Gizmodo: Pong

Pong Prom: When a Man and a Woman Play Body Pong in the Dark

Brian Lam — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 20:42:16 EST

The only thing geekier than slow dancing at arms length apart is Pong Prom. Covert Athletics' hoodies are embedded with arduino controlled LEDs that display a game of pong. The controller? Your dance partner's swaying hips, monitored by accelerometer.

It is safe to assume that as the speed of the game goes up, you're required to switch your listening from rock ballad to punk. [Like it Cool]

Electronic Games of 1979: Addictive, Exciting, Primitive as Hell

Mark Wilson — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 15:20:00 EDT

After the first Pong cabinet was placed in Andy Capp's Cavern in 1972, video games exploded, reaching their full stride by the late '70s. Here are some of the notable games/systems you played (or would have played) back then:

Duck Hunt (1976)
Before Duck Hunt hit the NES as part of the most famous (and arguably most successful) gaming bundle of all time, Nintendo released a version of the game as a standalone toy. A revamp of their IR-based Laser Clay Shooting System! (1973), Duck Hunt used a battery powered lightgun and projector to fly ducks randomly around your wall. Tastefully, there was no little dog there to laugh at you when you inevitably ran out of batteries. [See Duck Hunt in action here]

The Atari 2600 (1977)
Parents may hate consoles now, but the Atari 2600 was greeted with open arms by parents who were happy to keep their kids safe at home rather than exploring seedy arcades. It wasn't the first modern (cartridge-based) console—that award goes to the 1976 Fairchild Channel F. But Fairchild gave up on games before the phenomenon had passed while Atari became the best selling Christmas gift of 1979. Powered by a 1.19MHZ process and bundled with two joysticks, two paddles (for Pong) and a game, the launch price was $199. That doesn't sound like much, but in when adjusted for inflation since 1977, that was about $700.

Simon (1978)
In 1974, Atari released an arcade cabinet called Touch Me. It was a critical flop. But four years later, a pair of inventors tweaked the game, shrinking it down to portable sizes and adding color to the formerly black buttons. The result? Simon, the addictive memory-music game that holds up to this day. Sold by Milton Bradley, a slew of clones would pop up over the years. But c'mon, Simon they were not.

Really Bad Sports Games
Sports are hard enough to stomach on their own, but Atari's early versions of baseball, basketball and football, while necessary to the evolution of video game sports, were simply horrible. With the exception of Activision's 1981 Ice Hockey, none of these games have aged well because even in their simplified versions with limited rule sets and minuscule rosters, the very premises of these sports are far wider in scope than any early era video game. Then again, Pong, made in the early '70s, may be the best "tennis" game of all time.

Space Invaders (1978)
Space Invaders is, quite simply, the biggest arcade game of all time. Taito's simple game incorporated sci-fi elements like lasers and aliens to a humble 5x11 grid of monochromatic descending sprites. (In fact, Space Invaders was never technically in color—colored cellophane was merely laid over the monitor.) It's been attributed to coin shortages in Japan and the rise of mainstream arcade prominence in the US. And while Pac-Man would also be a mega force of its own, he wouldn't be around until 1980.

Coleco Telstar Arcade (1977/78)
No, the Coleco Telstar Arcade did not revolutionize gaming forever, it's just a personal favorite. Before the rise of cartridge-based consoles, single-title home arcade units were extremely popular. There was a huge market of PONG clones that were essentially a base unit with knobs that plugged into your TV. Anyway, Coleco made a lot of these dedicated machines, but their most advanced/ridiculous was the Telstar Arcade. The triangle base unit contained Pong, gun and racing controls, plus it actually accepted additional (triangle-shaped) cartridges to expand gameplay. I sort of wish that the Xbox 360 were designed so ludicrously.

