Ping Pong — The Desktop Chaos Edition

The Story Behind Ping Pong

This project wasn’t planned.
I was out with my dad at something called the Kulturelle Landpartie — a massive arts and creativity festival scattered across the entire Wendland, where I live — when we saw someone showing off a simple retro ping pong setup.

My dad looked at me, grinned, and said, “You could make that, right?”

Challenge accepted.

A few late nights, too many snacks, and one questionable use of Electron later, Ping Pong — The Desktop Chaos Edition was born. It’s part nostalgia, part stubbornness, and entirely powered by caffeine and spite.

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What It Is

Ping Pong is a clean-coded, zero-dependency (except Electron) two-player game that runs on literally anything with Node.js installed.
No game engines, no Unity bloat, no random npm nightmares — just raw HTML, CSS, and JavaScript doing their thing.

You can run it directly in your browser, or package it up as a desktop app that screams “I was made in a moment of chaotic inspiration.”

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⚡ Features

• 🧱 Classic 2-player gameplay
• 🖥️ Runs as both a desktop app (Electron) and in-browser
• ⚙️ Smooth paddle physics with hand-written collisions
• 🎵 8-bit style programmatic sounds and looping background music
• 💾 No external dependencies — just Node, Electron, and regret
• 💥 Fully cross-platform (Windows, macOS, Linux)
• 🧩 Customizable ball speed, paddle size, and score limits
• 🎨 Crisp pixel-perfect visuals using pure CSS
• 🧃 Absolutely no reason to exist — but it does anyway

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🧠 Controls

Player	Move Up	Move Down
🟦 Left Paddle	W	S
🟥 Right Paddle	↑	↓

Reset Game: R
Quit (Electron app): Esc

Pro tip: Don’t play against yourself unless you enjoy existential crises.

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🚀 Setup

You’ll need:

• Node.js (v18+ recommended)
• npm
• Optional: a sense of humor

git clone https://github.com/itsnony/ping-pong.git
cd ping-pong
npm install
npm start

Boom — game time.

If you’re feeling brave:

npm run build

Now you’ve got a shiny desktop executable to flex at parties.

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⚙️ Customization

You can tweak everything inside main.js and script.js.
Don’t like the ball speed? Change it.
Want infinite paddles? Be my guest.
It’s your chaos now.

const ballSpeed = 6;      // Make it stupid fast if you hate peace
const paddleSpeed = 5;    // Adjust to your reaction time
const maxScore = 10;      // Or remove it entirely, who needs limits

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🧩 Project Structure

ping-pong/
├── index.html       # Main UI
├── style.css        # Game styling
├── main.js          # Electron entry point
├── renderer.js      # Renderer process
├── game.mp3         # In-game music
├── menu.mp3         # Menu music
├── pressstart.ttf   # Retro font
└── package.json     # Config & scripts

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💡 Why Electron?

Because why not.
It’s overkill, it’s unnecessary, and that’s exactly why it’s fun.

You get all the flexibility of web dev but packaged into a shiny desktop app your dad can actually open without asking where the “browser thingy” went.

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🪄 Future Plans

• Add AI mode (because playing alone isn’t therapy)
• Implement scoreboards and replays
• Touch and mobile controls
• Maybe… just maybe… network play

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⚔️ Final Thoughts

Ping Pong started as a joke and turned into a full little universe of bouncing pixels and dad-induced chaos.
It’s not a framework, not a product — just proof that boredom and caffeine can turn any idea into code.

And honestly?
It’s still one of the most fun things I’ve ever built.