29 October 2009 | Commentary, Fun | Henry

If you think you’re the office ”excel ninja” – with your fancy vlookups and your pivot table prowess – think again, powder-puff.  These guys will smack you all the way back to Lotus 1-2-3 with their Excel skills.

1) Pac-Man
Are you kidding me?  If you’re an Excel Geek like me, this one will make your heart skip a beat.  This guy from Japan made the entire Pac-Man video game by using the cells as “pixels”.  He set the zoom at 10%, and then automated the changing of fill colors within the cells using VBA to animate the game.  If lovin’ games in excel is wrong, then I don’t wanna be right!

2) 3D Game Engine
Defining true ostentatiousness and technical supremacy, this guy created a full-blown 3D-rendering gaming engine inside Excel.  If you’ve never seen a three-dimensional spinning cube inside Excel, you’re missing out…big time.

3) AC/DC Video
Take an old-school ASCII-Art Nerd from the 80’s, a die hard AC/DC fan, and an Excel Geek: mix them all together and this is what you get: An AC/DC video in the lowest fidelity imaginable.  But hey, you’re watching the video inside an Excel spreadsheet, so get over it. You have to see it to believe it.

4) Music Synthesizer
Offered on the Microsoft Website as a free download, this Excel program is a fully functional music synthesizer complete with musical staff notation.  Use it to control your favorite MIDI device, or jam out through your computer’s sound card.

5) Anything by This Guy
Jon Peltier is the man. If Excel skills could kill, this guy would be a Japanese Naginata.  His section on charting is unbelievable, especially for an advanced user that wants to kick it up to the next level.  And don’t even get me started on his online tutorials.

What is the craziest thing you’ve ever seen in Excel?