World’s largest video game: PONG on the Cira Centre [VIDEO]

The third annual Philly Tech Week Presented by AT&T was kicked off Friday night at the South Terrace of the Philadelphia Museum of Art with the world’s largest video game. Despite a storm that threatened throughout and closed down the event around 9:30pm, several hundred still came out.

As previously reported, it was the dream of Drexel’s Dr. Frank Lee brought together by a partnership between the City of Philadelphia, Cira’s owner Brandywine Realty Trust, the Art Museum and Philly Tech Week.

Last night’s kickoff, which featured music from Cheap Dinosaurs, food trucks and retro arcade games, will be repeated Wednesday. There also was Geekadelphia cofounder Eric Smith dressed in his Master Chief outfit.

Geekadelphia cofounders Tim Quirino, left, and Eric Smith, right, dressed in his Master Chief costume at Pong. Photo lovingly stolen from Quirino’s Instagram.

The first game was won by Lee over Brandywine CEO Jerry Sweeney. The second game was between two students of the TechGirlz program, followed by other youth STEM groups and lottery winners.

Aside from some initial lag time in the first few games, playing picked up enough to allow nearly 60 people to play before rain stopped play just more than an hour into the event.

Watch some video of the event:

National Coverage:

• Ars Technica
• NPR All Things Considered
• Preston & Steve try PONG [mp3 AUDIO]
• Fast Company
• Wall Street Journal
• NBC Nightly News
• Fast Company
• Polygon
• TODAY Show
• Christian Science Monitor
• Fox News
• Buzzfeed
• Philly.com
• Business Week
• ZD Net
• Time
• Huffington Post UK
• Philadelphia Inquirer
• New York Post
• Philly Post
• TodayShow.com
• Washington Post
• CNet
• SFGate.com
• CBS News
• Post Wrapped blog
• UPI
• Daily News
• National Post

On Wednesday night, Dr. Lee and team also showed off Tetris, which you can see below.

TV Coverage

• NBC 10
• Fox 29
• 6 ABC
• PHL 17

Philadelphia News, Weather and Sports from WTXF FOX 29

On Wednesday, Dr. Lee also sent a message to his wife by way of the building, which you can see below.

Local Coverage

• University City Review
• Philadelphia magazine
• Philebrity
• Pocket lint
• Drexel News
• Newsworks
• Philly.com
• The Australian
• Seattle PI
• Yahoo.com
• Drexel University
• Fox News
• The National UAE
• Newstimes
• Daily Register
• iRadio Philly
• Philadelphia Business Journal
• Philadelphia Business Journal real estate blog
• Philly.com for eventPhilly.com on lottery
• SlashGear
• iol SciTech
• MTV blog
• CBS News tech blog
• Alaska Dispatch
• News10
• KPVI
• Aiken Standard
• Digital Trends
• WHNT
• Uwishunu Facebook
• Uwishunu Twitter
• Escapist Magazine
• iTech Post
• Babble
• Komo News
• Examiner
• Venturebeat
• IB Times
• Canoe.ca
• Inquisitr
• Upstart from Business Journals
• Newsworks
• NewsWorks [Tetris]
• Find a complete list here [Google doc]

The preview video:

Buy some photos of the event here. Read more on the backstory from Polygon here.