If you’ve ever been to an NHL game, you know that elaborate, often embarrassingly overdone on-ice graphics are nothing new. They’re like computer-generated fireworks displays that are impressive for about 5 seconds before you wish you were just watching hockey instead. But the latest projection from the Tampa Bay Lightning is something altogether different: it turns a 20,000 seat NHL arena into an 8-bit video game.
Watch an NHL arena transform into an 8-bit video game
is an entertainment editor covering streaming, virtual worlds, and every single Pokémon video game. Andrew joined The Verge in 2012, writing over 4,000 stories.
Called Bolts of Steel — you know, like the Konami classic Blades of Steel — it features the music, sound effects, and pixelated graphics that NES fans will remember. Unfortunately the video above is just a render of what the projection looks like, but it’s not like it was good luck anyways — the Lightning allowed seven goals in game six of the Eastern Conference final, forcing a seventh game against the Rangers in New York. Maybe Madison Square Garden will one-up them with a projection of N64 game Wayne Gretzky’s 3D Hockey.
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