renditions of the hardware were released in 1994 by Sanyo and Goldstar. The consoles were manufactured according to specifications created by The 3DO Company, and were originally designed by...
versions later that year. The game starred the comedy-magician duo Penn & Teller
Penn & Teller
Penn & Teller are Las Vegas headliners whose act is an amalgam of illusion and comedy. Penn Jillette is a raconteur; Teller generally uses mime while performing, although his voice can occasionally be heard during their performance...
. The publisher Absolute Entertainment
Absolute Entertainment
Absolute Entertainment was a video game publisher based in Glen Rock, New Jersey and later in Upper Saddle River, New Jersey. Through its development house Imagineering, Absolute Entertainment produced titles for the Amiga, Atari 2600, Atari 7800, Sega Game Gear, Sega Mega Drive, Mega-CD, Game Boy,...
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
Electronic Gaming Monthly
Electronic Gaming Monthly is a bimonthly American video game magazine. It has been published by EGM Media, LLC. since relaunching in April of 2010. Its previous run, which ended in January 2009, was published by Ziff Davis...
and reviewed by VideoGames magazine. Skyworks Interactive, Inc. owns the rights to all unreleased Absolute games, except for certain handheld console versions of Super Battletank, A Boy and His Blob, and Turn & Burn, which are owned by Majesco Entertainment
Majesco Entertainment
Majesco Entertainment is a video game publisher founded in 1986.-History:Majesco first made a name as a reissuer of old titles that had been abandoned by their original publisher. By cutting the prices dramatically and, eventually, arranging the rights to self-manufacture games for both Nintendo...
. However, since Penn & Teller were owed money when Absolute Entertainment went out of business, any rights pertaining to their intellectual property, likenesses and performance within the title were revoked.
The game re-surfaced years later when Frank Cifaldi, editor of Lost Levels, a website dedicated to unreleased video games, received a copy of the game from a reviewer who had covered it years ago. The game is composed of several minigame
Minigame
A minigame is a short video game often contained within another video game. A minigame is always smaller or more simplistic than the game in which it is contained. Minigames are sometimes also offered separately for free to promote the main game...
s and an adventure/platform game
Platform game
A platform game is a video game characterized by requiring the player to jump to and from suspended platforms or over obstacles . It must be possible to control these jumps and to fall from platforms or miss jumps...
starring Penn & Teller
Penn & Teller
Penn & Teller are Las Vegas headliners whose act is an amalgam of illusion and comedy. Penn Jillette is a raconteur; Teller generally uses mime while performing, although his voice can occasionally be heard during their performance...
. All the minigames, with one exception, were made for the sole purpose of enabling the owner of the game to fool their friends by many different means, making them "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
Penn & Teller's Cruel Tricks for Dear Friends
Penn & Teller's Cruel Tricks for Dear Friends is a straight-to-video release by magicians Penn & Teller on Lorimar Home Video in 1987. The tape features seven different swindles or tricks that the home viewer can use to fool their friends. The tape was a companion piece to their best selling book...
video, which had the same purpose, and used properties of the video medium itself for the tricks.
Desert Bus
Desert Bus is the best known trick minigameMinigame
A minigame is a short video game often contained within another video game. A minigame is always smaller or more simplistic than the game in which it is contained. Minigames are sometimes also offered separately for free to promote the main game...
in the package, and was a featured part of Electronic Gaming Monthlys preview. The objective of the game is to drive a bus
Bus
A bus is a road vehicle designed to carry passengers. Buses can have a capacity as high as 300 passengers. The most common type of bus is the single-decker bus, with larger loads carried by double-decker buses and articulated buses, and smaller loads carried by midibuses and minibuses; coaches are...
from Tucson, Arizona
Tucson, Arizona
Tucson is a city in and the county seat of Pima County, Arizona, United States. The city is located 118 miles southeast of Phoenix and 60 miles north of the U.S.-Mexico border. The 2010 United States Census puts the city's population at 520,116 with a metropolitan area population at 1,020,200...
to Las Vegas, Nevada
Las Vegas, Nevada
Las Vegas is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Nevada and is also the county seat of Clark County, Nevada. Las Vegas is an internationally renowned major resort city for gambling, shopping, and fine dining. The city bills itself as The Entertainment Capital of the World, and is famous...
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, contains little scenery (an occasional rock or stop sign will appear at the side of the road), and there is no traffic. 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, he will score exactly one point. The player then gets the option to make the return trip to Tucson—for another point (a decision he must make in a few seconds or the game ends). Players may continue to make trips and score points as long as their endurance holds out. Some players who have completed the trip have also noted that, although the scenery never changes, a bug splats on the windscreen about five hours through the first trip, and on the return trip the light does fade, with differences at dusk, and later a pitch black road where the player is guided only with headlights.
