The world's biggest video game will be making an appearance at the upcoming Philly Tech Week in Philadelphia. The 29-story video game will allow a game of Tetris to be played on a double-sided, 100,000 square foot "screen."
The record breaking video game is the brainchild of Frank Lee, the founder of Drexel University's Entrepreneurial Game Studio. Lee already pulled off a similar record breaking stunt last year when he and his team rigged up a giant sized version of the video game classic Pong.
"My goal for creating Pong on the Cira Centre last year was for people in Philadelphia to have a unique, shared experience," said Lee. "It wasn't just for the several hundred people who got to play, but thousands of others - from people walking along Schuylkill River to people driving on I-76, for those couple of hours, we were all sharing in that experience."
Tetris is arguably one of the most famous and successful video games of all time. Lee's current project has been set up in Philadelphia's Cira Center. The giant video game will use up two sides of the building and Lee expects the game to be visible almost anywhere in the city. When Lee did his Pong project last year, he was only able to use one side of a building. Since the previous installation was only visible in half of the city, Lee sought to remedy this in the upcoming Philly Tech Week.
"Philly Tech Week should be a platform for exceptional acts of innovation," said Philly Tech Week organizer and Technica.ly co-founder Christopher Wink. "The kickoff event will put on display the broad gaming and interactive communities of Philadelphia for all to see and experience."
Last Year, Lee and his team was awarded the Guinness World Record for their Pong video game. This year, however, the new Tetris installation will likely claim the world record for the "Largest Architectural Video Game Display."
"We're delighted to once again partner with Dr. Frank Lee and his team at Drexel on this project and participate in Philly Tech Week," said Gerard H. Sweeney, President and CEO of the company that owns the Cira Centre. "Last year's Pong game at Cira Centre was a great accomplishment. Our hope is that this year's Tetris event will capitalize on that success and this unique opportunity will continue to solidify the University City neighborhood as one of the nation's leading communities for cultivating innovation and technology. Furthermore, this project will perpetuate the city of Philadelphia's longstanding reputation for inspiring the imagination and fostering the power of creativity."