Adventure (1979)
It might not look like much now, but Adventure was, aptly, the first action/adventure video game. A modest 4KB, Adventure followed a dragon-slaying hero through a labyrinth of mirrored environments (the Atari simply wasn't capable of more complex levels) in his quest to transport a chalice to a yellow castle. Grand! And beyond its invention of an entire genre, the game introduced the concept of inventory (to hold contemporary gaming mainstays like swords and keys). What Adventure was missing was the motivation of a damsel in distress. [Try it here]

Asteroids (1979)
One ship stuck in an asteroid field—duplicate that idea in arcade cabinet form over 56,000 times and you have Asteroids, Atari's best selling arcade game of all time (though admittedly only about a third as successful as Taito's Space Invaders). As players blew the heck out of space rocks, they also had to control inertia in what's considered the first real physics based game. The effect is akin to a dogfight on ice. [Try it here]

Pinball Wizardry
It's tough to think of the year 1979 without Pete Townshend popping into your head. So what was going on in terms of Pinball in that era? Circuitboards. In 1977, Bally's Lost World became the first pinball machine to replace chimes with electronic sounds. And by 1979, Williams' Gorgar introduced the first pinball game with a continuous soundtrack. But since this was the '70s we're talking about, we'll remind you that Kiss pinball came out, too, and people weren't playing it with any aura of self-deprecation.

Sources: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 and a healthy dose of Wikipedia/wasted youth].

Gizmodo '79 is a week-long celebration of gadgets and geekdom 30 years ago, as the analog age gave way to the digital, and most of our favorite toys were just being born.

Vintage Gaming Ties Futilely Subvert Corporate Authority

Mark Wilson — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 17:00:00 EST

If a red tie is considered to exude power and authority at some business lunch, then an Asteroids tie must allude to nothing less than intergalactic domination.

Oh, who are we kidding? You have a crappy office job (whether you make a lot of money or not) that doesn't allow you to sit around and play video games in your underwear all day. And nothing about these $25 polyester gaming ties can change that.

But you know what works? Sneak a DS into your desk drawer and take really long bathroom breaks. [Amazon via OhGizmo!]

Autonomous Cyclops Robot Will School You At Pong Every Time

John Mahoney — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 11:10:00 EST

Using a cyclopean webcam mounted on a telescoping neck and two solenoid fingers, this robot will dutifully and adorably Pong you into oblivion.

Built by Dutch designer Ivo Vos in 2006, this is one of the coolest robots I've ever seen. It's amazing in its simplicity, and its ability to stare at a screen and respond with its little fingers just like we do.

Once a robot can out-solenoid me at Street Fighter, though, then we might have a problem. [Ivo Vos via BBG via Gizmowatch]

Electronic Beer Pong Table Probably a Big Hit at the Engineering Frat House

Dan Nosowitz — Sat, 20 Dec 2008 12:30:55 EST

Giz reader and beer pong enthusiast Dan Dayon constructed a beer pong table with glowing LEDs, cup sensors, and a wireless module. It's one of the most advanced tables you could ever puke on.

The DIY project is powered by five microcontrollers and features 120 RGB LEDs, five per cup. The lights pulse and change color depending on the arrangement of ~~(presumably) classic red plastic cups~~ see-through plastic cups, and is equipped with a wireless module to let it communicate with a scoreboard to be constructed later. The LEDs are under a sheet of glass to protect them from the cheap beer of choice. [Thanks, Dan!]

Retromodo: Tennis for Two, the World's First Graphical Videogame

Dan Nosowitz — Sat, 08 Nov 2008 12:00:00 EST

In 1958, Dr. William Higinbotham was working at the Brookhaven National Laboratory on a simulation of bouncing balls and missile trajectories that could predict the paths objects could take. Suddenly, it hit him: why not apply this to tennis? He created Tennis for Two, which depending on your definition could be considered the world's first videogame, in October of that year. Video after the jump.

Designing the circuit board and its components took Higinbotham a few days, and building the machine took about three weeks. On October 18th, 1958, hundreds lined up to play the newly christened Tennis for Two. It used a whopping five-inch oscilloscope screen, and featured play mechanics pretty similar to 1972's Pong, though the game was viewed from the side of the net rather than an overhead vantage point.

