As far as video games go, Pong is already about as simple as it gets. But if even two dimensions is a bit more than you’re looking to tackle, [mircemk] shows how you can distill the core gameplay of this iconic title to its absolute minimum using an Arduino and a row of LEDs.
While [mircemk] brings their usual design aesthetic and flash to the project, this one could truly be done as a parts bin build. All you really need is a microcontroller with enough I/O pins (here, an Arduino Nano is used), a couple of buttons, and the aforementioned LEDs. A 16×2 LCD and a buzzer have been added to improve on the user interface a bit, but even that isn’t strictly required.
To play, each user holds their button and gets ready to hit it as soon as the LED closest to them lights up. Again, [mircemk] spruces this build up by offering both integrated buttons on the front panel of the game, as well as a pair of external “controllers” so you don’t have to crowd around the main unit. In this incarnation the score is shown on the LCD, but swapping that out for a pair of seven-segment LEDs could give the whole thing a bit more of a retro flair.
This isn’t the first time [mircemk] has tackled 1D Pong — if you can spring for addressable LEDs, you can pull the whole thing off with significantly less wiring.
15 years ago I played PONG on a single character of that LCD. I’m collecting vintage video game consoles. Now one that I built myself can be considered vintage. Damn, time!
I was sooo close to building the smallest PONG arcade machine in the world, but the tiny 5×1 character LCD I salvaged off a dump server had a tiny crack that made it work just long enough to keep continue working and it broke just as the machine was completed (at least before I made a case. As opposed to [mircemk], I suck at making enclosures. His is gorgeous!)
Here’s the link: http://tempect.de/senil/tinypong.html
Don’t bother – this project has already featured on HaD 15 years ago.
Remind me to finally build that PWM based Zero Dimensional PONG I was too lazy to make.
“Remind me to finally build that PWM based Zero Dimensional PONG I was too lazy to make.”
Hey! Don’t forget to finally build that PWM based Zero Dimensional PONG you were too lazy to make!
Nothing new here. I can recall playing ping pong on the front panel of a Data General Nova 820 in the mid 70s.
I made such a game once long ago. Used some cheap led bargraphs i had collected with a couple 74HC595 and a PICAXE (back when those were a thing). It was more of a reaction game than pong though and with each pair of bounces it would slowly get faster and faster.
Seeing this I kind of want to revisit it… See what i would do differently.
Probably a LOT.
This hack is so 1D. And I mean that as a compliment. More complex games are often just simple mechanisms stacked together. If hitting the button and it’s visual response js satisfying, that is a well designed game. SMB is really just an x and y system with basic physics.