Build your own Arcade Pong in a modular form factor!

GlueLogic

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Have you ever wanted to own the original arcade version of Pong from 1972? Now you can, for a much lower price!

I've redesigned the circuit into five 100x100mm PCBs that connect via ribbon cables. Most of the out-of-production ICs have been replaced - there are only two ICs that aren't available on Mouser and Digikey.

It should be possible to build the full system for approximately $125-$175.

More information (including schematics and production files) is available on my website.
 
Pretty cool!
I hope you don't mind me asking ... why ribbon cables and not headers?
I considered using headers, but I never checked whether it's possible to get double-sided headers that have pins on one side of the PCB and sockets on the other.
That said, if such a thing exists, it'd be possible to use them in place of the ribbon cable connectors.
 
Fun project.
Brings back some hanging out in the wood-paneled wall basement memories to see a screen looking like that!
 
Nice! Were the choice of smaller boards to keep costs down?
Yes, PCB prices vary by manufacturer (I've found JLCPCB to be the cheapest) but there's always a large price increase once the dimensions exceed 100x100mm.

Another advantage of the multi-board design is that since all the important signals are available on the ribbon cables, it's possible to add extra functionality just by adding/swapping out PCB modules.

I plan to make color video and stereo sound PCBs in the future, and it may be possible to make conversion PCBs for Pong Doubles and Super Pong... perhaps even Rebound.
 
I considered using headers, but I never checked whether it's possible to get double-sided headers that have pins on one side of the PCB and sockets on the other.
That said, if such a thing exists, it'd be possible to use them in place of the ribbon cable connectors.
This type of header does exist... they are used on "hats" for the Raspberry Pi so that you can stack multiple hats in a stack.

They're called stacking headers. For the Pi they are on .100 centers and come in single and double row in various lengths and heights. I'm not sure if they are available in other pin spacings.

Dylan
 
@Jamesv833 show the one you made with your daughter
Here's the one my daughter put together from a board sold through Silicon Chip out of Australia. Thanks to koolmoecraig for the bartop cabinet and SCUBA King for vectorizing the CP art and sizing it so I could have it cut and etched.IMG_0483.jpegIMG_2624.jpegb8374a65-7d7b-4ddb-b270-157ec3ffa738.jpeg
 
Here's the one my daughter put together from a board sold through Silicon Chip out of Australia. Thanks to koolmoecraig for the bartop cabinet and SCUBA King for vectorizing the CP art and sizing it so I could have it cut and etched.View attachment 838936View attachment 838935View attachment 838937
I ordered the same board earlier this year. Got most of the semis for it. Just a few things left to procure, but I've got other distractions requiring my time at the moment.

Great job on yours!

Dylan
 
While doing it as a stack of 10x10s was a good idea, boards are cheap enough that the cables/connectors will prob make that more expensive than a single board solution.

Here's my Color pong from 2019:
1755004700167.png
 
While doing it as a stack of 10x10s was a good idea, boards are cheap enough that the cables/connectors will prob make that more expensive than a single board solution.
That might be the case, but a modular system also allows for the expandability I mentioned earlier.
It also makes prototyping a lot easier, though I suppose that's mainly just an advantage for me... :)
Here's my Color pong from 2019:
View attachment 839008
Nice! Do you have footage of it running?
How did you implement color video, by the way? Does it output RGB, or is the RGB converted to S-video/composite?
 
Nice! Do you have footage of it running?
My old FB account showed the stages of the debug.
Going from original 74xx to 74LSxx, and changing from ripple counters to carry lookahead counters introduced some timing hazards that needed to be worked out.

How did you implement color video, by the way? Does it output RGB, or is the RGB converted to S-video/composite?
I just threw on a GAL that grabbed the inputs to the video summer and some of the H/V counts to do some crude colorization and fed RGBS out a separate header.
 
Here's the one my daughter put together from a board sold through Silicon Chip out of Australia. Thanks to koolmoecraig for the bartop cabinet and SCUBA King for vectorizing the CP art and sizing it so I could have it cut and etched.


Where did the CP knobs come from?
 
Here's the one my daughter put together from a board sold through Silicon Chip out of Australia. Thanks to koolmoecraig for the bartop cabinet and SCUBA King for vectorizing the CP art and sizing it so I could have it cut and etched.
What are the two ICs at A1 and B1?
 
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