Why didn't he patent the technology? Well, Tennis for Two used designs extremely similar to what Higinbotham had created in his federal-owned lab, so any patent would have had to belong to the government. Owning the right to every video game ever sounds pretty sweet right now, given our monstrous debt, but that's really neither here nor there. [NYTimes, thanks Ronald!. Image: Maxine Hicks/NYTimes]

Interactive Pong May be Most Fun You Can Have With a Whiteboard

Kit Eaton — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 11:45:07 EST

Pong exerts a vicious grip on the minds of designers—it pops up in hundreds of reincarnations. But this one is sweet: a live "drawing on whiteboard" version, mixing electronics with the joy of drawing on, wiping off and repositioning your playing bat. Check it out, thrill to the high-speed action and grin at the ultimate use of a whiteboard: so much better than the usual business drivel that gets drawn on them. There's no more info apart from it's a live demo of a "physics based engine responding to it’s real life surroundings," so we're imagining it's powered by frantic behind-the scenes action by Dibert and Dogbert. [Electronicmiracles]

Dining Table Recreates Pong With 2,400 LEDs and 2 Trackpads

Sean Fallon — Wed, 28 May 2008 19:30:00 EDT

The game that started a phenomenon in the 70's is back (albeit in slightly different form) thanks to the design work of one Moritz Waldemeyer. This new version takes the classic game and embeds it into a fairly plain looking dining table using 2400 LEDs and 2 trackpads. When the table is on, the trackpads allow users to take full control of the paddles. When the table is off, the game completely disappears.

The Pong Table was a big hit at MOMA's recent Elastic Mind exhibit, but despite its popularity, there is no indication that it will ever go into production. It's probably just as well though. I can only imagine the sort of dinnertime disasters that would take place during a heated contest where flailing arms would send food and drink flying around the room. [MOMA via CubeMe via LikeCool]

Audio Ping Pong is a Pain in the Neck...Literally

Sean Fallon — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 18:30:00 EDT

The arduino platform has been the basis for a lot of bizarre gadgetry over the years, and the audio ping pong project by Mike McCracken certainly stands up to the best of them. The game is essentially the classic Pong with one major alteration—instead of using your hands and eyes, the game is controlled with audio cues and head movements.

When the headphones are on, the player hears a sound (the ball) that seems to be getting closer. In order to return "the ball" you tilt your head to one side or the other depending on which side the movement is heard. The challenge is to center the sound and return the volley. As the contest progresses, the speed increases until you miss the ball or you break your neck—whichever comes first. As you lie twitching on the ground, a buzzer and a light from the machine will mock your defeat. To discover just how stupid all of this makes you look, check out the video below.

[Mike McCracken via MAKE]

Pong Helmet Designed for Idiots, People Who Like Pong

Adam Frucci — Thu, 07 Feb 2008 13:45:00 EST

If you are retarded and need to wear a helmet around to keep that noggin of yours safe, you might as well make it entertaining for others around you. I guess. I'm not really sure what other uses there are for this except perhaps as a way for construction workers to pass time on their lunch breaks. In any case, this is a hard hat with an LED display on the front that plays Pong and displays messages for some reason. Of course! [Instructables]

Watch Concepts Let You Play Pong and Tetris In Style

Adrian Covert — Thu, 15 Nov 2007 18:40:02 EST

Lysandre Follet's watch concepts assume the identity of a pair of Nixon timepieces, throwing pong or tetris into the inner workings while avoiding excessive nerddom. The watches balance throwback games with simple, clean designs that don't look to irony for their appeal (like the designer retro-reissue of the Casio Databank). If this were ever real, I'd seriously consider buying it. [Yanko Design]

Park To Play Lets You Use Your Car as a Gaming Joystick

AddyDugdale — Tue, 23 Oct 2007 06:58:45 EDT

Esoteric Dutch blog Fresh Creation went to the Holland Innovation fair in, surprise, the Netherlands, and they found this crazy little — well, big, actually — thing. Park To Play lets you play games — Pong, Tetris, Pinball, Space Invaders etc — with your car. Yep, you didn't hear wrong. Part art installation, part crazy, what-have-they-been-smoking-over-in-them-thar-low-countries-coffee-houses, they've rigged out the steering wheel and doors with sensors so that you can use the car to control the game. Headlights, brakes, car doors, they all become buttons to control the game with. I like the fact that the pinball flippers are controlled by the car doors. [Fresh Creation]

Bally Pong Makes Gambling Even More Addictive

Mark Wilson — Sun, 29 Jul 2007 11:30:24 EDT

Atari's Pong is stealing our quarters once again, recently approved for use in a slot machine made by Bally: "Bally Pong." A cabinet decorated with chrome fixtures and retro fonts will be a pretty standard 5-line slot, though featuring two knobs for the 1-in-70 occurrence of a 45-second Pong minigame. And while earnings at this point are "skill based," will expert Pongers see a real payout advantage?

