ColecoVision Reborn

Is shag carpet back in yet? Someone go find a hipster and let me know.

A new Kickstarter project concerning something very dear to my heart has just surfaced. The same group that released the excellent Vectrex Regeneration last year has taken on the task of bringing the retrospectacular ColecoVision console to the mobile gaming community and they need your help. For those of you who need a refresher, the ColecoVision was introduced in August of 1982 as the ultimate Atari and Intellivision-killer -- and it almost succeeded until the Great Video Game Crash of 1983 made short work of the entire industry. At the time of its release, the system was way ahead of its competitors offering near-arcade quality graphics, arcade-style super-controllers and, via a seperate expansion unit, cross-platform compatibility with its greatest nemesis, the Atari 2600. The party was short-lived, however, and the system was discontinued in 1985, just three years before Coleco would file for bankruptcy and right around the same time that a little Japanese company, called Nintendo, decided to reinvent the home gaming market for a new generation with something they called the NES. But thanks to the folks at RantMedia Games, who happen to be huge ColecoVision fans, it looks like you'll soon be able to relive those totally tubular memories right in the palm of your hand. For more info check out the video and the link. (Special thanks to Cheryl for tipping me off on this awesome project!)

CLICK HERE TO VISIT THE COLECOVISION KICKSTARTER PAGE

Bye Bye Ballmer

Signing off from Seattle

Steve Ballmer, current CEO of Microsoft, has recently announced his retirement and will be winding down his tenure this year. When this finally happens sometime in the next twelve months, the holy trinity of Seattle's tech-lords will witness the loss of its last remaining member and the end of a hugely important geek-era. While the company was co-founded by computer dorks Bill Gates and Paul Allen in 1975, fellow Harvardian and apparent arithmetic genius Steve Ballmer (he scored 800 on the math portion of his SAT and beat Gates's score on an exam given by the Mathematical Association of America) joined his old collegiate buddies at the company in 1980 where his business acumen and wacky, non-tech attitude helped rocket the company to its now legendary status and, of course, its mountains and mountains of riches. Allen left Microsoft back in 2000 and Gates later in 2008, leaving the door open for Ballmer to step in as CEO of the company. However almost since the day he took over, industry pundits have been regularly casting doubts on his ability to lead the company into a new world and new generation that's more interested in tablets and set-top boxes than notebooks and desktop boxes. While the rumors are currently running rampant about whether or not Steve's announcement was voluntary or if he was ousted by the board, one thing's for sure, there's never been a tech-industry magnate quite like him before, and I doubt that there ever will be again.

A rare shot of the uber-nerd triumvirate (from left): Steve Ballmer, Bill Gates and Paul Allen

BONUS VIDEO: MY FAVORITE STEVE MOMENT

Microsoft Mixes It Up...A Little

Today, our beloved old dinosaur, Microsoft, unveiled their first logo redesign in 25 years, taking the familiar multi-colored flag and squaring it off to form more of a, well, window.  It’s one of the many changes the company is making in preparation for the Windows 8 launch, said Jeffrey Meisner, general manager of brand strategy.

“Starting today, you’ll see the new Microsoft logo being used prominently. It will be used on Microsoft.com – the 10th most visited website in the world. It is in three of our Microsoft retail stores today (Boston, Seattle’s University Village and Bellevue, Wash.) and will shine brightly in all our stores over the next few months,” Mesiner wrote on the company’s blog.

The new logo is inspired by the company’s brand values, fonts and colors, he explained.

“The symbol is important in a world of digital motion … the symbol’s squares of color are intended to express the company’s diverse portfolio of products.”

The revision comes, Meisner said, ahead of “one of the most significant waves of product launches in Microsoft’s history.”

Frankly, it looks to me like the breeze died down and the old wavy flag logo came to a sudden stop. In light of what Meisner said about "digital motion" I'd say that the new symbol expresses less energy compared to the fanciful designs of Microsoft's past, and since the company has been around since 1975, they are no strangers to logo changes. Check out some of the previous designs that Bill and company had to offer.