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Tech

Mechanical 'Pong' Takes the 'Video' Out of the Classic Video Game

A mechanical prototype gives the arcade throwback a tangible 21st century twist.

Pong is a videogame pioneer. Released in 1972, Pong was the first sports video games, the first to be played by a computer, and now among the first to be brought into the physical world.

Daniel Perdomo and two friends have brought this barcade throwback into the 21st century. By giving Atari's 2D tennis sports game a real-world makeover, they've made something like a mechanical air hockey table. With the popular Arduino hobbyist computer technology, used often in the creation of Burning Man art cars, Perdomo has created his own gaming piece of art: a graceful play of the neon magnetic pixel, or cube, gliding over a black, glass surface, while a scroll wheel is used to move the paddles back and forth.

"This project started about two years ago. I had the idea and I was talking with a few friends and [decided] to take the challenge and see how far could we go, working at nights in the free time. Just for fun," said Perdomo, who works in computer graphics for advertising. "We don't have any electronics, product design, or manufacturing background. All we knew for this was thanks to the Internet (Google, Youtube, forums)."

All the electronic parts of the mechanical Pong are handmade. Below the surface, the V-groove rails direct the assembly, while the brains of the operation are directed by the Arduino technology. Copper foil tapes were used to to connect rainbow LED lights and 8-bit segments to display the numeral score.

Perdomo says this is his first working, playable prototype, but will need more help making the prototype ready for production.

The beauty of the game is its simplicity—both in the way Perdomo designed it and the object of the game, itself. Turns out the most exciting thing to happen to one of the earliest video games is taking the "video" part out of it.