An Ontario college student may have built world’s smallest arcade machine for her 2nd Guinness record | CBC News

A college student in London, Ont. has attempted to break the record for building the world’s tiniest arcade machine, with a replica version of a classic game that fits in the palm of her hand. 

On Tuesday, with a group of elementary and high school students looking on, Victoria Korhonen’s miniature arcade machine received its unofficial Guinness world record status, measuring in at approximately 64 mm tall, 26 mm wide and 30 mm deep. 

“I decided to look at smaller records that I could beat and found the arcade machine and completely fell in love with the design,” said Korhonen, an electromechanical engineering student at Fanshawe College. “Size is definitely something that is cool to me, to have the smallest something.”

Matt Carson, a Fanshawe civil engineering professor, conducted the evaluation of Korhonen’s machine,

Just after 10:30 a.m. ET, Carson confirmed Korhonen’s creation unofficially beat the current Guinness World Record- holder’s machine, which is approximately 67 mm tall, 30 mm wide and 34 mm deep.

“It’s incredible that she’s been able to put something together like this that’s so small,” said Ray Schott, the electromechanical engineering program co-ordinator. “She was constantly evolving what she was doing: making it smaller, making it better, making it lighter.”

Korhonen said it took her six months to design and build the machine, which she based on the classic game Pong by Atari. She referenced the original arcade machine with its yellow front and wooden side panels.

“I designed it, printed it out, wired it, tried to get a working model going, but then I realized the design was a little off,” she said. “So then you reprint it, you redesign it, you do it all over again.”

‘A little blast from the past’

Korhonen also programmed the fully functioning Pong game on the machine.

“Everything’s done completely from scratch, so the coding system, the A.I., the paddle size, the board,” she said. “Everything you see is completely hand programmed so that took quite a bit of work.”

Schott said he got the chance to try playing the machine.

“It’s a little blast from the past to play this game,” he said. 

Korhonen said it will take about three months for the record to be certified as official. She said she will have to send in a report from Tuesday’s evaluation, in addition to her own report, about the machine’s design and electrical details. 

Not the student’s 1st record rodeo

If successful, this would be Korhonen’s second world record. When she was in high school, she and her classmates set one for longest selfie stick, a record previously held by actor Ben Stiller. 

“I wanted one where I had the certificate in my name where I could frame it, so that was the goal,” Korhonen said.

Korhonen said she has more world records on her bucket list. Up next, she hopes to create the smallest humanoid robot.

Korhonen also wants to take her electromechanical skills into her family’s escape room business as a prop builder, attract the attention of the Disney Imagineering team, and may even make a side hobby out of selling her tiny arcade machines.