DIY Pong Watch Prototype
I remember seeing one of the early home versions of Pong as a child It may have been the Magnavox Odyssey version), it was very crude but in a way that was what made the game so charming. It wasn’t just the fact that it was a video game, but also the idea that you could have something that might belong at an arcade at home was in and of itself very exciting. But even though Pong made a big impression on me I had no idea just how iconic that the title would become, so it’s always amazing for me to see how people are still reinterpreting this classic game:
“I’ve always wanted to make my own wrist watch, but I had never gotten around to doing it. I love the Buro Vormkrijgers Pong Clock, but still didn’t build anything. Then after I ran in to David Forbes at the 2006 Maker Faire and got to see his amazing Nixie-tube watch* first-hand, the gears in my head started turning. I found a neat display in a catalog that was about the right size, and ordered it on a whim. I hooked up the screen to a computer, and it was so cool looking I knew that I had to make a Pong Watch! The basic idea – from Buro Vormkrijgers – is genius: each minute the right side scores a point, and each hour the left side scores a point. The effect is that the score is the time.”
Here’s a video of the Pong watch in action:
Found via uniquedaily.com.