Penn says, "The best part of that I think was an idea that was not mine, not Teller’s, and not Barry Marx, who designed the game with us. It was an idea by Eddie Gorodetsky
Eddie Gorodetsky
Eddie Gorodetsky is a television writer and producer. His credits include Desert Bus, Two and a Half Men, Dharma & Greg, The Fresh Prince of Bel Air, Mike & Molly, Saturday Night Live, SCTV Network 90, and Late Night with David Letterman...
, one of the producers on Two and a Half Men
Two and a Half Men
Two and a Half Men is an American television sitcom that premiered on CBS on September 22, 2003. Starring Charlie Sheen, Jon Cryer, and Angus T. Jones, the show was originally about a hedonistic jingle writer, Charlie Harper; his uptight brother, Alan; and Alan's growing son, Jake...
, really funny guy. I think that Eddie G. is one of the funniest guys in the world."
Penn Jillette
Penn Jillette
Penn Fraser Jillette is an American magician, comedian, illusionist, juggler, bassist and a best-selling author known for his work with fellow illusionist Teller in the team Penn & Teller, and advocacy of atheism, libertarian philosophy, free-market economics, and scientific skepticism.-Early...
commented in his radio show
Penn Radio
Penn Radio was an hour-long talk CBS radio show which ran from January 3, 2006 to March 2, 2007, hosted by Penn Jillette and Michael Goudeau and produced by "Happy" Jack Landreth and Patrick DiFazio...
that the overly realistic nature of the game was in response to Janet Reno
Janet Reno
Janet Wood Reno is a former Attorney General of the United States . She was nominated by President Bill Clinton on February 11, 1993, and confirmed on March 11...
and the controversy
Video game controversy
Violent video game debates often center on topics such as video game graphic violence, sex and sexism, violent and gory scenes, partial or full nudity, portrayal of criminal behavior, racism, and other provocative and objectionable material. Video games have been studied for links to addiction and...
surrounding violent video games at the time. He also stated that there would have been a prize for the person or group to get the highest score in the game, also substantiated by the various "Desert Bus" contest materials prepared for the release of the game. Penn said that the prize "was going to be, you got to go on Desert Bus from Tucson to Vegas with showgirls and a live band and just the most partying bus ever. You got to Vegas, we're going to put you up at the Rio, big thing, and then, you know, big shows.", although this contest did not happen. Some have played the game using a tool-assisted emulator, managing to obtain 99 points, the maximum the game allows. A run of this length would have taken over 41 days to complete in real time.
Mofo the Psychic Gorilla
Mofo is a gorilla (originally from Penn and Teller's stage show) that claims that scientific experiments have given him psychic powers (although in the introductory film Penn and Teller say this isn't true). In order to demonstrate his ability, Mofo claims that he can predict whatever card the user has pulled out of a pack of cards based on answers he has given to some questions (e.g., "Do you have any relatives on Venus?"). This trick involves the user either seeing the card the victim has picked, or hearing the victim say the card. When Mofo explains how to "make contact" using the controls, the user secretly enters a code and then uses two green bits of mist that appear in Mofo's crystal ball to select both the suit of cards and the value of that card. This trick requires more practice than the others, but there is a practice menu available. Nevertheless, Penn and Teller advise the player if they mess up just to say, "Well, I guess he isn't psychic after all."Buzz Bombers
Buzz Bombers is the most elaborate of the minigames. It is a two-player arcade shooter, where each player controls a "Buzz Bomber" and has to kill enemies to earn points. The game includes an introductory story: insectoid aliens have destroyed Earth, but some Earth creatures have managed to get on board their ship and threaten the larva of the next generation. The queen declares that the Buzz Bombers must eliminate the threat and protect their young.Like the other "scam" minigames, Player 1 will always win the level (he will always have more points). Player 1 controls various cheating features with simple button combinations. One additional feature is a button combination to change the controller that is "in charge" of the "scam", which is useful if the "mark" gets suspicious and wants to switch controllers.
To finally reveal the prank, the player has to press all three buttons on the controller, which reveals a movie scene that gives the secret away. Penn & Teller claimed this is perfect payback to friends "who come over to your house, eat your food, drink your soda, play your games and always beat you."
What's Your Sign
Using the patented Personometer (devised by the Cosmic Research Organization for ClairvoyantClairvoyance
The term clairvoyance is used to refer to the ability to gain information about an object, person, location or physical event through means other than the known human senses, a form of extra-sensory perception...
