Philly Turns Entire Skyscraper Into Pong
A university professor's daydream turned into what might be the biggest Pong ever.
As part of their annual Philly Tech Week, event organizers in Philadelphia have turned a building into a giant screen for a game of Pong. The 29-story Cira Centre has a grid of LEDs on mirrored glass, and those were perfect "pixels" to become a 400-foot screen. All for the glory of the venerable Pong. Two joysticks were connected to a laptop, which was connected to a 4G hotspot about a quarter mile away. The 4G went right to the computers controlling the building's lights, and it looks like, aside from a little lag, the giant screen worked pretty well.
The entire display was the daydream of Drexel University Game Design professor Frank Lee. Lee told NPR that one day in 2008, as he was driving by the building he "saw Tetris shapes rotating and falling. And that began the long journey to make this game." The organizers of Philly Tech Week, it seems, liked the end product of Lee's five year dream. More games of Pong will be played on the skyscraper screen throughout Tech Week.
Darren Davis, a 17 year old high school junior, was the victor. He won the right to play in a lottery of around 1,000 people.
Source: NPR [http://www.npr.org/blogs/alltechconsidered/2013/04/21/178280618/philly-turns-skyscraper-into-video-game-screen-for-tech-week]
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A university professor's daydream turned into what might be the biggest Pong ever.
As part of their annual Philly Tech Week, event organizers in Philadelphia have turned a building into a giant screen for a game of Pong. The 29-story Cira Centre has a grid of LEDs on mirrored glass, and those were perfect "pixels" to become a 400-foot screen. All for the glory of the venerable Pong. Two joysticks were connected to a laptop, which was connected to a 4G hotspot about a quarter mile away. The 4G went right to the computers controlling the building's lights, and it looks like, aside from a little lag, the giant screen worked pretty well.
The entire display was the daydream of Drexel University Game Design professor Frank Lee. Lee told NPR that one day in 2008, as he was driving by the building he "saw Tetris shapes rotating and falling. And that began the long journey to make this game." The organizers of Philly Tech Week, it seems, liked the end product of Lee's five year dream. More games of Pong will be played on the skyscraper screen throughout Tech Week.
Darren Davis, a 17 year old high school junior, was the victor. He won the right to play in a lottery of around 1,000 people.
Source: NPR [http://www.npr.org/blogs/alltechconsidered/2013/04/21/178280618/philly-turns-skyscraper-into-video-game-screen-for-tech-week]
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