Yes. Those who succeed in the minigame will see a payout up to 7% higher—which is a huge amount in Vegas where the minimum payout is 75%. We're not big on the slots, but with PONG and the possibility of Breakout coming down the line, our mad gaming skills could pay off...literally. In all reality, we'll just be losing 7% less than all of our money. [forbes via therawfeed]

Pong, Anytime, Anywhere

Travis Hudson — Thu, 10 May 2007 18:00:39 EDT

As part of the ECE 476 Microcontroller Design course at Cornell University, two students have taken the game of Pong and added a new twist. This version of Pong can be played on any flat surface using two laser-sensing paddles and a laser projector that projects the Pong ball. The entire project only set the duo back $48. Hit the link below to get all of the nitty-gritty details about the game, how it works and even videos of the two designers—Adrian Wong and Bhavin Rokad—playing the game. Nice work guys. –Travis Hudson

Project Page [Via Slashgear]

Animated Atari Pong T-Shirt

Brian Lam — Mon, 12 Mar 2007 16:57:18 EDT

The unseasonably warm San Francisco weather today makes me think of Summer attire. That, and how I'd rather be outside today. Bringing such thoughts back to the realm of gadgets, I present you with this T-shirt which mounts an animated (but unplayable) game of Pong on the bony forefront of your chest, using some unspecified display tech and two AAA batteries. This piece of unquestionably tacky attire joins the ranks of more tasteful Pong watch and clock we've recently written about, but this could be the most relevant Pong-themed gadget yet.

Is this the "I'm with Stupid" shirt of this century? Maybe, if legions of geeks can get over the epilepsy inducing animation and the feeling of a warm battery pack digging into the ribcage. I'll pass. When it comes to "technical clothing" I prefer the Star Trek like suction-fit of Underarmor thermals. They keep you comfortable in varying climate, and instead of Pong, they show nipples.–Brian Lam

Pong Shirt [ThinkGeek]

Pong Watch Pretty Much Complete

Travis Hudson — Fri, 05 Jan 2007 16:30:32 EST

We first told you about John Maushammer and his pong watch way back in September, and the good news is that it is finally done. Maushammer was inspired by the pong clock that took the world by storm (not really) this summer.

I succeeded in compressing all the electronics for this watch in to a 10mm-thick case. The 96x64 OLED display runs continuously - unlike older LED watches, there is no need to press a button to see the time. Battery life is 25 hours, so recharging is done every night.

Nice, indeed. His site has detailed build logs, so if you are handy with circuits and a soldering iron, you can build your own. Jump for a video of the design and build process.

– Travis Hudson

Information Page [Via MAKE]

Akai MPC1000 Sequencer Plays Musical Pong

Noah Robischon — Thu, 28 Dec 2006 12:45:14 EST

The Akai MPC100 is a semi-portable "music production center" (MPC) with a 64-Track MIDI Sequencer, a 32-voice Stereo Digital Sampler and 16 velocity and pressure sensitive rubber pads. A group of Japanese coders hacked the operating system and have been selling upgraded versions of the OS for owners to install. The latest rev includes this musical game of Pong, which triggers samples of your choice as it plays.

Akai MPC1000 now really does play Pong [MusicThing]

Flashlight Pong

Jason Chen — Wed, 18 Oct 2006 20:00:16 EDT

Something we'd either need to be really bored or really drunk to think of—these guys rigged up a screen with light sensors so they can play Pong with flashlights. Next up, Halo 2 with a miner's helmet. – Jason Chen

Project Page [Diaplsy22 via TechEBlog]

Pong Watch: A Smaller, Geekier Pong Clock

Travis Hudson — Wed, 13 Sep 2006 11:37:44 EDT

Remember that semi-cool Pong Clock? Sure you do, we only posted about it on a daily basis over the summer. Well, John Maushammer has taken this idea to a smaller level and has designed and created a beautifully crafted Pong wristwatch. It has a 1.2-inch OLED display that will display the time with a friendly game of Pong. It is still in the prototype phases—Maushammer is still working out the kinks with power management, but hopefully it will be available for sale, someday. Until then, hit the jump to see a video of the Pong watch in action.

