Virtual Pong Played with a Light Orb

Remember the old days when you played Atari’s Pong console? That was all that the console played, and we loved hitting that square shaped ball back and forth. We just didn’t know any better. It seems so slow now. Well, this isn’t your grandfather’s Pong.

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This Virtual Pong game from Shaper Image is a real-world version of the game with a digitally-projected ball and everything. At last we are living in the TRON future, my friends. You have two wireless paddles to hit the virtual ball with. You might even lose a few pounds as you get off the couch and compete.

The center base station projects an orb of colored light back and forth between the players. You hit it with your “rackets” trying not to make a racket as you destroy mom’s knick knacks. It works like the Wii, though it looks more dangerous to your surroundings. Virtual Pong is available now from Sharper Image for $59.99(USD).

[via SlashGear]

4 Classic Video Game Inspired Tile Designs

pacman tile 4 Classic Video Game Inspired Tile Designs
If you’re looking to geek up your bathroom or kitchen why not take advantage of the fact that square tiles are perfect for creating mosaics with? UK based Topps Tiles came up with a few fresh ideas to turn your home into an 8-bit wonderland. Like the Pac-Man design above with the well-placed clock in the center. Or Mega Man:
mega man tiles 4 Classic Video Game Inspired Tile Designs
That one looks a bit more complicated to create, being 16 bits and so many colors. But I could see it in a kid’s bathroom or mancave bathroom. Make it simpler with the oldest of the old school- Pong!
pong tiles 4 Classic Video Game Inspired Tile Designs
I like that design- it’s geeky but not in-your-face. Almost subtle. Lastly is the Space Invaders tile job:
space invader tiles 4 Classic Video Game Inspired Tile Designs
Maybe I wouldn’t have placed that picture right over the design. Pretty cool tiling inspiration ideas there, you could take this idea and run with it- finding the perfect 8-bit retro game for your room design.

4 Classic Video Game Inspired Tile Designs

The Ultimate Arcade Game Cake

After years of thinking about it, I finally bit the bullet and ordered a custom MAME cabinet for my basement. It’s finally coming next week, so I can’t wait to try and beat these guy’s Donkey Kong high scores. Or not. But if I wasn’t getting my own arcade machine, I’d take this arcade cake instead. It’s definitely the next best thing.

arcade cake 1

This three-tier cake was made by Wedding Cakes by Nicole, and it features colorful images of classic arcade games on each of its sides. It’s got arcade-accurate versions of Pac-Man, Donkey Kong, Tetris, Frogger, and even Pong.

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It’s even got arcade-style buttons and a coin slot. Though I bet if you tried to mash on those buttons, you’d get food coloring all over your fingertips. The only thing its missing is a couple of paddle controllers for Pong, but I’ll forgive Nicole that.

arcade cake 3

I wonder if that joystick is edible. I so want it to be a red jawbreaker.

arcade cake 4

Atari files for bankruptcy, hopes to survive by selling off Pong and other assets

Atari files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy aims to sell assets including brand logos, gaming history

Atari Inc. has filed for bankruptcy protection, looking to separate from its not-so-profitable French owners and pitch for independent funding. In the process, the elder statesman of gaming has secured $5.25 million of debtor-in-possession financing and will aim to sell assets, including its famous logo (which is already licensed out) and games like Pong, Asteroid and Tempest, in the next 90 to 120 days. In the last few years, Atari Inc. has shifted its focus from traditional retail gaming to digital titles and licensing, with mobile platforms proving especially lucrative for the parent company, Atari SA. The gaming arm is aiming for a return to former glory and, it hopes, the chance to go another 40 years.

[Photo Credit: Marc Grimm]

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Iconic Brand Seeks to Restructure and Secure Independent Capital for Future
Growth

Today Atari Inc., Atari Interactive Inc., Humongous, Inc. and California US Holdings, Inc. (collectively, the "Companies") filed petitions for relief under chapter 11 of the United States
Bankruptcy Code in the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Southern
District of New York. With this move, the U.S.-based Atari operations seek to
separate from the structural financial encumbrances of their French parent
holding company, Atari S.A. (formerly Infogrames S.A.) and secure independent
capital for future growth, primarily in the areas of digital and mobile games.

Within the next 90-120 days, the Companies expect to effectuate a sale of all,
or substantially all, of their assets in a "sale free and clear" under section
363 of the Bankruptcy Code or to confirm plans of reorganization that accomplish
substantially the same result. These assets include not only one of the most
widely recognized brand logos, which is familiar to 90% of Americans, according
to a recent survey, but also legendary game titles including Pong, Asteroids,
Centipede, Missile Command, Battlezone and Tempest. Other recognized brands
include Test Drive, Backyard Sportsand Humongous.

Under current management, Atari Inc. has shifted its business from traditional
retail games to digital games and licensing with an increased focus on
developing mobile games based on some of Atari's most iconic and enduring
franchises. With these moves, the company has added new revenue models,
including digital download and advertising. As a result, Atari Inc. has become a
growth engine for Atari S.A., which in turn has reported consecutive annual
profits in 2011 and 2012.

The company has recently launched a slew of chart-topping titles for iOS and
Android mobile platforms, including Atari Greatest Hits, Outlaw, Breakout and
Asteroids Gunner. The company has previously announced upcoming mobile and
tablet games based upon the popular Rollercoaster Tycoon franchise and Atari
Casino.

