Hackaday Newsletter 0xA0

Tetris is 40! [HACKADAY]() Retrotechtacular: TVO [Read Article Now»]( Happy Birthday, Tetris By [Elliot Williams]( Porting DOOM to everything that’s even vaguely Turing complete is a sport for the advanced hacker. But if you are just getting started, or want to focus more on the physical build of your project, a simpler game is probably the way to go. Maybe this explains the eternal popularity of games like Pong, Tetris, Snake, or even Pac-Man. The amount of fun you can have playing the game, relative to the size of the code necessary to implement them, make these games evergreen. Yesterday was Tetris’ 40th birthday, and in honor of the occasion, I thought I’d bring you a bunch of sweet Tetris hacks. On the big-builds side of things, it’s hard to beat these [MIT students who used colored lights in the windows of the Green Building]( back in 2012. They apparently couldn’t get into some rooms, because they had some dead pixels, but at that scale, who’s complaining? Coming in just smaller, at the size of a whole wall, [[Oat Foundry]’s]( giant split-flap display Tetris] is certainly noisy enough. Smaller still, although only a little bit less noisy, [this flip-dot Tetris]( is at home on the coffee table, while [this one by [Electronoobs]]( gives you an excuse to play around with RGB LEDs. And if you need a Tetris for your workbench, but you don’t have the space for an extra screen, [this oscilloscope version]( is just the ticket. Or just play it (sideways) [on your business card](. All of the above Tetrises have focused on the builds, but if you want to tackle your own, you’ll need to spend some time with the code as well. We’ve got you covered. Way back, former Editor in Chief [Mike Szczys] [ported Tetris to the AVR platform](. If you need color, [this deep dive into the way the NES version of Tetris worked]( also comes with demo code in Java and Lua. [TetrOS is the most minimal version of the game we’ve seen](, coming in at a mere 446 bytes, but it’s without any of the frills. And Tetris birthday roundup would be complete without mentioning the phenomenal “[From NAND to Tetris](” course, which really does what it says on the package: builds a Tetris game, and your understanding of computing in general, from the ground up. Can you think of other projects to celebrate Tetris’ 40th? From the Blog --------------------------------------------------------------- [Mining and Refining: Fracking]( By [Dan Maloney]( There has been a lot of controversy around fracking. Here's the tech! [Read more »]( [Hands On: Inkplate 6 MOTION]( By [Tom Nardi]( Tom gets hands-on with a new e-ink display. [Read more »]( [Tech in Plain Sight: Theodolites]( By [Al Williams]( What are those thingies called that surveyors use? And how do they work? [Read more »]( [Hackaday Podcast]( [Hackaday Podcast Episode 274: Capstan Robots, Avionics of Uncertain Purpose, and What the Frack?]( By [Hackaday Editors]() What happened last week on Hackaday? The Podcast will get you up to speed. [Read more »]( If You Missed It --------------------------------------------------------------- [Glitching An ATMega328P Has Never Been Simpler]( [2024 Business Card Challenge: Tiny MIDI Keyboard]( [Gears are Old and Busted, Capstans are Cool]( [Old Dot-Matrix Displays Give Up Their Serial Secrets]( [GlowBlaster Uses 405 nm Laser To Make Its Mark]( [The Dyke Delta: A DIY Flying Wing Fits Four]( [Hackaday]() NEVER MISS A HACK [Share]( [Share]( [Share]( [Terms of Use]( [Privacy Policy]( [Hackaday.io]( [Hackaday.com]( This email was sent to {EMAIL} [why did I get this?]( [unsubscribe from this list]( [update preferences]( Hackaday.com · 61 S Fair Oaks Ave Ste 200 · Pasadena, CA 91105-2270 · USA