While most gaming technology is becoming ever more streamlined, with the likes of the PlayStation, Nintendo DS, and Game Boy Advance all physically shrinking during their evolution, and big(ger) screen software finding its place on diminutive handheld platforms, there are simply some related experiences that deserve to get bigger, not smaller.
Finnish team put on a huge game of Tetris via a university dorm light show. Credit: MikontaloLights
Specifically, puzzle-based artefact Tetris hasn’t yet successfully carved its niche on home-based consoles, despite making the transitional attempt on more than one occasion, so why not crank the whole ‘upscale concept’ to its maximum setting and slap the blocky mind-melting classic on the side of a building… and then make it playable through a mobile phone? Madness. Sheer madness.
Well you’d think so, but when the Finnish Student Union and Universimo gaming company pooled their collective talents, that’s exactly what they ended up doing.
More pointedly, the stunning MikontaloLights project culminated in a glorious pixel show created and executed at the Tampere University of Technology, which turned the 10-storey Mikontalo dorm building into a colour-splashed canvas displaying various beautiful images and its fully interactive interpretation of Tetris, all via its rigged window system.
"The object of MIKONTALOLIGHTS is to create the world’s physically largest colored graphics platform by using the windows of Mikontalo’s D-staircase as light pixels," outlines the project's official blog. "The platform is used to play Tetris and other games and present demos created by the students of Tampere University of Technology."
By channelling its technology through a mobile handset, the University was able to control the huge falling blocks created in its Tetris demo, allowing players to execute all the usual control moves available in the original game, including sliding the coloured block shapes swiftly down into position when happy with placement.
All in all, the demonstration was a stunning success. Although it’s unlikely we’ll be seeing building-sized Tetris on offer in local town squares any time soon (though how cool would that be?), the MikontaloLights project once again proves the increasing popularity and social effect of videogames – and doesn’t involve any graphic gunplay or the tasteless beating of prostitutes.
Check below for the show in action, or click the word Flickr for a slideshow of photos captured during the event.
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