– Travis Hudson

Homemade PONG watch! [MAKE]

German Pong Dress is Great for Parties

Gizloco — Fri, 25 Aug 2006 10:58:22 EDT

Show me a young lady who has never wanted to wear a dress with a built-in Pong game and I'll show you someone who doesn't enjoy fluffy clouds and rainbows. This little German art project was designed by Max Moswitzer and Margarete Jahrmann and is fairly simple: a series of LEDs line a young lady's dress that are controlled by what look to be old NES controllers. The LEDs light up in response to the user's inputs and a game of Pong breaks out. It's part of a Pong expo, pong.mythos, going on right now in Leipzig. Thankfully, there's a video of the dress in action, complete with one of those German raves going on in the background. – Nicholas Deleon

pong.mythos Home Page [pong.mythos via Crunch Gear]

Pong Clock: Hands On

Travis Hudson — Mon, 31 Jul 2006 13:54:58 EDT

Kotaku's own male underwear model, Brian Crecente, was one of the 400 to purchase and own one of those damn pong clocks that we have been ranting about for months. Check out the video of it in action, below. His only complaint: there is no battery powered option.

I don't happen to own one, but my complaint is that it costs $300 and is small as hell. – Travis Hudson

Clips: Pong Clock [Kotaku]

DIY Pong Clock, Good Idea, Poor Execution

Travis Hudson — Wed, 26 Jul 2006 10:53:52 EDT

We've been hyping the Pong Clock since last year, when we first heard word of it. Nine months later they finally shipped and we will have to admit that is pretty disappointing. The manufactured Pong Clock is tiny, and costs nearly $300.

Somebody else out there shared our same feelings and created a little DIY pong clock. The interface looks identical to the manufactured model, but the outer casing is a bit more ugly. The clock was made out of an old Dell Inspiron 7500 and a LOT of duct tape. It looks fairly functional—after it boots up, of course—but I wouldn't dare hang something that ugly on my walls. Craftsmanship, anyone? – Travis Hudson

Home-Built Pong Laptop Clock [Techeblog]

Pong Clock Unwrapping

Jason Chen — Sun, 09 Jul 2006 15:21:33 EDT

Not only has the Pong Clock shipped, it's arrived!

Take a look at the unwrapping of the pong clock, complete with a size comparison with the iMac. From all the pictures we saw before, we thought the clock was a lot bigger. It's actually about the size of an UMPC. – Jason Chen

First Pong Clock In The Wild [Zelfspot via digg]

DIY: Build Your Own Pong Game

Travis Hudson — Wed, 28 Jun 2006 11:43:44 EDT

What is geekier than a soldering iron and a good game of Pong? Damn near nothing. That is why you can geek out to the max with the Classic Video Table Tennis kit. This is a PCB kit that lets you construct your own Pong game to relive those memories and put your soldering skills to the test. Given that your construction skills can accomplish it, this game can be played by one or two players, includes four difficulty levels and can connect to NTSC televisions with the standard RCA video cables. The kit—which is essentially a bag of resistors, capacitors and diodes—is available through ThinkGeek for $20. – Travis Hudson

Product Page [Via Coolest-Gadgets]

The Pong Clock Is Finally Shipping!

Jason Chen — Mon, 26 Jun 2006 21:59:06 EDT

The makers of the Pong Clock emailed a notice to pre-order customers that their long awaited clocks are finally shipping. There's only 400 made (so far), so it's pretty exclusive (so far). And like so many cool gadgets, these clocks are made in Taiwan. It costs €228.28 ($285.85).

Check out the full email after the jump. – Jason Chen

Product Page [burovormkrijgers]

Dear Sir/Madam,

Hurray, the loooong wait [for you and us] is finally over!

The 'special' screens have, at last, arrived from Taiwan, and all the 400 Pong Clocks are currently assembled.

