Man Makes “Pong Watch” From Scratch, Doesn’t Really Work… (Video)
Author: Team NWS | Posted: Monday, October 6th, 2008 | Filed In: Gaming, Style
Views: 286
Although the creator of this nostalgia inducing timepiece should be applauded for his efforts, we don’t think it’ll sell much. Why? Because you can’t actually play a game of pong on it. The moving LED paddles & ball displayed are completely automated, just teasing you because you can’t join in on the fun.
Now if someone manages to come out with something similar, that allows playability and communication through Bluetooth or IrDA, that’ll be a must cop watch for sure. Watch the inventor’s process of building the watch in the video after the cut, it’s impressive nonetheless.
That’s the first version of the watch - I didn’t want to do too many things at once. My second version now has a tilt sensor so you can control it by moving your wrist. It also has some buttons, so you can change the mode (although I liked the button-less looks of the case before.. oh well).
But, the main reason the game isn’t playable is because I can’t think of anything more horrid than playing pong against a computer! It would be easy to make an invincible opponent, but that wouldn’t be fun. You could build a flaw in to the system, but then I’d just know to expoit that flaw. I thin a two-player mode would be the best, but unless it’s done via RF (with 2 watches and 2 screens), I think it might get a little crowded on that little screen. But, I’m always open to suggestions… I’d love to hear a way to improve it!
[...] it looked incredibly cool, the one gripe we had with the Ping-Pong Watch was it’s lack of game functionality, but not this iteration. The watch’s designer John [...]