Kinetics, or CROCK), Penn and Teller claim not only to be able to guess the player's sign, but also his birthday based on a series of responses he gives to questions. These questions ask the player to give a response within a range (e.g., "Sunglasses, on one side of the bar—hate them, never wear them. Other side: I'm Lou Reed
Lou Reed
Lewis Allan "Lou" Reed is an American rock musician, songwriter, and photographer. He is best known as guitarist, vocalist, and principal songwriter of The Velvet Underground, and for his successful solo career, which has spanned several decades...
, I never take them off.") In reality, the owner of the game enters the person's date of birth earlier via a secret menu. The secret menu also features an introductory film in which Penn & Teller let their feelings on astrology be known, stating it's only good for giving astrologists work and allowing people to not take responsibility for their actions. Penn, who is juggling, goes on to work out using the laws of physics and mathematics that Mars has as much gravitational pull on his body as the balls he is juggling.
Sun Scorcher
Sun Scorcher is a game resembling Space InvadersSpace Invaders
is an arcade video game designed by Tomohiro Nishikado, and released in 1978. It was originally manufactured and sold by Taito in Japan, and was later licensed for production in the United States by the Midway division of Bally. Space Invaders is one of the earliest shooting games and the aim is to...
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 the player 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 his 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.
Smoke and Mirrors
Smoke and Mirrors is a mixture of platform, RPG, and puzzle-solving games. The premise is that magic sensations Stinkbomb and Rot (an obvious Siegfried and Roy parody) claim that magic is real. The player controls both Penn and Teller to expose them as frauds, although there are magicians all over the city working for them. Penn and Teller have a number of double-team moves. For example, Penn provides a distraction while Teller sneaks up behind the victim on hands and knees so that Penn can push them over. A pack of cards is their most common weapon.At several moments, the player can call in stunt doubles to perform action scenes for you. The drawback is that all they can do is punch and kick, so the player eventually has to replace them to pick up any items they pass. Debbie Harry
Debbie Harry
Deborah Ann "Debbie" Harry is an American singer-songwriter and actress, best known for being the lead singer of the punk rock and new wave band Blondie. She has also had success as a solo artist, and in the mid-1990s she performed and recorded as part of The Jazz Passengers...
(Penn's girlfriend at the time) and Lou Reed
Lou Reed
Lewis Allan "Lou" Reed is an American rock musician, songwriter, and photographer. He is best known as guitarist, vocalist, and principal songwriter of The Velvet Underground, and for his successful solo career, which has spanned several decades...
(one of Penn's idols) both appear in the game. In fact, every shop the player encounters is either called "Debbie's" or "Harry's". Lou Reed appears in Impossible Mode, killing the duo with a blast of lightning from his eyes. A video of Reed then appears commenting, "Impossible doesn't mean very difficult. Very difficult is winning the Nobel Prize
Nobel Prize
The Nobel Prizes are annual international awards bestowed by Scandinavian committees in recognition of cultural and scientific advances. The will of the Swedish chemist Alfred Nobel, the inventor of dynamite, established the prizes in 1895...
; impossible is eating the Sun."
Desert Bus For Hope
On November 23, 2007, comedy group LoadingReadyRunLoadingReadyRun
LoadingReadyRun, often abbreviated to LRR, is a Canadian sketch comedy website, based in Victoria, British Columbia, founded by Graham Stark and Paul Saunders...
started a marathon game session of Desert Bus called "Desert Bus for Hope" to raise money for the charity Child's Play
Child's Play (charity)
Child's Play is a charitable organization founded by the authors of the popular computer and video games-based webcomic Penny Arcade that organizes worldwide toy drives to children's hospitals. Mike Krahulik and Jerry Holkins founded Child's Play in 2003 to improve the lives of sick children by...
. 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 twelve 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.
LoadingReadyRun officially started their second marathon run of Desert Bus (dubbed "Desert Bus 2: Bus Harder") on November 28, 2008. The total play time reached five days, five hours, and five minutes, and raised a total of $70,423.79.
The third marathon run started on November 20th, 2009. Over $9,500 was donated within the first hour. Just shy of 24 hours of starting the third run, the total for the first year was passed. Driver James Turner bussed for twelve hours as part of a challenge he placed a few months before the start of the event. If $10,000 was raised before the end of his first shift he would drive for twelve hours straight. The drivers reached a record-breaking fourteen points until they crashed. The marathon finished after five days and sixteen hours, having raised a total of $140,449.68. They have now raised a total of $233,678.47 over the past three years.
A fourth year began on November 19, 2010. The event raised $50,000 after two days and $100,000 after four. The marathon managed to raise $207,540.06 alone.
The fifth year began on November 18, 2011 and the crew started bussing with over $10,000 raised before the game was turned on. By the 24 hours mark the event already raised $43,000, and over $100,000 after two days. The marathon raised $376,253.01 alone, with a lifetime total of $819,330.01.