The idea how to play PaintOn Games is based on the first computer game in pocket size version; the „AutoRace“ of the company Mattel. This game shows, quite simply, that very little is needed to playfully entertain humans. Only a tiny keyboard, light diodes, two or three sound, connected to a programmed structure is needed.

In 1976, after a demonstration of the new LED technology, Michael Katz, marketing director of Mattel Toys, hit upon the idea to use it to create a calculator-size game. AutoRace was born. Players hat to steer a „car“, represented by a LED, avoiding collision with on-coming „traffic“. Like with Pong, the recipe of success was inspired simplicity. You only need ten seconds to learn the game, but hours to master it. (Electronicle Plastic, Editors: Die Gestalten, 2000, Page 8).

The adaptivity of the original game, on a clearly structured platine, contains no indication of the first motive of game of car-races. Instead, the cube-shaped LEDs are associated to children´s building blocks. To every game handicraft materials are set with the purpose to suggest a further designing of paintOn Games. Using plastic folio, self-painted game-motives can be pushed over the fluorescent fields in a pocket. Using styrofoam new games can be designed, by setting the fluorescent blocks into another constellation. The paintOn Games are designed as a educational way of playing and are used in this manner. In the context of art, the whole project is introduced by supplementing
documentation material of those actions.

Computer game, 2002
PVC folie,  30 LEDs, 3 seven-segment displays, 2 buttons, speaker, microcontroller circuit