Sometimes it’s in going backward that we move forward. At least that’s what Kyle Thompson, Flint Yoder, and José Terrazas may have thought when they designed a multi-user, open-source system that can host vintage arcade games such as Tetris and Snake. The system includes a controller; a super-bright RGB display designed to fit behind frosted glass to create an aesthetically pleasing piece of functional art; and handpicked joysticks meant to mimic the experience of gaming in a retro arcade.

The software runs on Windows and Linux out of the box, but Thompson said the user could take the source code and run it through a Python 2.7 interpreter on any computer and make it work. “The difference between our machine and others is that this is a really open-source kind of development,” he said.

Users can also write their own games in Python using an existing API. “Anybody can write a game for it as long as they follow our game coordinates,” said Thompson. “And, if they want to, they can plug it into our system with a USB memory stick and play the game right off the stick.”

–Marie Oliver