How Dong works
Dong is the arcade game on the hospital computers in NoPixel 5.0 — a pong-style survival game against an AI, played on the in-game machines between patients and competed on for a place on the server's high score table. You hold the green paddle on the left, the AI holds the red one on the right, and the twist is the paddles themselves: each is a T, a long stem with a crossbar at the bottom, and it leans as it moves. The ball can come off the stem, the crossbar or the corner where they meet, and each sends it somewhere different.
Let a ball past you and the game is over. Get one past the AI and it counts as a goal: the red paddle reloads and fires that ball back out of the tip of its stem, and a beat later it fires another one, up to five in play at once. The ball gets faster with every return, and the AI speeds up with every goal. Points come in three ways — a hundred for each return, five hundred for each goal, and a steady trickle for every second you survive — and all three are multiplied by the number of balls in play, which is where the big scores come from.
This is an independent recreation built from how the game plays on stream. The exact speeds, the paddle shape and the scoring on the server will differ, so a score here is only comparable to other scores here.
Benchmento is not affiliated with Rockstar Games, NoPixel or any roleplay server. These are original implementations built from descriptions of how the minigames work, for practice in the browser.
What counts as a good score
| Points | Standing |
|---|---|
| 20,000+ | Leaderboard material |
| 6,000 – 20,000 | Strong |
| 2,000 – 6,000 | Solid |
| 700 – 2,000 | About average |
| 250 – 700 | Still learning the T |
| Under 250 | Warming up |
The first goal is the turning point. With one ball in play a long rally scores slowly; after a goal, two balls double every return and every second, and the score curve bends upward. Most runs end somewhere around a thousand or two, usually on the first return after the red paddle fires its second ball, because two balls at different speeds is a different game from one.
How to score higher
- Learn the three contact points. A ball off the flat of the stem comes back fairly straight. Off the crossbar it pops up or down steeply. Off the corner it can go almost anywhere. The corner is a mistake until you can aim it, and then it is how you beat the AI.
- Move into the ball. A moving paddle drags the ball with it and leans the T. Meeting the ball while you are moving up sends it up; meeting it moving down sends it down. Standing still gives the AI an easy return.
- Aim away from the AI. The AI chases the ball and is slower than the ball gets. A steep return to the far corner of its side is how goals happen — and goals are how the score multiplies.
- Play the nearest ball. With several balls in play, the only one that matters is whichever is closest to your wall. The others will come round.
- Drift back to the middle. After every return, settle toward the centre. The AI aims at the half of your wall you are not covering, and from the middle you can reach both.
Frequently asked questions
Is this the NoPixel Dong game?
It is an independent recreation of the T-paddle arcade game from the NoPixel 5.0 hospital computers, built from how it plays on stream. It is not connected to any server, its scores are not the server's scores, and Benchmento is not affiliated with Rockstar Games or NoPixel.
Why is the paddle a T?
That is the twist of the original. The stem, the crossbar and the corner between them each return the ball at a different angle, and the T leans as it moves, so where and how you meet the ball matters far more than in ordinary pong.
How do extra balls get added?
By scoring past the AI. After each goal the red paddle fires the ball back out of the tip of its stem, then fires one more a beat later, up to five in play. Every point you earn is multiplied by the number of balls in play, so goals are how scores get large.
What are the controls?
W and S or the up and down arrows move the paddle. Moving the mouse over the arena puts the paddle where the pointer is. On a touchscreen, drag on the arena.
Can I see the streamer leaderboard here?
No. The in-game high score table lives on the server and there is no public feed of it that this site can read. Your own best is saved on your device and placed on a percentile against typical scores here.