Playing famed titles on the sides of buildings ain't
nothing new, but this rendition of
Tetris is just too svelte to be ignored. Folks from the Finnish Student Union and Universimo gaming company (among others) were responsible for rigging up an elaborate (and shall we say, quite beautiful) colored graphics platform using the Mikontalo's D-staircase as light pixels. Reportedly, the installation will also be used for other demos created by pupils at the Tampere University of Technology, but we've all ideas the falling blocks you see above easily stole the show. Be sure and check out a bevy of photos from the unveiling in the links below, and in case that's not enough, you can peep a video of the setup in action just beyond the break.
[Thanks,
Stanislav S.]
Read - Mikontalolights project page
Read - Mikontalo Tetris photographs
Read - Mikontalolights videos / blog
posted Dec 5th 2007 at 10:36AM
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Wes Lawson @ Dec 5th 2007 10:46AM
Someone needs to attempt to do space invaders this way. How cool would that be??
lassi @ Dec 5th 2007 11:24AM
one of the games played was a crappy shoot em up
I LOVE THE CAPS LOCK KEY @ Dec 5th 2007 3:57PM
Doom would be way better.
NHAnimator @ Dec 5th 2007 10:46AM
Let's hope that's not how they originally built the dorm.
Andrew @ Dec 5th 2007 10:47AM
Wow, that's pretty awesome. I wanna play next.
alex @ Dec 5th 2007 10:51AM
People have way too much time up in northern Europe.
patsy @ Dec 5th 2007 11:21AM
Well, it was a particularly long, hot and boring summer up in Finland this year, as you can see from the mere inches of snow on the ground...
Deuz Augustine @ Dec 5th 2007 11:35AM
I suppose you're doing something far more productive, such as, say, commenting on an article you have no interest in about how these people who did something pretty cool have too much free time?
Macha88 @ Dec 5th 2007 7:08PM
@duez. look whose talking
@self *facepalm*
Jef Grosfeld @ Dec 5th 2007 11:10AM
Hmm nice..but I've seen this like 6 years ago in Holland. Still pretty cool.
Pdexter @ Dec 5th 2007 10:54AM
Oh man thats too cool.
Super Dynamite @ Dec 5th 2007 11:09AM
That is great!
blade417 @ Dec 5th 2007 11:10AM
The piece falling is not a valid piece!! It completely screws the puzzle...
Matthew Hilario @ Dec 5th 2007 12:40PM
maybe its rotating really really fast.
Dan S. @ Dec 5th 2007 1:09PM
Given the elongated taillights in front of the onlookers, the photo appears to be an extended exposure (which makes sense, as it was taken at night without aid of a flash). In essence, you're looking at an 'L' block that's fallen and been rotated.
Magallanes @ Dec 5th 2007 11:23AM
Nothing new under the sun
aeo @ Dec 5th 2007 11:26AM
This is way cool. I've an idea that this story is easily the best Engadget has ever had!
DJWhiplash2001 @ Dec 5th 2007 11:37AM
Pretty incredible. A simple enough concept, a simple PIC controller Tetris game, 120V controllers, and a ton of hours running wire. I'm an EE, so I feel for ya, guys :).
John @ Dec 5th 2007 2:04PM
Reminds me of the ZigZag building or Lagoon Tower in Doha, Qatar.
octoberasian @ Dec 5th 2007 12:07PM
Regardless if this is old or new, that is friggin' cool! I just wish the EE students at my old college were this creative. >.>;
Tony @ Dec 5th 2007 12:07PM
Another video of them testing it:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=5FmTWBoQ-jc
They aren't very good at Tetris.. =/
modenadude @ Dec 5th 2007 12:36PM
haha, yah, they are horrible at tetris! cool though
ToM @ Dec 7th 2007 10:22AM
I have to comment on this. I was testing out all the pixels on the screen to find bugs. So yes the playing is really bad, but it also brought attention two faulty lights that we had to replace.
Keanu @ Dec 5th 2007 12:09PM
I'll be impressed when they manage to get a game of Pong going with the building next door...
Eric @ Dec 5th 2007 12:28PM
First (as far as I know) done in 2000 at Brown University in RI:
http://bastilleweb.techhouse.org/
Daryl Shields @ Dec 5th 2007 12:39PM
This is the most awesome thing I've ever seen! lol
Shan @ Dec 5th 2007 12:49PM
I love engadget, but lately guys are reporting stories that gizmodo has cover a few days prior. What the hell!
you guys are suppose to be the best?!?!
theregoesdave @ Dec 5th 2007 1:09PM
I heard that they were going to make the lights look like Super Mario, but they couldn't find a large enough building.
Cheers,
Dave
http://theregoesdave.com
Savage @ Dec 5th 2007 1:12PM
Very cool, reminds me of a story I read about a group of MIT students who supposedly hacked into a nearby building's power controls and basically did the same thing, maybe minus the pretty colors though.
http://hacks.mit.edu/Hacks/by_year/1993/green_bldg_vu_meter/
murray @ Dec 5th 2007 2:20PM
This is extremely cool. Mega kudos to the people who pulled this off.
kj @ Dec 5th 2007 2:29PM
this is a much better video of it http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iyMbAI67hUM&feature=related
John Russell @ Dec 5th 2007 3:37PM
But does it play Doom?
Kade Miller @ Dec 5th 2007 4:06PM
Hahahaha, THE most important question indeed!
denialg @ Dec 5th 2007 4:16PM
Don't encourage him.
pozsy @ Dec 5th 2007 6:45PM
A video of another similar setup from Hungary (BME, Schönherz dormitory): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hFqnDjyDI9o
It was first assembled in 2003.
vdd @ Dec 6th 2007 6:11AM
They did this at my university back in '95, very cool!
http://www.etv.tudelft.nl/vereeniging/archief/lustrum/90/english.html
crappish @ Dec 7th 2007 3:24AM
Although the basic principle is nothing new but there are some hallmarks on this project.
Like the facts that Mikontalolights featured color (64 of them) matrix display and, this being Finland, one could play the games by mobile phone, via WLAN or Bluetooth.
cheers
bongoman @ Dec 8th 2007 3:57PM
The original: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Blinkenlights
ToM @ Dec 19th 2007 8:20PM
We didn't copy it from BlinkenLights. This idea was discovered from the student council's papers from early 90's. It just hasn't been done before as the building was supposed to be renovated for last 10 years. So the project waited for renovation to start inside the building.