Before we can ship your Pong Clock, we kindly request you to pay the full amount due, mentioned on the attached invoice*.

Follow the instructions mentioned on the attached invoice, and when the amount due is received on our pay pal- or bank account, within the next two weeks, we will then proceed to put your items in the shipping queue.

Since we are no multinational corporation we cannot ship all items in 1 week, besides our work on all other [clients] projects. Therefore we will ship all items in the shipping queue within a period of 3-5 weeks from today. Be aware that the attached file is the original invoice, and if you need a printed copy for your personal administration, you can simply print out the attached file. You will receive 1 confirmation e-mail to confirm your payment has been received, and 1 e-mail to confirm your shipment has been send.

BURO VORMKRIJGERS WISHES TO THANK:

All it's Pong Clock customers, for their support in the "Pong Clock vs Atari" issues, and their patience!

In the end we feel our struggle was worth it, and we are confident you feel the same, when you'll be holding one of the 400 unique Pong Clocks in the world!

Check our website www.burovormkrijgers.nl now, and in the future, for other innovative designs produced in exclusive and limited editions.

Kind regards / Met vriendelijke groet,

Sander Mulder & Dave Keune

Gizmodo Gallery: Benjamin Gaulon

coinop — Wed, 22 Mar 2006 14:40:47 EST

"Printball" (Gaulon, 2005)

Interview/Article by Jonah Brucker-Cohen

As an exponential amount of digital objects begin to permeate our daily lives, the tendency for manufacturers to combine multiple functionalities into one "mega" device seems to be a popular methodology. Taking this credo as a starting point with his hardware inspired projects is French media artist, Benjamin Gaulon. From combining the mechanism of a Paintball gun with an Ink-Jet printer in his almost absurdist "Printball" project to using the exterior of an office building as an interactive surface in "De Pong Game", Gaulon's projects attempt to challenge popular conceptions of how electronic objects and software should and could function in our daily lives. By examining the fragility of data transfer and transmission of files across the Internet with his "Corrupt" project, he is also attempting to comment on the seemingly delicate nature of our global communications networks. Gizmodo recently caught up with Gaulon to discuss his approach to infiltrating pop cultural icons through creative interventions in hardware hacking and how recycling outdated technology can lead to new forms of collaborative musical and visual expression.

Name: Benjamin Gaulon
Age: 26
Education: Masters at the Ecole Superieuredes Arts Decoratifs in Strasbourg (2002) , Masters (Interactive Media & Environment), Frank Mohr Institute, Groningen (The Netherlands, 2005).
Affiliation:Independent, but I have also created a European group of artist, designers, theorist, engineers, etc.. called Deponk (www.deponk.com).
URL(s): http://www.recyclism.com,
Recyclism is my general website, where I present my works. I started most of my projects with a site called www.digitalrecycling.com (a database for digital file recycling, where people can upload and download digital junk to create new works.

GIZMODO: Your project, "Printball", combines the mechanism of an Ink-Jet printer and a Paintball cannon. What were you attempting to discover by combining these two devices?

BG: The idea of the Ink-Jet printer is more conceptual than literal. So it's a Paintball gun (hacked to be automatic, because in Europe [we are] not allowed to have automatic Paintball guns, so you need to directly control the solenoid that triggers the gun) with a custom made Pan and Tilt [mechanism]. The idea was to create a "graffiti robot" that could shoot images, so instead of using a Paintball gun to play war games this machine can create images and text. I'm (in most of my projects) really interested by the idea of "detournement" (as Guy Debord as defined it in 1959) This project is a Deponk project (my collective) because it's an idea that we had with a friend and French artist (Geraud de Bizien: www.vastemonde.com). We had the idea together and I then realized the project during my Masters at the Frank Mohr Institute.

"Recycling Entertainment System" (Gaulon, 2004)

GIZMODO: The "Recycling Entertainment System" connects six Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) controllers to a computer to control a shared software synthesizer. Why did you choose these hardware devices as interfaces for collaborative music composition?

