My friend “Woz” (not Apple Woz).. worked on these, they turned out great!

This year, the DefCon badge wasn’t the only electronic badge at the conference. Ninja Networks, which throws a popular party each year at the conference, produced an electronic badge of its own to gain access to its party.

Over 500 badges were made by hand. The badges featured ten segmented LED displays, four buttons and several microchips on the back. Once powered on, the LED’s blinked random, scrambled letters that froze to form the words “NINJA PARTY” after 100 seconds. The badge was also programmed with a game of Simon-Says. Owners could alter random segments of the badge’s memory through a keypad on the badge.

The badges were created by Amanda Wozniak, who designed the circuitry, and Brandon Creighton, who wrote the badge firmware.