'Street Pong' Comes to German Intersection

MAINZ, Germany — The waiting game just got a lot more fun. In a bid to cut down on boredom, pedestrians in the small Germany city of Hildesheim will be offered an arcade game to pass the time. "Street Pong" — a new take on the classic arcade game developed by two engineering students from the local HAWK university — will be available at a traffic light at a busy intersection in the city center for four weeks.

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"We have launched a pilot project near our local university, where a lot of young people cross the street every day," city official Helge Miethe told NBC News.

The developers — 27-year Sandro Engel and 26-year old Amelie Künzler — said it took them two years to design the game and surmount challenges of traffic safety, funding and connectivity. The result? "No more boredom at traffic lights," they said in a statement. The basic, computer-animated version of table tennis is available to pedestrians on both sides of the street who have the option to play against each other. Once the traffic light turns green, however, it is "game over."

— Andy Eckardt