Sometimes it seems like ideas for projects spring out of nothingness from a serendipitous set of circumstances. [Maarten] found himself in just such a situation, with a combination of his existing Tetris novelty lamp and an awkwardly-sized window on a second-floor apartment, he was gifted with the perfect platform for a giant playable Tetris game built into that window.
To make the giant Tetris game easily playable by people walking by on the street, [Maarten] is building as much of this as possible in the browser. Starting with the controller, he designed a NES-inspired controller in JavaScript that can be used on anything with a touch screen. A simulator display was also built in the browser so he could verify that everything worked without needing the giant display at first. From there it was on to building the actual window-sized Tetris display which is constructed from addressable LEDs arranged in an array that matches the size of the original game.
There were some issues to iron out, as would be expected for a project with this much complexity, but the main thorn in [Maarten]’s side was getting his controller to work in Safari on iPhones. That seems to be mostly settled and there were some other gameplay issues to solve, but the unit is now working in his window and ready to be played by any passers-by, accessed by a conveniently-located QR code. Tetris has been around long enough that there are plenty of unique takes on the game, like this project from 2011 that uses Dance Dance Revolution pads for controllers.
Also, MIT’s take on it, much larger: https://hacks.mit.edu/Hacks/by_year/2012/tetris/
Here is another very big Tetris. And it’s even older: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LwNQqePk8Kg
Would be fun to have the control be implemented through a camera pointing out at the street that does gesture recognition, flail your arms about in different ways to rotate and move left or right. Make people teach each other the gestures and watch them get distorted in the game of telephone
I *love* this, so much so I kinda think I might like to build a giant Gameboy style joypad/button box to mount on my garden wall for passers by…
I was just thinking the same, would be great for Halloween this fall!
*waits until someone puts a malicious QR code on top of the original*
This is a fun idea if you don’t mind people loitering around your home. I suppose you can turn it off in the wee hours to keep drunkards from being too loud. The neck angle needed to look at the screen appears to be uncomfortably high, but that’s probably not a huge problem for a project that will only be utilized for short stretches. Now that I think about it, aren’t you liable for injury on your property? This is the cynic in me speaking, but you could be on the hook financially if someone cranes their neck too hard (in the US at least)
CCC Blinkenlights anyone?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PZRUtKYCpms
Yeah, I loved Blinkenlights, back in the day. Perhaps Blinkenlights has perhaps unconsciously inspired the Tetris project?
That’s an interesting website you’ve got, by the way. I read you were contacted by PCBWay as well. For me they took care of the import fees from their end. I wonder how many more hobbyists they contacted.
Netherlands Right ?
Yep, Purmerend.
Yeah very recognizable, I wonder if this architecture exists elsewhere in the world :)