A Canadian tinkerer builds a pixel-perfect arcade experience… just to tell the time. Clocks will never be boring again.
Clocks aren’t usually the type of thing to turn heads. But one Raspberry Pi fan has managed to turn a humble timepiece into a nostalgia-fueled light show, bringing arcade classics to life in LED glory — all while keeping perfect time.
Forget chimes and cuckoos. Meet the LEDarcade — a DIY marvel built from scratch, with no shortcuts and no templates. Just raw code, retro vibes, and one brilliant brain behind it all.
Why Just Tell Time When You Can Watch Blasteroids?
The LEDarcade clock isn’t just an alarm clock with a gimmick. It’s basically an art installation. One that plays pixelated recreations of arcade legends like Defender and Dot Invaders in the background… while a real-time clock ticks on over the action.
The creator, a Reddit user going by “Datagod,” showed off their masterpiece in a thread that quickly caught fire. The post spotlighted the latest addition to their lineup — Blasteroids, a kind of Asteroids remix with smoother motion and brighter animations.
Each game plays out independently, meaning you just sit back and watch. You don’t control anything. You don’t need to. It’s like watching a retro screensaver that also, conveniently, keeps you punctual.
Nine Games, No Tutorials, and a Ton of Code
What makes LEDarcade seriously impressive isn’t just the concept — it’s the execution. Everything was hand-coded from zero. No Unity. No Scratch. No Stack Overflow breadcrumbs.
The graphics engine itself was written in Python. And get this: it even handles real-time physics, gamma-corrected color blending, and custom sprite animation.
That’s not plug-and-play. That’s obsession.
In total, there are nine different titles that can show up on the LED matrix:
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Dot Invaders
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SuperWorms
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Outbreak
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Defender
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Lunar Tanks
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Plasma Orb
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Space Invaded
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Blasteroids
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Color Clouds
Each of them is timed to rotate throughout the day — like time-themed intermissions at a pixel art theater.
What You’ll Need to Build Your Own
If you’re itching to make one, good news — the hardware is totally doable. No exotic parts here, just the essentials for anyone already playing with SBCs.
Here’s a simple breakdown:
| Component | Description | Estimated Cost |
|---|---|---|
| Raspberry Pi 3 or 4 | Main processor, Pi 4 is “overkill” | $35–$55 |
| Adafruit 64×32 LED Matrix | The screen where magic happens | ~$40 |
| Adafruit RGB Matrix Hat | Links the Pi to the LED panel | ~$25 |
| Power Supply + Wires | You’ll need a 5V power source | ~$10 |
| hzeller’s RGB Library | Required software to run the display | Free |
Altogether, it won’t break the bank. You’re looking at under $100 if you shop smart.
This Isn’t Just Tinkering — It’s Personal
There’s something intimate about this project. Sure, it’s techy and all, but it also feels like a throwback to a time when every blinking light or pixelated explosion was a small miracle.
Datagod’s project wasn’t cobbled together over a weekend either. According to their Reddit post, it’s been years in the making. Every animation was painstakingly refined. Every bug squashed manually. That kind of attention can’t be faked.
And the LEDarcade wears that love on its 64×32 pixel sleeve.
No Ads, No Templates, Just Pure DIY Spirit
In a world drowning in prefab kits and YouTube tutorials, LEDarcade feels like a stubborn outlier. A reminder that creativity doesn’t always need a how-to guide. Sometimes, you just sit down, open up a blank Python file, and start coding.
It runs quietly. It glows beautifully. And it asks nothing from you but your time — literally.
The beauty of the LEDarcade is how low-key it is. You could hang it in a kid’s room, mount it in a gamer’s den, or even slap it on your office wall. It doesn’t scream “look at me” — but it also kinda does.
And honestly? That balance is hard to find.