BG: First, after working on digital recycling with the digital recycling website, I wanted to explore hardware recycling. I also liked the idea of recycling the NES controllers, which are for me the origin of videogame controllers (the basics: directional buttons, select and start and the A and B buttons). Nowadays game controllers are a bit more advanced but basically they are based on those controllers. So it was a way to go back to the roots of the game controller (they are also the video games that I could play with as a kid, so part of my personal mythology). With this project I also wanted to make an interactive system for several players to play and create something together in real time. The digital recycling project is also based on that idea but it's not made for "real time" composition, but the structural concept is really close since both projects are using the concept of database jamming to create new and original works (sampling art). The RES has the structure of a band (with a bass player, a drummer, percussion, a loop player and a synthesizer) but it's like a DJ playing as a band (jamming with audio samples).

"Corrupt" (Gaulon, 2005)

GIZMODO: Your "Corrupt" project breaks down an image file into its binary equivalent and replaces some of this code with a random value from 1 to 20. What were you trying to accomplish with this project? And why are some of the results too damaged to show?

BG: I'm reading the binary of a file, swapping some bytes (randomly, from 1 to 20 swaps) and I save it again. Then another part of the code (done with Processing) is loading the saved file again (checking if it's still readable) and the readable files are "saved as" in a result folder. So I only keep the corrupted files that are still readable. This project explores the limit of digital technologies and tries to reproduce and control data corruption: this corruption normally occurs during data transfer (i.e. e-mail, ftp, etc. - see this link for a complete definition: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data_corruption) As Kim Cascone write in his article ""The Aesthetics of Failure"" [accidents usually cause the most interesting things to happen].

"De Pong Game" (Gaulon, 2004)

GIZMODO: "De Pong Game" recreates the famous PONG game as a projection on the surface of a building. A custom modified joystick controls game play and the player must use the built-in elements of the building (windows, doors, etc) as elements in the game. What is your ultimate aim with creating these large-scale public interactive pieces?

BG: Well, this project came during a workshop where I was asked to create some media stuff in the "real world" outside my studio and outside the computer. At that time I had just discovered the concept of Augmented Reality and I was interested to find ways to explore that concept. My idea was first to use the windows as pixel, but since I found the "Blinkenlights" project (by Berlin's Chaos Computer Club), I had to re-think my idea. I'd liked the idea of an intersection between a projection and the real world, since I'm [into all things] "recycling". I see the creative process as an endless recycling process, such as the socio-cultural loop of creation. I thought that the PONG game was a really interesting thing to recycle when you talk about video games (since it's the origin of the video game).

GIZMODO: What projects are you currently working on? How are they similar or different than your past projects?

BG: Actually I'm working on different things, but one of those is the "E-Waste" workshop with a Dutch company called Blue Melon. Those workshops (and your "Scrapyard Challenge" workshops were an influence for that) are based on the idea of recycling (hardware recycling) and we are trying to combine the creative possibilities of hardware recycling and to bring some awareness to the participant about the issues of "E-waste" pollution. I think as an artist and as a human being working with electronics and computers, it's important to know what is happening to the equipment once it becomes obsolete, which occurs really fast for computers.

Pong Clock Maker C&Ded By Atari

johnb — Tue, 28 Feb 2006 12:04:57 EST

Way to almost ruin everyone's day, Atari. Apparently the maker of the Atari Threatens Pong Clock Makers [Kotaku]

Pong Clock Pre-orders Begin!

Travis Hudson — Wed, 18 Jan 2006 15:05:31 EST

Remember that oh-so-badass Pong Clock that was making its way throughout the Interweb a couple of months back? The good news: production has begun and pre-ordering has also started. The bad news: this is going to set you back well over $200 and won't be shipping until February at earliest. What can we say? Being retro is pricey.

Product Page [Buro Vormkrijgers]

Pong Wall Clock, Coolness to the Max

Travis Hudson — Sun, 27 Nov 2005 12:00:12 EST

Normally I turn into a Negative Nancy when it comes to vintage gaming products and memorabilia, but this thing is cool as hell. There isn t much information available regarding how this was built, but it functions pretty simply. The game of pong is played until another minute has passed, then one of the paddles misses a shot, resulting in an adjustment of the score that matches the time of day. Check out the link for more pictures and whatnot.

The Pong Clock [Gamers Hell]