Since the topic of games and Processing came up twice in recent posts, I thought it's a good time to announce a new Processing game: Black Hole Pong



The game is a remake of the old classic Pong but with an astrophysics flavour. Instead of controlling a `panel' to bounce a `ball' to and fro, each player moves around a black hole and has to make use of its attractive gravitational force to keep throwing a star towards the other player.

The only realistic part in this game is the mathematical form of the gravitational potential of the black holes. The rest is pure fantasy. However, I think this illustrates the effects of gravity on the stellar scale quite well; and one can get an idea of how space craft use flybys to accelerate too.

We have used the game very successfully as a fun element in an exhibition and that's where it works best: it can only be played by two players (i.e. you cannot play against the computer), has only one 'level' and the control is best with two Xbox controllers (connected via USB). However, it's good for a bit of fun at home as well, using two mice (on a Mac) or even the keyboard to control the black holes.

You can see a trailer or download the game here:
http://www.gwoptics.org/processing/blackhole_pong/

It's been tested a bit but is far from being complete or perfect. Feedback and suggestions are very welcome.

Andreas