[Daniel Perdomo] and two of his friends have been working on a mechanical version of Pong for the past two years. We can safely say that the final result is beautiful. It’s quite ethereal to watch the pixe–cube move back and forth on the surface.
[Daniel] has worked in computer graphics for advertising for more than 20 years. However, he notes that neither he nor his friends had any experience in mechanics or electronics when they began. Thankfully, the internet (and, presumably, sites like Hackaday) provided them with the information needed.
The pong paddles and and pixel (ball?) sit onto of a glass surface. The moving parts are constrained to the mechanics with magnets. Underneath is a construction not unlike an Etch A Sketch for moving the ball while the paddles are just on a rail with a belt. The whole assembly is made from V-groove extrusion.
Our favorite part of the build is the scroll wheel for moving the paddle back and forth. For a nice smooth movement with some mass behind it, what’s better than a hard-drive platter? They printed out an encoder wheel pattern and glued it to the surface. The electronics are all hand-made. The brains appear to be some of the larger Arduinos. The 8-bit segments, rainbow LEDs, etc were build using strips glued in place with what looks like copper foil tape connecting buses. This is definitely a labor of love.
It really must be seen to be understood. The movement is smooth, and our brains almost want to remove a dimension when watching it. As for the next steps? They are hoping to spin it up into an arcade machine business, and are looking for people with money and experience to help them take it from a one-off prototype to a product. Video after the break.
This is spectacular. Well done.
It for sure looks a bit more polished compared to the 13 years old Pongmechanik. But the PM was built without any Arduinos or microcontrollers – it used relays for the game & scoring logic!
http://www.cyberniklas.de/pongmechanik/indexen.html
Nice! Anything that includes Zuse is pretty rad in my book.
Wonderful. And I really like it. Still something that bothers me in a way. The physical objects are beautifully protected by a glass layer. The real life feeling is only in its physical big buttons. Pity because I like reality. In fact you created the perfect 3d video screen.
Pong was one of the first (first?) games the gave the perception of real life and physics by primitive pixels on screen. Now you enclosed and hid the wonderful physics, electronics and engineering. Such a great effort all invisible all untouchable. The experience is unchanged. What is left is a non destructive Pong coin collector? Similar to the first Pong coin game machine. Just funny thoughts, great job!
Magnificent!
Wonderful! And I really like it. Still something that bothers me in a way. The physical objects (racket and ball) are beautifully protected by a glass layer. Unfortunately you have no more real life feeling left than that its big buttons. Pity because I like reality. In fact you created the perfect 3d video screen. Pong was one of the first (first?) games that gave the perception of real life by primitive pixels on screen. Now you enclosed everything again and hid the physics, electronics and engineering. Such a great effort invisible and all untouchable. What is left is a non destructive coin collector? Similar to the first Pong coin game machine.
Why all the nonsense to make it a product we really don’t need. We have virtual pong and we have footballs. This is a unique piece of art.
Compliments you for the wonderfull reversion of these concepts and build of mechanics and electronics.
Just funny thougths. Great job!
Well I think there was a very practical reason for covering the play field with glass, the paddles and ball are attached by magnets and without a glass cover people could take them.
Excellent project but so so painful to watch that jerky video.
I wanted to watch it through but I couldn’t bear it anymore.
Anyway +10, from what I did see it was excellent.
Only one thing to add – tripods are so so cheap.
Well as far as videos made from a bouquet of jerky clips go, this one was at least fast-paced and showed the process. Not Clickspring, but still interesting to see.
Awesome build by the way!
Very Nice!
CNC router used for making the table panels: http://www.biesse.com/ww/biesse_produkte/rover/rover_a_smart
is it possible to win/lose a point?
seems very generous in what it considers hitting the paddle.
Quiero unaaaaaaaaa
You have to wonder if it wouldn’t have been better to use a number of ball bearings underneath the puck and paddles rather than a flat magnet.
Thanks a lot Hackaday!!!
If you wanna keep in touch with the project please like our fan page :)
https://www.facebook.com/TABLEPONGPROJECT/
Enjoy!
Daniel Perdomo
What’s old is new again. I still have my mechanical pong game from the 1970’s, still in the original box – Marx T.V. Tennis. It didn’t get much use.
http://www.museumofplay.org/online-collections/1/6/112.5948
This is much more elegant than mine:
https://plus.google.com/+MarkMillerstuff/posts/CxCs2dy1Eog
Fun idea to play with though.
https://plus.google.com/+MarkMillerstuff/posts/CxCs2dy1Eog
link:
Jeeze…tough to post a link for some reason….
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o-JFlAfCAB4
Holy shit! Quad post!
Are you using Android? I have to add any random character after a space or return. And then hold(click?) on it to paste link. And then double check the whole damn thing. Otherwise extra crap is added to the prefix.
.
Nice job.
Amazing job on the article as well as the PONG in real life contraption. I’m almost speechless about it, and it looks like they learned a bunch of skills!
function recursive()
..{
..static uint level = 0;
..level++;
..if(level < 4)
….{
….recursive();
….}
..return;
..}
Where did you get the steppers from? They look like they would be good enough for a simple CNC PCB drill.
Now make Galaga!
For that you need drones.
Fantastic job! At first I was expecting just a modified air hockey table. There’s so much awesome in this build.
Same exact here. Fantastic build! Waiting for a kit to build it! I honestly would consider supporting the development of this product. Will keep my eyes open on this.
I remember having a mechanical pong game that tried to look electronic. The LED ball was moved about by a mindbogglingly complex mechanism, all driven off clockwork!
It was called BLIP, 1977, made by TOMY
I finally found one of those after mine got sold when I wasn’t paying attention. Never knew the insides were basically clockwork, I just remember the 3 button position switches (and trying to get two buttons to lock at once to block better). Now I need to dig it out and look inside.
You’ll be amazed! The play timer is actually the clockwork motor. Somehow it manages random ‘serves’ with rotating gears and cam followers.
Yup. I had one of these as a kid as well. Here’s a teardown:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xuyc_T_Qp3Q
I was wondering if anybody was going to mention Blip! I had one of those, too. Blip and Merlin were probably two of my favorite toys at the beginning of my teens.
Everything is very open with a very clear description of the challenges.
It was really informative. Your website is useful.
Many thanks for sharing! http://www.pagetraffic.in/social-media.php visit http://pagetraffic.com
thank you very interesting.
great website and wonder article
https://uniprojectmaterials.com
nice one
I was wondering if anybody was going to mention Blip! I had one of those, too. Blip and Merlin were probably two of my favorite toys at the beginning of my teens.
Well written Gerrit. Noted :)
Can we trust the technicians of Canon printer support?
Yes, you can trust the technicians of Canon printer support as they are masters in their trade and have years of experience in resolving issues related to Canon printers. The technicians are highly experienced and have been thoroughly trained to give quality Canon printers support to all its customers. They can be trusted as they can help you in deriving the best solution for all your technical problems.
the post was impressive, especially the way you explained it
Data Analytics Courses in Delhi
“This mechanical Pong creation is pure artistry! It’s amazing what creativity and a passion for tinkering can achieve. Kudos to Daniel and his team for this incredible project!”
Turned my screen into a time machine! Felt like I was back in the ’70s arcades, dodging those paddles in real life. Pure nostalgia rush!