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Real-World Pong Created by Amateur Builders (geeky-gadgets.com)

Posted by EditorDavid on from the ready-player-one? dept.

sproketboy shares this article about a computer graphic designer who spent two years building a real-world version of the classic videogame Pong, played on a full-sized coffee table using only mechanical parts. The project's team apparently used a hard drive platter for the real-world scroll wheels controlling the paddles, aided by some large Arduinos and other homemade electronics (along with rainbow LED lights to create the pixels for the score).

"We don't have any electronics, product design, or manufacturing background," Daniel Perdomo told one technology site. "All we knew for this was thanks to the Internet (Google, YouTube, forums). Today you can grab all the knowledge you want just a few clicks away!" He's now looking for a hardware incubator to transform his "Atari Pong Project" into a real consumer product. (Interestingly, another group of hobbyists built a similar electromechanical version of Pong back In 2004.)

26 of 39 comments (clear)

  1. Old idea by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

    Been there
    https://youtu.be/vGOGOxtN2lM

    1. Re:Old idea by samwichse · · Score: 1

      Doesn't anyone remember pongmechanik?

      http://www.cyberniklas.de/pong...

      Pong implemented entirely mechanically, down to the "brain" controlling it being all relays.

  2. All mechanical you say? by narcc · · Score: 2

    played on a full-sized coffee table using only mechanical parts.

    Sounds super neat.

    aided by some large Arduinos and other homemade electronics (along with rainbow LED lights to create the pixels for the score).

    Oh... well... so much for that.

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    Required reading for internet skeptics
    1. Re:All mechanical you say? by Dutch+Gun · · Score: 1

      Yeah, I noticed that discrepancy too. I think what the summary writers was (somewhat clumsily) trying to get at is that the gameplay elements are mechanical rather than electronic displays.

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      Irony: Agile development has too much intertia to be abandoned now.
    2. Re:All mechanical you say? by Atomic+Fro · · Score: 4, Informative

      I wasn't much impressed, either. Plus I remembered a much better attempt from more than a decade ago, slashdot coverage here.

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      Hippie Logger Jock
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    3. Re:All mechanical you say? by Bearhouse · · Score: 2

      Well, I think they were trying for the most authentic look rather than a full-on electromechanical streampunk score.
      Still, I get you - a mechanical flip display would have been cool; something like this
      http://www.ebay.com/itm/Signal...

  3. "Pac-Man es victorioso!" by destinyland · · Score: 1

    This reminds me of that commercial where a man in Mexico entertained children with a puppet show version of Pac-Man

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

  4. Plotter... by Frosty+Piss · · Score: 1

    Reminds me of a flat-bed plotter. A little faster, perhaps.

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  5. PacMan already did it by Tablizer · · Score: 1

    http://www.likecool.com/Gear/P...

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    Table-ized A.I.
  6. Ya knooow by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    I have some large Arduinos, too, if I do say so myself.

  7. Fucking awful video by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Fucking awful video.
    Cool idea though.

  8. And by real life Pong... by Edis+Krad · · Score: 5, Funny

    ... you mean this?

    1. Re:And by real life Pong... by Opportunist · · Score: 2

      So I wasn't the only one wondering how making a real world version of a game that was modeled after a real world game is news?

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      We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
    2. Re:And by real life Pong... by yes-but-no · · Score: 2

      I guess here you can adjust the laws of physics if you wish. You can even game the system by making the ball go slow to you. Kinda play God if you wish; can't do this in table-tennis.

    3. Re:And by real life Pong... by Opportunist · · Score: 1

      Have you ever WATCHED a professional ping-pong player? These guys can do all that and then some!

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      We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
  9. Air hockey by apetrelli · · Score: 1

    Air hockey is much funnier.

  10. Keep it coming! by Buchenskjoll · · Score: 1

    I'm looking forward to the computer simulation of real-world pong.

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    -- Make America hate again!
    1. Re:Keep it coming! by countach · · Score: 1

      I'm waiting for the electro-mechanical simulation of the computer simulation of the real world pong simulation of the computer game.

    2. Re:Keep it coming! by mark-t · · Score: 1

      At what point will this kind of recursion cause a stack overflow?

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    3. Re:Keep it coming! by Dogtanian · · Score: 1

      I'm waiting for the electro-mechanical simulation of the computer simulation of the real world pong simulation of the computer game.

      I'm waiting for the officially-licensed juice drink of the electro-mechanical simulation of the computer simulation of the real world pong simulation of the computer game.

      It contains real fruit juice!(*)

      (*) Ingredients: Water, sugar, artificial sweetener, artificial colours, flavouring, preservatives, acidity regulator, plutonium 238, real fruit juice (1.5%).

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  11. Next step: Mechanical Space Invaders! by jfdavis668 · · Score: 1

    Though I am holding out for mechanical Pac Man.

  12. A bigger Blip? by c10 · · Score: 2

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blip_(game)
    Still got mine, I think.

  13. Nice but not the first - Marx TV Tennis from 1974 by FormOfActionBanana · · Score: 1

    There was a toy marketed in 1974 for poor kids who couldn't afford the computerized game. "T.V. Tennis" had a fully mechanical 2-dimensional playing field and would keep score, ringing a bell with each paddle hit.

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  14. Re:Nice but not the first - Marx TV Tennis from 19 by FormOfActionBanana · · Score: 1

    link, stripped by slashdot. Grr. http://www.museumofplay.org/online-collections/1/6/112.5948

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    Take off every 'sig' !!
  15. Real World Pong by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    "Real World Pong created using a ping pong table, two paddles and a ball!"

  16. Re: My Name Is Hukka by DougReed · · Score: 1

    ahh! Suzanne Vega Reference there!