Skip to main content

Watch an NHL arena transform into an 8-bit video game

Watch an NHL arena transform into an 8-bit video game

Share this story

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.

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.