Just when you think Pong can't be played any other way, yet another creative soul emerges to prove the notion wrong. Mike McCracken has managed to remove all visual aspects of the game yet still maintain the core goal by enabling one's head to make the motions typically assigned to the hands. Essentially, a sound is emitted from the headphones on one side or the other, and the gamer has to tilt his / her head just so until the noise is centered. This back-and-forth sequence speeds up to intensify the challenge, and if you can't manage to keep the ringing front and center, an unpalatable buzzer sounds and a light turns on to alert you of your defeat. Really, it's way more clear how all this works in the video below, so have at it.

[Via MAKE]

Those hackers work fast. Two days ago, we saw a demo of the Zelda: Twilight Princess exploit, which allowed for the possibility of Nintendo's Wii to boot homebrew code off of SD cards via stack smashing (buffer overflow). Now a clever coder named Auby has gone ahead and extended the hack to load an ELF version of Pong which was originally coded for the GameCube. Right now the controls aren't functioning, but it appears that this is a work in progress, so we should be seeing updates to it soon. Check the video after the break to watch the breathtaking drama unfold.

[Thanks, Craig]

We're going to have to go on record and claim that the Pong wristwatch still looks to be the smallest iteration of Pong that we've seen to date, but we'll let Ronald Dekker shakily hold the record for the smallest version that's easily channeled to a TV set. Nevertheless, the &microPONG creation is indeed quite diminutive, using just "an eight-pin PIC processor along with two potentiometers for the bat controls, just as the original." Per usual, the circuity knowledge used to actually assemble this thing is a hair beyond our realm of expertise, but judging by the extensive lineup of graphs and figures shown in the read link, those even partially in the know may be able to pull something similar off themselves.

[Via MAKE]

We know, you've got a zillion ways to get your Pong on whilst lounging around in your geeked-out crib, but how in the world will you deal with the withdrawals on this year's trip to Vegas? Thanks to Bally, you may not have to suffer at all, as Nevada gambling regulators recently approved the concept behind Bally Pong, a "slot machine that would for the first time allow hand-eye coordination to affect payout." Put simply, the machine would enter a 45-second round of Pong if three bonus icons line up on the five-reel video slot machine, and regardless of one's skill, a minimum award would be doled out simply for reaching the bonus. Oh, it gets better -- Bally also said that this was just "the first in a series of skill games (including Breakout!) it had planned," so those looking to see a hint of vintage when they hit the casino floor should be very pleased if everything goes as planned over the next few months.

[Via The Raw Feed]

Another day, another DIY attempt to reinvent the world's most reinvented title. On the docket today is Bongo Pong, a nifty iteration of the famed classic that utilizes a Velleman Pong kit, a makeshift Indo board (read: bare skateboard deck), a few "small metal tubes to use for the tilt activated switches," and a beefy cut of PVC pipe. Total costs rang up just under $20, and while this version of Pong isn't apt to inflate your triceps, it should test your balance (and patience) supremely. Hit the read link for the video demonstration.

[Via Hacked Gadgets]

If setting up your computer to play Pong with itself was beginning to incite a bit of jealously, fret not, as a recent project over at Teckjunkie can enable you to experience the famed title in an entirely new way. Aptly dubbed Biopong, this DIY endeavor relied on quite a bit of electrical engineering knowledge, a kit from ThinkGeek, and a steady flow of blood to your extremities. The rules are simple: flex either arm in order to interact with the game, and the uber-coordinated set may even be able to lift a few weights whilst gaming it up. Be sure to peep the video of this Wii exercise alternative after the jump.

[Via Hack-A-Day]

As Pong attempts to solidify itself as the most hacked up game in the history of mankind, Ashish Derhgawen has programmed his computer to actually play a homegrown version of the title without any human interaction at all. By utilizing a webcam as the machine's eyes, he was able to write up an image recognition program that could detect borders and make appropriate movements based on where the ball currently was. Nothing too dramatic in terms of execution, but teaching an old computer new tricks always brings about a certain sense of pride. Check the video after the jump.

