SAN FRANCISCO, Nov 8 — Instead of a novelty air horn or explosion, Twitch.TV user Trevor "88bitmusic” Gomes surprised viewers this week with an intricate, ridiculous pre-recorded cover and music video for Toto’s 1982 soft rock anthem Africa, triggered by a very specific donation amount.

Viewers of Twitch TV will be familiar with donation alerts: Custom-made visual and aural motifs that play when an audience member donates real or virtual currency to the channel host.

Whether relatively discreet or intrusively distracting, they incentivise financial support and acknowledge generous donors.

Through intention or miscalibration, some alerts are loud enough to drown out the channel host mid-sentence, or large enough to obscure prime screen real estate: This week, Trevor "88bitmusic” Gomes went to extremes with a four-minute, often full-screen intervention triggered by a US$45.67 donation.

It’s the latest donation prank played by the professional musician and Twitch streamer, who broadcasts from behind a grand piano or keyboard.

He’s particularly well known for covering video game soundtracks — appropriate for the primarily video game focused Twitch — producing an official alternative arrangement for hit 2018 game Celeste, and his easy-going channel is punctuated by donation-led audience requests.

Previous donation alerts on Gomes’ channel have been triggered by donations of US$12.34, US$23.45, and US$34.56, but this new US$45.67 tier was discovered on November 3.

Gomes sat back and muffled his own delighted chortles for the duration of the increasingly complex takeover as the channel’s live chat box erupted in delighted disbelief. — AFP-Relaxnews