Skip to main content

Weekend Workshop: How to build a delightfully retro Tetris lamp

weekend workshop tetris lamp 040916
dwxh/Flickr
Need something to keep you busy this weekend? Look no further. The Weekend Workshop is our weekly column where we showcase a badass DIY project that you can complete with minimal skills and expertise. We’ve dug through all the online tutorials on the Web, and gone the extra mile to pinpoint projects that are equal parts easy, affordable, and fun. So put on your work pants, grab your tool belt, and head to the garage — it’s time to start building!

Who didn’t love Alexey Pajitnov’s 1984 classic puzzle game, Tetris? Easily one of the most iconic video games ever created, Pajitnov’s creation tasks players with fitting randomly falling tetrominoes into horizontal lines. Due to the nature of the varying shapes, this mission was often a lot easier said than done. When the game made its way from the USSR to the United States in 1987, the country’s budding gaming community embraced the challenging title with open arms. Today, Guinness Book of World Records recognizes Tetris as the most ported game in history. It has reportedly appeared on more than 65 different platforms and game systems.

Weekend-Workshop-040916_
watchmeflyy/Instructables
watchmeflyy/Instructables

These days, it’s much bigger than just games. Due in large part to this infatuation with the Russian-born puzzler, Tetris has been adapted by companies like Hasbro, known for its popular physical puzzle games Bop It and Jenga. Additionally, a film adaptation of Tetris is currently in the works and is even being described as an “epic sci-fi adventure.” Because of the continued hype surrounding the game, you shouldn’t be surprised to know Tetris has become home decor. We certainly weren’t when we came across a handy Instructables user’s walkthrough for building a Tetris-inspired modular lamp. Better yet, with even just a few hours of spare time you can build one yourself.

User watchmeflyy’s posted blueprint has a very straightforward required build list. Every accessory needed to construct the Tetris modular lamp can be picked up at any typical hardware or art store. To help you get a head start on the project, we combed through the Instructables walkthrough to figure out the exact supplies needed for the build. Here’s everything you’ll need to get started:

Tools:

  • Scissors
  • Glue stick
  • Tape
  • Sharp needle

Materials:

  • Sheets of clear polyester (5)
  • Copper foil tape
  • Plastic-coated wire
  • Magnets (12)
  • 1.5V white LED lights
  • Tissue paper
  • Cardboard
  • Paper
  • 3V coin battery

With all the necessary tools and materials compiled, you’re now able to begin construction of watchmeflyy’s novel Tetris-inspired lamp. Just follow the comprehensive walkthrough published on Instructables. In a matter of hours you’ll be able to outfit your home or apartment with one of these colorfully retro lamps. Happy building!

The entire step-by-step walkthrough on constructing this Tetris-inspired modular lamp can be found here.

Rick Stella
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Rick became enamored with technology the moment his parents got him an original NES for Christmas in 1991. And as they say…
Digital Trends’ Top Tech of CES 2023 Awards
Best of CES 2023 Awards Our Top Tech from the Show Feature

Let there be no doubt: CES isn’t just alive in 2023; it’s thriving. Take one glance at the taxi gridlock outside the Las Vegas Convention Center and it’s evident that two quiet COVID years didn’t kill the world’s desire for an overcrowded in-person tech extravaganza -- they just built up a ravenous demand.

From VR to AI, eVTOLs and QD-OLED, the acronyms were flying and fresh technologies populated every corner of the show floor, and even the parking lot. So naturally, we poked, prodded, and tried on everything we could. They weren’t all revolutionary. But they didn’t have to be. We’ve watched enough waves of “game-changing” technologies that never quite arrive to know that sometimes it’s the little tweaks that really count.

Read more
Digital Trends’ Tech For Change CES 2023 Awards
Digital Trends CES 2023 Tech For Change Award Winners Feature

CES is more than just a neon-drenched show-and-tell session for the world’s biggest tech manufacturers. More and more, it’s also a place where companies showcase innovations that could truly make the world a better place — and at CES 2023, this type of tech was on full display. We saw everything from accessibility-minded PS5 controllers to pedal-powered smart desks. But of all the amazing innovations on display this year, these three impressed us the most:

Samsung's Relumino Mode
Across the globe, roughly 300 million people suffer from moderate to severe vision loss, and generally speaking, most TVs don’t take that into account. So in an effort to make television more accessible and enjoyable for those millions of people suffering from impaired vision, Samsung is adding a new picture mode to many of its new TVs.
[CES 2023] Relumino Mode: Innovation for every need | Samsung
Relumino Mode, as it’s called, works by adding a bunch of different visual filters to the picture simultaneously. Outlines of people and objects on screen are highlighted, the contrast and brightness of the overall picture are cranked up, and extra sharpness is applied to everything. The resulting video would likely look strange to people with normal vision, but for folks with low vision, it should look clearer and closer to "normal" than it otherwise would.
Excitingly, since Relumino Mode is ultimately just a clever software trick, this technology could theoretically be pushed out via a software update and installed on millions of existing Samsung TVs -- not just new and recently purchased ones.

Read more
AI turned Breaking Bad into an anime — and it’s terrifying
Split image of Breaking Bad anime characters.

These days, it seems like there's nothing AI programs can't do. Thanks to advancements in artificial intelligence, deepfakes have done digital "face-offs" with Hollywood celebrities in films and TV shows, VFX artists can de-age actors almost instantly, and ChatGPT has learned how to write big-budget screenplays in the blink of an eye. Pretty soon, AI will probably decide who wins at the Oscars.

Within the past year, AI has also been used to generate beautiful works of art in seconds, creating a viral new trend and causing a boon for fan artists everywhere. TikTok user @cyborgism recently broke the internet by posting a clip featuring many AI-generated pictures of Breaking Bad. The theme here is that the characters are depicted as anime characters straight out of the 1980s, and the result is concerning to say the least. Depending on your viewpoint, Breaking Bad AI (my unofficial name for it) shows how technology can either threaten the integrity of original works of art or nurture artistic expression.
What if AI created Breaking Bad as a 1980s anime?
Playing over Metro Boomin's rap remix of the famous "I am the one who knocks" monologue, the video features images of the cast that range from shockingly realistic to full-on exaggerated. The clip currently has over 65,000 likes on TikTok alone, and many other users have shared their thoughts on the art. One user wrote, "Regardless of the repercussions on the entertainment industry, I can't wait for AI to be advanced enough to animate the whole show like this."

Read more