[Via hack a day]

There's not a whole lot of things we'd consider more worthy of technolust than a Pong clock, but a Pong clock that fits on your wrist is most certainly one of them. Although the build process looks far from easy, this beautiful piece of retro nirvana sports an all black motif, 96 x 64 resolution OLED display, 33-hours of battery life, and the ability to mesmerize even the boldest of the bold. By utilizing a good bit of handyman skills, a great bit of circuitry knowledge, and an awful lot of patience, John has created a surefire "hit at his office," and while no one has paid him a compliment just yet out on the streets, we know some hearts have been filled with envy nonetheless. Although the amount of detail required to craft such a device far exceeds what we can describe here, be sure to hit the read link for an elaborate build log complimented with snapshots, and click on through for the live action video.

[Via MAKE]

Cram any sort of retro game onto a machine clearly not designed to play it and you'll probably color us impressed, and just as the off the wall Doom installations, MIDI hacks, and Wolfenstein ports have gone down, Japan's own JJ has struck a cord with vintage folk everywhere with his latest tweak. Reportedly, the hacker / entertainer re-wrote the actual operating system for a $999 Akai MPC-1000 drum machine, added a few features from the more expensive MPC-2500, and got the MIDI all setup precisely like he wanted -- all to play a little musical Pong. Aside from the snazzy custom loading screen, the game itself looks to work fairly well, and also triggers samples of your choice to loop in the background while gaming. The good news is that the Pong upgrade will only set you back $30, but the bad news is that would require you to actually already own the Akai machine, and just in case your wallet can't handle anymore abuse whatsoever after this past Monday, just click on through for a (gratis) YouTube demonstration.

[Via Joystiq]

We've always said, the more Pong the better, so we're the last folks you'll find knocking Moritz Waldemeyer for upping the ante (quite literally) on the previous iterations. Utilizing a fancy Corian-based table, the savvy designer incorporated a series of "LEDs and touchpad sensors" into the otherwise plainly-styled piece of furniture in order to provide a fresh rendition of a heralded classic. Pushing the technology a bit further, he also crafted a LED-based roulette table, which sports an electroluminescent map and an overhead lamp that work in conjunction to provide the rolling ball action casino dwellers know and love. While there's no official word on when these will land in Harrah's (or ultra-mod game rooms), both designs were recently showcased at the Rabih Hage Gallery in London, and we're told "white 28" was the hot ticket on table number two (pictured after the jump).

[Via Techie Diva]

The Pong Dress, created by a pair of Austrian artists, smacks of something that their German-speaking bretheren at the Chaos Computer Club might concoct -- but the Vienna-based Ludic Society beat 'em to it. Max Moswitzer and Margarete Jahrmann combined a dress with a 5 x 7 inch screen to play a a game of Pong on the wearer's body. The joysticks are quite the coup de grâce, however: dueling old-skool NES controllers, plugged in at hip level. How do you keep track of the score, you ask? The scoreboard can be found chest-high. (Don't blame us, we didn't design it.) The dress is now on display at the Pong Mythos exhibition in Leipzig, Germany -- we assume with Moswitzer wearing a stuffed bra to go with it.

[Via networked_performance]

If for some reason you feel the need to sport a set of obnoxious LED displays on your head, you might as well go all out and embed them in the ugliest hat you can find. Iain over at LushProjects is one person who felt such a need, and spent over six months designing and building the, um, unique piece of headwear you see pictured above -- which besides displaying the text message of your choice, also throws down a pretty mean game of Pong or simulated Space Invaders. To liven things up a bit, Iain even tossed in a microphone and amp, so that fellow concert-goers need only glance over at his creation for a graphical representation of the music blasting at a show. We're not sure if the hat actually lets you play a real game of Pong or not, but even if it does, having strangers stand inches from our face while tugging on our ear flaps doesn't sound all that appealing - we'll stick with our Pong clock for now, thanks.

[Via Make and Hack-A-Day]