Pong Played On Philadelphia Skyscraper

Over the weekend, a Philadelphia skyscraper has ended up as being the world’s largest video game, where this is made possible thanks to a Drexel University professor who decided to make use of the building’s gigantic lights in order to display a working version of Pong. This video game did seem to be playable on the side of the 29-story Cira Centre building in Philadelphia, and it certainly proved to be quite the kick start for Philly Tech Week, where for Pong to be played on a building instead of a screen proved to be the dream of computer science professor Frank Lee.

Lee claimed that he had in mind the gigantic version of the 1972 Atari game for the past half decade, saying, “The idea for the project came to me when I was driving down I-76. As the sun was going down, I saw the sparkly lights at the Cira Centre. In my mind, I saw Tetris shapes falling down. That was the genesis of trying to create a game using the Cira Centre lights.”

The building comprises of 20 pixels by 23 pixels in its matrix of lights, which is rather limited, but Lee racked his brains to figure out just how to make Pong play on the 437-feet tall building. Players will be able to control the game from a spot that is located across the Schuylkill river from the Cira Center. We’ve also read about Pac-Man being played on a building recently, so what other buildings do you think deserve such an “honor”?

Edwin Kee
Categories: Gaming
Tags: pong