The Philly Tech Week ended its second day with an array of giant arcade games but one in particular stole the show.
"Tetris enthusiasts in Philadelphia got to play a giant version of the classic game on the side of a skyscraper." (Via BBC)
The Cira Centre is a 29-story skyscraper instrumental in last year's record-breaking Pong game. The man behind the magic is Frank Lee, a professor at Drexel University. He developed a way to tap into the building's lighting system, creating the Guinness World Record for "Largest Architectural Video Game Display." (Via YouTube / Rick Scheu)
Lee spoke to Tech Times about both projects: "My goal for creating Pong on the Cira Centre last year was for people in Philadelphia to have a unique, shared experience."
But last year's Pong game was only played on one side of the building, with this year's Tetris game played on both sides, by multiple players. This made it possible to make that shared experience even bigger than last year's. The lights, and sounds, were captured from all across the city. (Via Drexel University, YouTube / ocdadam / Matthew Olson)
The display is meant for more than celebrating the game's 30th anniversary. Lee said he wanted to show how technology can serve as a way of bringing people together, rather than separating them. He even has plans for a sort of crowd sourced coding web page. (Via Polygon)
The coding within the page would "mimic the experience on the Cira Centre building" and according to Polygon, Lee wants to get middle and high school students interested in coding. Philly Tech Week will continue until April 12.
