It seems the past and future of games and coding met head on today. So, whilst perusing Twitter (founded 2006) on the PurpleBerry (makers RIM founded around 1984) I was reading about the Raspberry Pi launch (today, 2012), the Young Rewired State initiative (first run in 2011 with 100 developers creating 40 projects at 14 centres around the UK) and Pong (Atari, 1972) on the iOS (Apple, 2007).

 So, within half an hour of logging on this morning, I had read all the news that was news on Raspberry Pi (including that the website had crashed) an appeal by Stephen Fry to donate to the Young Rewired State initiative and the Mashable article about Pong being reworked for the iOS. (Plus a few things about Windows 8, but that’s altogether not of interest here.)

Raspberry Pi

The newest barebones coding machine. Designed to be used to teach schoolchildren how to code, but many of the initial uptake seemed to be old skoolers, Atari geeks and BBC-Micro men. Demand was such that the website had fallen over in shock, surprise or horror (?) by 9am and several of my contacts who were trying to order one had been forced to leave for their dayjob without having successfully placed an order.

Young Rewired State

The 18-and-under developers’ network. Where else is our next gen of coders going to come from? Also involving one of the average geek’s favourite destinations, Bletchley Park, home of code cracking and World War II computing. How many more of next year’s applicants will have been inspired by Raspberry Pi, I wonder? This year’s intensive week of coding guidance for youngsters takes place 6-11 August 2012 and is free to enter. Or you can sponsor the event, if you’re old enough to have a bank account with spare pennies in it!

Pong on the iDevice – thanks to @Mashable on Twitter for this lead

Hang on, run that by me again? Pong. Quintessential, cornerstone game. For arcade, handheld and video platforms. In iOS. Available for today’s gamers to try? Now, that might just keep my oh-so-non-casual-gaming colleague happy. He was planning on taking a handheld to his parents’ tomorrow night in order to be suitably entertained (mine banned such things many years ago!) so maybe I should mention it to him.

Anyway, as far as developing the game is concerned, it’s $100k to the winner of the competition and a development contract with Atari. A fitting tribute in Pong’s Life Begins At birthday year. The competition, for which developers only need to submit a design document, is open until 31 March, and the prize includes a contract from Atari to support future games developed by the winner.

Whether you’re a coder or a player, a geek, a nerd, a gamer of any ilk, or just plain interested, this post is for you. Whatever age, ability or talent, there was something in the news for you today. If only all days were as varied.

Readers, tomorrow will bring the usual vanilla nerdity. Until the reviews, hacks and demos on Raspberry Pi hit the streets, then things will be buzzing again.