Penn & Teller's Smoke and Mirrors
Canceled video game / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Penn & Teller's Smoke and Mirrors is a canceled minigame compilation developed by Absolute Entertainment and starring the magician duo Penn & Teller. It comprises six minigames used to play practical jokes on others: Two party tricks, two multiplayer "scams" in which one player can unfairly influence or interrupt the gameplay, the beat 'em up Smoke and Mirrors, and Desert Bus, in which the player must drive a bus over an empty, straight road for eight hours to score one point. Penn & Teller designed the game alongside Barry Marx, while Eddie Gorodetsky provided the concept for Desert Bus. The compilation was announced in 1994 for a release at the end of the year, which was later rescheduled for April Fools' Day 1995. Although the Sega CD version was finished on time and review copies were soon sent out, the financially stricken Absolute Entertainment could not afford to ship the game.
Penn & Teller's Smoke and Mirrors | |
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Developer(s) | Absolute Entertainment |
Publisher(s) | Absolute Entertainment |
Designer(s) |
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Programmer(s) | Mark Morris |
Artist(s) | Glen Schofield |
Platform(s) | |
Release | Canceled |
Genre(s) | Minigame compilation |
Mode(s) | Single-player, multiplayer |
Contemporary reviews were mixed and highlighted Desert Bus as the best feature in the compilation. Absolute Entertainment ceased operations in late 1995, such that Penn & Teller's Smoke and Mirrors, including planned PC and 3DO versions, was canceled. Review copies were rediscovered several years later, and the archivist Frank Cifaldi shared one online in September 2005. Desert Bus then became the subject of Desert Bus for Hope, a charity livestream held in 2007 and subsequently turned into an annual event, which raised the game's popularity. Desert Bus was unofficially remade several times, including through paid Android and iOS versions that benefited charity in 2011 and a free virtual reality version from Gearbox Software in 2019.