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back to article 'Pong' ported to 29-storey skyscraper 'screen'

Seventies gaming classic 'Pong' will reach a hitherto undreamed of scale later in April, when a version of the game is launched for play on lights adorning a skyscraper. The building in question is Philadelphia's Cira Center, a 29-storey edifice opened in 2006. The building features a programmable array of 1500 light emitting …

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  1. the spectacularly refined chap

    Just another blinkenlights

    Really, it's all been done before. It has got past the point of being rather passé now.

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    1. Anonymous Coward
      Reply Icon
      Meh

      Re: Just another blinkenlights

      While you are being a little pessimistic, you are still right. Even if it hadn't been done before, is Pong really that attractive? Couldn't they of at least picked a game that wasn't based in mono color? When the game E.T. is a step in the right direction, you might want to turn around.

      P.S. I actually liked E.T. :-)

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    2. Christian Berger
      Reply Icon

      Re: Just another blinkenlights

      Actually it's not even at Blinkenlights levels. Blinkenlights had both games and creative video. For example there was a service you could submit your video too and it would be displayed when you dialed a special number.

      And they left a legacy of free (as in speech) software and protocols. In fact you can patch mplayer to output to the Blinkenlights protocol and then watch StarTrek on French libraries :)

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    3. Colin Miller
      Reply Icon

      Re: Just another blinkenlights

      Tower block tetris, from 13 years ago http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/718009.stm, also mentions one from 1995.

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      1. Mostly_Harmless Silver badge
        Reply Icon

        Re: Tower block tetris

        "Tower block tetris, from 13 years ago http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/718009.stm, also mentions one from 1995."

        That's the first thing that came to my mind...and I think it looks better than the one in the video here

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  2. jake Silver badge

    Daft.

    Just as bad as the lights on the Bay Bridge[1].

    Totally useless, and nothing resembling "art". Waste of money.

    [1] Yes, I've seen 'em from the water. Worse than Warhol ... and that's difficult.

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  3. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Oh dear

    someone forgot to turn off the lights of the offices, so his game is indistinguishable

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    1. Peter Simpson 1
      Reply Icon
      Thumb Up

      Re: Oh dear

      Well, just barely distinguishable as...

      ...not Pong,

      ...not Snake,

      but Space Invaders!

      //have played it a bit...running on a DG Dasher D200 terminal.

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  4. alain williams Silver badge

    Why the musak under the voice ?

    Why have jangly musak when the guy is talking ? Do they think that people are such air heads that without it they wil get bored ?

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  5. Phil O'Sophical Silver badge

    The idea goes back further

    Blinkenlights 'cheats' in a way, by installing controllable floodlights in each office. Would be more fun to hook into a building environmental controls to use the existing lights. SCADA hack, anyone? :)

    Years ago (1980s?) there was a Calvin & Hobbes strip cartoon where Calvin was playing noughts and crosses (tic tac toe) on the windows of an apartment block facing his bedroom, by phoning neighbours in the middle of the night to bring their lights on.

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    1. Christian Berger
      Reply Icon

      Re: The idea goes back further

      Well light control systems are different to what you usually have for industrial control. So there often is no DCOM involved. :)

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  6. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Yawn

    Boring, boring...

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  7. Great Bu

    When will architects realise.......

    ......that modern buildings need to be designed with a minimum of 1600x1200 resolution to enjoy proper giant gaming ?

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  8. Arg0n
    Mushroom

    Christ on a bike you bunch of grumpy buggers!

    It's just a little fluff piece about a fun idea that the people who take part will enjoy. Just because it's not the first or best way it's been implemented you have to go all 'IT hipster' on them.

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  9. Lord Elpuss Silver badge

    4 years

    To port Pong to a 20x20 matrix controller??

    What did he do with the other 3 years 362 days?

    5 1
  10. Gwaptiva
    Paris Hilton

    At least I'm glad to see our project isn't the only one that takes forever to come up with something simple ;)

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