DIY Pocket PONG Breaks The Mobile Spell

A DIY handheld PONG game

[Minikk], aka [Athul] is about to enter 10th grade and reports that they and their contemporaries are eschewing boring mobile games for 90s stuff and old games like PONG. Well, we already knew the 90s were back, but it’s nice to see that even older stuff is coming along with it. The kids are alright.

Whether you want to play alone or with a friend, it’s a classic to have in your pocket for sure. The brains behind this 70s-era operation is a Seeed Xiao ESP32-C3, which takes input from the two potentiometers and outputs the game on a 128 x 64 OLED. There’s also a small buzzer for when the ball hits the paddle, or you or your friend slips one past the goalie.

Our favorite part of this build has to be the DIY rivets that hold the OLED in place. [Athul] built posts into the enclosure that get heat-smashed into place with a soldering iron. Pretty neat, huh?

PONG is a specific thrill, certainly. How can it be more thrilling? Maybe with LEDs instead of a screen? Just a thought.

8 thoughts on “DIY Pocket PONG Breaks The Mobile Spell

  1. I’m surprised that heat staking isn’t used more often with 3d printing. It works pretty well, even down to surprisingly thin stakes – though the layer adhesion can become an issue ~1mm diam.

    1. In your own stuff OK. In a product inside a case it’s not repairable, but if holding a display or buttons to the outside it’s designed to fail bad. Put supports on the back half and it isn’t needed. At least they make harvesting easier for recycling.

Leave a Reply

Please be kind and respectful to help make the comments section excellent. (Comment Policy)

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.