Ten Unusual, Sometimes Crazy, Sometimes Wonderful Uses for Excel

From a Drum Machine to a Roller Coaster Simulator

Fate has firmly tied me to PowerPoint, but when I think of Excel, my mind is thrilled by its brilliantness—an infinite table in the language of the universe, and infinite tables give infinite possibilities...

Table of Contents

🖌️ Isometric Illustration 🥁 Drum Machine 🎞️ Spreadsheet Animation 📷 HDR Photography 🌊 Art 🕸️ Neural Network 🎥 Video Player 🎢 Roller Coaster Simulator 🕹️ Game Classics: Pac-Man, Tetris, Doom 🎸 Music Video

Isometric Illustration

Alexei Shelkovnikov creates cute three-dimensional-isometrical illustrations in Excel and tells you how to do it. © Alex “ExcelArt” Shelkovnikov. Alex ExcelArt—3D Artist / Art Director. Behance. © Alex “ExcelArt” Shelkovnikov. Alex ExcelArt—3D Artist / Art Director. Behance. Cinema 4D VS MS Excel ⌘↑

Drum Machine

Designed by Freepik. Dylan Tallchief made a drum machine in Excel.
© 2019 Dylan Tallchief. "I made an actual Drum Machine in Excel." YouTube, uploaded November 2019. All rights reserved. Download Drum Machine in Excel ⌘↑

Spreadsheet Animation

© 2012 MysteryGuitarMan (Joe Penna). “Stop-Motion Excel (Spreadsheet Animation).” YouTube video, uploaded August 2012. All rights reserved. Joe Penna made a stop motion animation in Excel. Please check behind the scenes video as well.
© 2012 MysteryGuitarMan (Joe Penna). “Stop-Motion Excel (Spreadsheet Animation).” YouTube video, uploaded August 2012. All rights reserved. ⌘↑

HDR Photography

Kevin Chen explains the algorithm on HDR imaging and implements HDR in a spreadsheet.
© 2017 Confreaks. “!!Con 2017: HDR Photography in Microsoft Excel?! by Kevin Chen.” YouTube, uploaded July 2017. All rights reserved. HDR Imaging in Microsoft Excel ⌘↑

Art

© Tatsuo Horiuchi. All rights reserved. T.Horiuchi is painting pictures with Excel. © 2017 Christopher Jobson. “Meet Tatsuo Horiuchi, the 77-Year-Old Artist Who ‘Paints’ Japanese Landscapes With Excel.” This Is Colossal, December 4, 2017. All rights reserved. © 2017 Christopher Jobson. “Meet Tatsuo Horiuchi, the 77-Year-Old Artist Who ‘Paints’ Japanese Landscapes With Excel.” This Is Colossal, December 4, 2017. All rights reserved. Pasokonga paintings by Tatsuo Horiuchi ⌘↑

Neural Network

© Diane Picchiottino. A close-up of a green liquid filled with bubbles. Unsplash, https://unsplash.com/photos/a-close-up-of-a-green-liquid-filled-with-bubbles-HkRl0t6QUEA. License: Unsplash (free to use without attribution). A Neural Network implemented in Microsoft Excel solving a Travelling Salesman Problem of 10 cities in the United States
© 2020 ClearlyandSimply. “Excel Neural Network solves 10 Cities TSP.” YouTube, uploaded August 2020. All rights reserved. ⌘↑

Video Player

This is an Excel sheet, that plays Video and Audio files you have the codec for. ExcelPlayer ⌘↑

Roller Coaster Simulator

George Lungu created a roller coaster simulator in Excel. Download from Excelunusual.com ⌘↑

Game Classics: Pac-Man, Tetris, Doom

Nobuya Chikada made Pac-Man in Excel

Download from GitHub

InvisibleRain made Tetris in Excel

Download from GitHub

Nobuaki Tanaka launched Doom in Excel

© 2022 Nobuaki Tanaka. "Doom runs on Excel." YouTube, uploaded January 2022. All rights reserved. ⌘↑

Music Video

Phil Clandillon, Steve Milbourne and Svetozar Batoev made a music video in Excel for the "Rock 'n' Roll Train" song by AC/DC.
© 2008 MastroTeo. “AC/DC Rock N Roll Train—Ascii Art—Excel.” YouTube, uploaded 24 October 2008. All rights reserved. Watch the full version More info on the project ⌘↑#medium #excel #2k23