opelgt1969
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- Bristol,Va USA
- opelgt1969
Here's something that would be fun to play:
http://social.entertainment.msn.com/blogs/blog--king-pong-making-the-worlds-largest-videogame
First thought: Um, what?
Second thought: Hell, yes!
While I was more of a Space Invaders girl growing up, I was weaned on Pong and hold a special place in my heart for all things Atari. When I heard that a Drexel professor and his team created a version of Pong using the programmable LED lights of Philadelphia’s Cira Centre, a 29-story office building, I geeked out. Some folks would fly across the country for a concert. If I had known about last Friday’s show, I would have jumped a plane faster than Frogger crossing a busy street.
While this computer science professor and his team of brainiacs could probably be putting their massive Mensa grey matter to more practical use, it’s hard to imagine them developing anything much cooler.
Ars Technica breaks down the event, as well as the backstory. With his team, Drexel computer science professor Frank Lee (also Co-Founder and Co-Director of Drexel's game design program) turned the Cira Centre into a fully interactive game. At 437 feet high, it’s inarguably the world’s largest videogame to date.
Lee has been thinking about the idea since 2008. "I was driving down at night, and saw the sparkling lights at the Cira Centre. The LED lights at the Cira Centre are built-in as part of the structure of the building. Every other night I would just pass by it, but this night I saw Tetris shapes forming in my mind's eye, falling down, and that began this long journey to try to make this game possible," Lee told Ars Technica.
He had to overcome objections from executives from the company that owns the Cira Centre; they thought Pong ancient and irrelevant. Lee tried to convince them that people would care exactly because it was old, making it a cultural touchstone instead of outmoded.
"People care because it's Pong. Because Pong is a cultural milestone, and I mean that in that people who've never played Pong know Pong," Lee said. “It is part of our cultural fabric, because it was the first successful commercial video game that launched the multibillion dollar industry that we have now."
He argued to no avail, until Philly Tech Week jumped on the idea and helped lobby for the event. Approval happened in late January, giving Lee and his three-person team just a few months to make some magic.
After obtaining the IP addresses for the lights and creating code, they wrote a gaming API for the office building. The code was stored on a MacBook Pro and hooked up to a joystick via a USB. The laptop wirelessly connected to the Internet and connected through a VPN tunnel to the private network for the Cira Centre's lights.
Various attendees got to play Pong and they are doing it again on Wednesday, April 24. (I’m checking flights now.)
Meanwhile, Lee’s group has developed Snake and Space Invaders (!) for the building and are working on Tetris. They want to create annual events for kids to submit game ideas and they’re playing with the idea of using the entire building, not just one side, for something. I can’t wait to see what they come up with next. WC Fields put it best on his epitaph: “All things considered, I’d rather be in Philadelphia.”
http://social.entertainment.msn.com/blogs/blog--king-pong-making-the-worlds-largest-videogame
First thought: Um, what?
Second thought: Hell, yes!
While I was more of a Space Invaders girl growing up, I was weaned on Pong and hold a special place in my heart for all things Atari. When I heard that a Drexel professor and his team created a version of Pong using the programmable LED lights of Philadelphia’s Cira Centre, a 29-story office building, I geeked out. Some folks would fly across the country for a concert. If I had known about last Friday’s show, I would have jumped a plane faster than Frogger crossing a busy street.
While this computer science professor and his team of brainiacs could probably be putting their massive Mensa grey matter to more practical use, it’s hard to imagine them developing anything much cooler.
Ars Technica breaks down the event, as well as the backstory. With his team, Drexel computer science professor Frank Lee (also Co-Founder and Co-Director of Drexel's game design program) turned the Cira Centre into a fully interactive game. At 437 feet high, it’s inarguably the world’s largest videogame to date.
Lee has been thinking about the idea since 2008. "I was driving down at night, and saw the sparkling lights at the Cira Centre. The LED lights at the Cira Centre are built-in as part of the structure of the building. Every other night I would just pass by it, but this night I saw Tetris shapes forming in my mind's eye, falling down, and that began this long journey to try to make this game possible," Lee told Ars Technica.
He had to overcome objections from executives from the company that owns the Cira Centre; they thought Pong ancient and irrelevant. Lee tried to convince them that people would care exactly because it was old, making it a cultural touchstone instead of outmoded.
"People care because it's Pong. Because Pong is a cultural milestone, and I mean that in that people who've never played Pong know Pong," Lee said. “It is part of our cultural fabric, because it was the first successful commercial video game that launched the multibillion dollar industry that we have now."
He argued to no avail, until Philly Tech Week jumped on the idea and helped lobby for the event. Approval happened in late January, giving Lee and his three-person team just a few months to make some magic.
After obtaining the IP addresses for the lights and creating code, they wrote a gaming API for the office building. The code was stored on a MacBook Pro and hooked up to a joystick via a USB. The laptop wirelessly connected to the Internet and connected through a VPN tunnel to the private network for the Cira Centre's lights.
Various attendees got to play Pong and they are doing it again on Wednesday, April 24. (I’m checking flights now.)
Meanwhile, Lee’s group has developed Snake and Space Invaders (!) for the building and are working on Tetris. They want to create annual events for kids to submit game ideas and they’re playing with the idea of using the entire building, not just one side, for something. I can’t wait to see what they come up with next. WC Fields put it best on his epitaph: “All things considered, I’d rather be in Philadelphia.”
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