Rosco is a duck of many talents, who has led a long and daring life of adventure. Below is a small sampling of his feats, as illustrated by you, in one of the most impressive collections of art we’ve ever had a challenge produce. Great kudos to the illustrators.

In the wee hours of the morning, Kathleen discovered a creature long ago thought to be extinct: the dreaded bear shark. Here are the representations of the beast that swam from your collective psyches and into our inbox.

I have been scrambling to catch up with all the art challenges over the last 24-hours: sorry for the delays, but we’ve obviously been very busy :o. The first challenge of Kathleen’s run was a Top Gear fan art challenge, for which we had a small number of submissions … but a fierce number of submissions, as represented below.

A huge rush of money from Ken (value added) Steacy has done it, and not only pushed us over the edge of of $140 00, but past last year as well! We are amazed, we are impressed, and we are grateful on behalf of the children. Much love, everyone–now let’s see how high we can get this bus!

FOR THE CHILDREN!!

One of the general rules of Desert Bus is the less frequently milestone pictures go up, the busier we are, and the better things are going. As indicated by a general lack of milestones for most of today, we are doing very, very well, sitting only $10 000 shy of last year’s astonishing Desert Bus finish. The prospect of doing better is in sight. Can you taste it? Let’s push on past and see if we cam kick this bus into overdrive!

Whenever I think about retro-gaming, I think about Frank Cifaldi, proprietor of LostLevels.org and News Editor for 1Up.com. Frank is a bastion of knowledge about the history of games, and  has the the dubious distinction of being the man who leaked Penn and Teller’s Smoke and Mirrors (and therefore Desert Bus) onto the internet. He’ll be calling ia a scant one hour from now. so stay tuned!

At 1Up, Frank has is a news editor, columnist, and regular contributor to Retronauts, in its various forms, over the last year. He’s a great, and very thorough feature journalist, and we look forward to speaking to him!

Frank also brings with him an insanely large lot of review games from the 1Up/EGM offices, to be auctioned off at the end of his appearance!

If there’s anything you want to know from Frank, post your questions in the comments below. If we have time, we’ll pass along your questions!

So, when I told Frank at 1Up that game sites had, in the past, donated a box of review games to Desert Bus for auction, I never expected something of this magnitude. If you–like me–grew up reading countless piles of EGM magazines, you probably wondered where all the pre-release copies of games went after they’d been reviewed. Well, if you’re lucky, now they can go to you!

The folks at 1Up have dug into their massive game library to produce this immense auction lot of games from the 1Up and EGM libraries. These are mostly review copies, played by 1Up staff, and are–in many cases–marked as such. Whether you’re an EGM fan looking for a piece of history or a collector looking to bolster your library, be sure to tune in at 4:30 for what should be a pretty insane live auction!

Also, be sure to drop the folks at 1Up a line for some of the best game editorial and podcasts out there!

Complete listing after the break.

(more…)

Justin McElroy is a podcasting legend, famous for his hard work on the Joystiq podcast and his new project. My Brother, My Brother and Me. He is also the reviews editor for Joystiq.com, star of The Time Belt, and a generally fantastic human being.

Justin will be calling in to wish our drivers well at 3:30 PM PST, and we’re very much looking forward to hearing from him. You should too, so check in on the drivercam in half an hour!

Sideshow Collectables is a former film prop manufacturer that now produces high-quality and limited-edition merchandise. Their action figures are amazing, and we’re super happy to have them to auction off for the children. Graham, as a connoisseur of action figures, has plenty to drool about in their extensive catalogue, which we encourage you to visit at www.sideshowtoy.com.

The 1Up Network has long provided a fantastic meeting point between games editorial and social networking, and we’re super happy to have their support with this year’s Desert Bus. Huge thanks so the 1Up network for providing not only great moral support, but an amazing prize pack, to be auctioned off at 4:30 Wednesday afternoon! Because they’re so awesome, we think you should visit 1Up at 1Up.com … and make sure to sign up because as they put a game layer in their game site … so you can game while you game.