# Vanagon | Desert Microbus

Desert Microbus is an independent browser road trip in a 1979 VW camper, inspired by the classic endurance-driving premise.

Base URL: https://desertbus.ja1.io
Version: 1.0.0
Updated: 2026-10-28T06:46:14.580Z

## Product Identity
Desert Microbus is the public browser tribute game. Trace, MCP, Docs, Sheets, Decks, BrowserOps, and other PlatPhorm services are integrations, not this site identity.

## Canonical Gameplay
- Route: Jerome, Arizona -> La Jolla, San Diego
- Distance: 360 miles
- Nominal speed: 45 mph
- Canonical duration: 08:00:00
- Arcade shortcuts: collect road watermelons for five minutes of route progress each. Assisted runs publish actual mileage, with no canonical points; elapsed driving time remains real.
- Scoring: 1 point per completed canonical run
- No pause in canonical play
- Steering pulls left; player must steer right
- Dateland milestone: mile 180

## Persistence Policy
- Run history is browser-local with five-mile checkpoints synced to Cloudflare D1 when available.
- RSS /rss.xml, Atom /atom.xml and /feed.xml, JSON /api/v1/activity and MCP get_game_activity expose real public drive activity, optional game-canvas thumbnails, and ten unique driver handles for the Vanagon News Feed.
- News consumers should deduplicate by event ID, poll no faster than 15 seconds, and honor explicit activity/leader storage modes. Screenshots show only the game canvas; this is not a spectator stream.
- Community mileage is browser-reported; unavailable storage is reported honestly.
- No fake leaderboard entries are published.

## Charity Policy
- Vanagon.com: https://vanagon.com/ (Informational outbound link.)
- Gerry Vanagon: https://gerry.vanagon.com/ (Informational outbound link.)
- Vanagain.com: https://vanagain.com/ (Informational outbound link.)
- Unofficial fan tribute. Not affiliated with Penn & Teller or Absolute Entertainment.

## Public Access
- Public-safe gameplay, docs, discovery, health, RSS/sitemap, and read-only MCP introspection are open by default.
- Future protected actions use PLATPHORM_API_KEY only when PLATPHORM_REQUIRE_API_KEY=true.

## MCP
- GET /api/mcp returns metadata and usage.
- POST /api/mcp accepts JSON-RPC 2.0 initialize, ping, tools/list, tools/call, resources/list, resources/read, prompts/list, prompts/get.
- Tools: get_game_info, get_game_rules, get_route_info, list_milestones, get_milestone, get_leaderboard, get_game_activity, get_local_run_schema, list_charity_links, validate_charity_links, get_story_sections, get_polaroids, get_health, get_info, get_route_compliance, get_discovery_compliance, create_docs_report, create_sheet_report, create_deck_summary

## Routes
- /: Playable Desert Microbus homepage.
- /embed: Public game for authorized Vanagon/Gerry iframe parents; delegate fullscreen with allow=fullscreen. Fictional trip dialogue, real-place inspiration, compressed game distances.
- /play: Public playable game cockpit.
- /how-to-play: Controls, canonical rules, and accessibility notes.
- /leaderboard: Persistent player mileage, checkpoint storage status, and RSS.
- /history: Original game context and tribute disclaimer.
- /charity: Official outbound charity links and donation policy.
- /story: Westfalia road-trip story layer.
- /dateland: Halfway milestone and route context.
- /polaroids: Accessible story image gallery.
- /faq: Public frequently asked questions.
- /about: Site purpose and platform contract summary.
- /privacy: Browser-local storage and no-account policy.
- /terms: Tribute terms and safety notes.
- /disclaimer: Unofficial tribute and external donation disclaimer.
- /stats: Browser-local player stats page.

## API Endpoints
- GET /api/v1/activity/{id}/image.webp: Actual bounded WebP game-canvas thumbnail for a recorded first drive or overtake; 404 when no screenshot exists.
- GET /api/v1/activity: Recent five-mile checkpoints, first recorded drives, leaderboard overtakes, actual game-canvas images when available, and top ten unique arcade handles.
- GET /api/v1/radio: Read-only q search (2–120 characters) through podcasts.ja1.io; returns at most 12 validated Internet Archive embed choices, with honest unavailable states. Server-only PLATPHORM_API_KEY; playback is not certified.
- GET /api/health: Health summary with honest degraded states.
- GET /api/v1/health: Versioned health summary.
- GET /api/v1/game: Game metadata and rules.
- GET /api/v1/game/state-schema: Local game state schema.
- GET /api/v1/game/rules: Canonical and non-canonical mode rules.
- GET /api/v1/runs/local-schema: Browser-local run schema.
- GET /api/v1/leaderboard: Up to ten unique driver handles by default, ranked across durable run history with explicit unavailable status.
- GET /api/v1/route: Route and landmarks.
- GET /api/v1/milestones: Route milestones including Dateland.
- GET /api/v1/charity-links: Official external charity links.
- GET /api/v1/story: Story sections.
- GET /api/v1/polaroids: Accessible polaroid gallery metadata.
- GET /api/events: Event capability metadata.
- GET /api/v1/events: Versioned event capability metadata.
- POST /api/v1/events: Bounded event validation scaffold; future protected sync.
- POST /api/webhooks: Webhook validation scaffold.
- POST /api/v1/webhooks: Versioned webhook validation scaffold.
- GET /api/v1/webhooks/status: Webhook degraded status.
- GET /api/v1/integrations/games: Games/BBS integration status.
- GET /api/v1/integrations/status: Cross-site integration status.
- GET /api/mcp: MCP metadata and usage.
- POST /api/mcp: JSON-RPC 2.0 MCP endpoint.
- GET /api/cron/refresh: Bounded refresh preview/status.
- POST /api/cron/refresh: Bounded refresh job.

## Story Sections
- The Original Joke: The original inspiration began as an intentionally monotonous driving game in Penn & Teller: Smoke and Mirrors.
- Desert Microbus: This browser tribute places the endurance premise inside a 1979 VW Westfalia road-trip cockpit. A distance-based journal and fictional Alex radio dialogue accompany real-place landmarks on a compressed route; Dateland is known for date shakes. The original game route was Tucson–Las Vegas. Cosmetic road moments begin after 12 driving seconds: Alex waves, then wanders within his lane. The opening uses 35–50-second intervals before settling to 150–210 seconds. Ravens, tailpipe backfires, hitchhikers, a roadrunner and a loose hubcap vary the drive. Route-aware signs and rotating fictional CB dialogue follow the scenic chapters; horn responses do not award points.
- Charity Awareness: Related Vanagon network links provide context and adjacent projects without implying affiliation with the original game creators.

## Polaroids
- Westfalia in the Desert: /images/westfalia-hero.jpg
- Dateland Halfway: /images/dateland-sign.jpg
- Date Shake Stop: /images/date-shake.jpg
- Desert Road Clouds: /images/polaroid-desert-clouds.jpg

## Trust Policy
Public-safe browser-based Desert Microbus gameplay, non-sensitive run history, leaderboard entries, related Vanagon project links, story/history browsing, read-only MCP introspection, RSS/feed consumption, trusted-domain discovery, standard route compliance, Vercel metadata capture, backend model scaffolding, and trace-linked Desert Microbus operations are intentionally supported for public entertainment. This is an unofficial tribute and does not process donations. PLATPHORM_API_KEY support is scaffolded for protected backend services, event ingestion, webhook operations, sync, test-triggering, reporting, administrative actions, and sensitive operations.