The Chapter 11 process constitutes the most strategic option for Atari's U.S.
operations, as they look to preserve their inherent value and unlock revenue
potential unrealized while under the control of Atari S.A. During this period,
the company expects to conduct its normal business operations.

The U.S. companies are also seeking approval to obtain $5.25 million in
debtor-in-possession financing from one or more funds managed by Tenor Capital
Management, a firm specializing in convertible arbitrage and special situations.
Each unit has filed a number of traditional "first-day" pleadings, which are
intended to minimize any disruption of their day-to-day operations.

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Via: Bloomberg

Amazing Cake With 5 Classic Games Depicted In It

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Classic games are sweet, but we never considered them to be heavy in calories. Someone with real baking skills has just proven us wrong, though, and now we have yet another reason to break our diets.

Frogger, Pac-man, Donkey Kong, Tetris and Pong have in common not only the fact that ...
Continue Reading on Walyou

Atari 2600 Hot Wheels: Car-tridges

I like to think that I’m pretty plugged into retro geek culture, but I have to hand it to the guys over at You Found a Secret Area! for turning up something I’ve not seen before – a series of Atari 2600-themed cars from Hot Wheels. Oh, and you can still buy them!

atari 2600 hot wheels

The 1/64th scale die-cast vehicle series is packaged on cards that look like classic Atari 2600 games, including Breakout, Centipede, Pong, Missile Command, and Tempest. There’s even an Atari 2600 party bus (aka Urban Assault Vehicle) for good measure. I’m not sure if the vehicles really make much sense, but they’re still an awesome bit of swag for any collector of Atari 2600 memorabilia. My personal favorite has to be the Centipede monster machine – it totally reminds me of the 1970s with its funny car styling and giant exhaust headers.

Here are a bunch of detailed video shots of each vehicle, courtesy of Hot Wheels Nation:

You can find them over on Amazon for $9.99(USD) each. But you’d better move fast before they all become as hard to find as a copy of Air Raid.

Dutchman celebrates Pong’s 40th birthday with a global, augmented reality edition

Dutchman celebrates Pong's 40th birthday with a global, augmented reality edition

Don't think the festivities surrounding Pong's 40th are limited to official channels. Sander Veerhof of the Netherlands is marking the occasion in his own way with an augmented reality version built as a Layar plugin. Instead of batting the ball across a TV screen, players play across whole continents: anyone who's been online recently is fair game as a fresh target, and the camera's field of view gives a sense of where opponents reside in real life. Games won't be nearly as fast-paced as you might remember from that classic system from the arcade or living room. However, they'll still be reminders that people worldwide have a soft spot for the Nolan Bushnell title that arguably started the video game industry -- and global Pong sure beats a game of global thermonuclear war.

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Source: SNDRV, Layar

Atari celebrates 40 years of Pong with new, free iOS Pong game, custom portable Xbox 360

Atari celebrates 40 years of Pong with new, free iOS Pong game, sweet portable Xbox 360

Atari's celebrating 40 years of arcade classic Pong today by releasing ... another version of Pong. Pong World is being dubbed "the first-ever official new Pong game on iOS" (despite our search of the App Store dictating the contrary), but more importantly, it's totally free and it's already available on the iOS App Store (see gameplay below the break). The iPhone / iPad / iPod Touch game started life as one of many entries in Atari's "Pong Indie Developer Challenge," which pitted devs against each other for $50K and lead representation on the big four-zero celebration.

Should the free game not be enough for you, you could always vie for one of the crazy sweet portable Xbox 360s (seen above) on Atari's Facebook page. Why yes, that is a custom LCD screen attached to a modded Xbox 360, which also happens to resemble a classic Atari console. And yes, we agree, it is totally sweet.

Continue reading Atari celebrates 40 years of Pong with new, free iOS Pong game, custom portable Xbox 360

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Source: iOS App Store, Facebook

RetroBall Pong System Has 4-Player, 5-Ball Mode: Super Pong II Turbo Arcade EX Championship Edition

As far as competitive videogames go, you can’t get any simpler than Pong. But times have changed, and so have our tastes and need for mayhem. We can’t just have birds, they need to be angry birds. So if Pong is to be played by today’s gamers – bored adults and foul-mouthed adolescents alike – it can’t just have two paddles and a ball. There needs to be chaos.

retroball pong game system

Invented by Stacy Dudley and Brad Slattery, the RetroBall is a bat-and-ball game system – let’s just call a Pong a Pong and call it Pong. It has a 32×32 pixel LED screen, an acrylic enclosure and 1-bit sound effects. It’s clearly more powerful than the Wii U. The RetroBall has four paddle controllers so you can engage in four-player Pong deathmatches, and you can even increase the number of balls onscreen to five. It’s actually kind of reminiscent of Atari’s arcade classic Warlords.

retroball pong game system 2

But don’t let the cutting edge graphics and complicated gameplay fool you: you can’t just button mash your way to victory here like in your other modern games, primarily because there’s no button to mash, but also because skilled RetroBall players – probably named Stacy and Brad – are aware that you can change the spin and speed of a ball depending on how you hit it.

Pledge at least $149 (USD) on Kickstarter to reserve a RetroBall game system. Launch titles include 2-player Pong with 1 ball, 3-player Pong with 1 ball, 4-player Pong with 1 ball, 2-player Pong with 2 balls…

[via Ubergizmo]