Transformation: The Pong Clock, Coolness to the Max
Design: Sander Mulder for Buro Vormkrijgers, NL
Date: 2006 - Limited Edition of 400 pcs. sold out!
Original Source: www.sandermulder.com

Pong Clock

What's the score? The time. As Pong randomly plays, the score shown is the time of day on this unusual timepiece by Buro Vormkrijgers. In the old school Pong © TV game you could put the paddles in such a position, that the ball kept bouncing forever. Quite hypnotic, and it became the inspiration for this time-killer/clock. The release of the limited edition of 400 Pong Clocks created such a hype that it sold out in 1 day. We are happy to have Pong Clock #283 from the original owner Julian Brannigan, UK in the museum's collection. In December 2009 the Designer Sander Mulder signed our Pong Clock. See some photos here!

• Material: smoked pmma, inverted lcd, custom electronics
• Left player scores the hours, and the right player scores the minutes
• Design: Sander Mulder
• 180 x 120 x 30mm
  

The Pong Clock Prototype

While this game of Pong randomly plays, the so called 'players' score the time. The left player scores the hours, and the right player scores the minutes, creating an unusual timepiece, ideal for those Friday afternoon moments. The Pong Clock displays the time, but you can also switch to game mode. This allows you to play a game of Pong against the clock with the use of two buttons on the back. We can tell that the clock is a very hard opponent, efficient for Pong training hours :-)

ATARI got wind of the clock and, you guessed it, lawyered up and contacted Buro Vormkrijgers.
Sander Mulder from Buro Vormkrijgers wrote to pre-order customers:

Basically ATARI demanded we shut down our website immediately, and halt all production. The reason for that; they stated they own the Pong name and game characteristics, on which we were infringing in their eyes. Needless to say we were unaware of such possible infringements when we started this endeavour.

On advice of our lawyer, we seconded those claims, and kept our website live. However, in the meantime we halted all production and other investments, and cancelled our display-order from china, to prevent getting stuck with huge financial damage [these things are very expensive] and stocks that need to be destroyed, if these claims got confirmed. For us the Pong Clock started out as a fun project within our office,that got so much attention, that we then decided to produce and sell it to share the fun with you, not to get bankrupted by.

After a lot of back and fourth, Buro Vormkrijgers and Atari were able to reach an agreement. Atari said they liked the clock and realized that it was really more a homage than a deliberate attempt at infringement. So Atari licensed Buro Vormkrijgers to produce a limited run of 400 Pong Clocks. Forget about picking one up, though. The model on display was presented as part of Generate Design's "Limited Editions by Design Rising Stars" exhibition at the WUT shop in Aoyama - part of Tokyo Design Week - and the 400 limited editions are already completely sold out.

Animation of the Pong Clock Every minute the right side wins every hour the left side wins. You can download the original (and free) Pong Clock Screensaver for Mac or PC here.

Credits and sources

Download the Pong Clock Information PDF.

Some images and information came from the following sources, in no particular order:

www.sandermulder.com/pong_clock.html
www.kotaku.com/gaming/pong-clock
www.blog.wired.com/pong-clock-scor.html

Any informations, inputs, contributions, descriptions or anything related to Pong will be greatly appreciated! If you have extra info about this page, if you noticed errors, please help us to maintain this site. Send us the information you have, thank you in advance. Please contact us.

Back to History index