They said it couldn’t be done, but Robb Godshaw has successfully found a way to make ping pong — truly man’s greatest sport — even better. By introducing a rocking mechanism under the table and high-powered flashes to throw off your opponent.
The whole setup is cleverly referred to as Swing Pong, with the table being tilted to the left and right via pneumatic actuators located underneath. A set of arcade buttons in front of each player lets them tilt the table at any point, altering the trajectory of a shot and making it harder to return. But the table can also be set to continually rock back and forth throughout an entire match, upping the difficulty level for both players.
There’s even a set of bright camera flashes underneath the table’s translucent surface which serve to temporarily blind the players, and the net will actually move away from the last person who scored, making it harder and harder for them to keep a rally going. Further evening the odds, and encouraging the condition known as pong rage. What? Am I the only person ever diagnosed? [Robb Godshaw]