back to article New Motorola Mobility badge: Too late for this pinball machine lover

Motorola, or at least the Mobility bit of it owned by Google, has a new logo with a different font and a rainbow circle: but it's too late to help some distressed pinball machine fanatics who've been crying inside for many years. I should explain that I have a very personal relationship with the Motorola logo - and with …

COMMENTS

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  1. Conrad Longmore
    Thumb Up

    I think we're missing a trick here..

    I like the idea of a Williams smartphone.. how about an AtariPhone tool with a faux wood finish?

    1. Thomas 4

      Re: I think we're missing a trick here..

      Chuck in a good quality emulator and some Atari games and I'd buy one.

    2. Charles Manning

      Williams Smartphone

      You have to put a coin in the SD card slot every time you want to make a call.

      Then you have to whack it.

      But not hard enough to set off the tilt detector.

      However, if you talk well enough, the next call is free.

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Williams out of the pinball business was a terrible loss

    With the passing of years I go out less and less. But the few times I do I still miss dropping a few coins into one of those wonderful machines. The very few pinballs I've spotted since 2005 or so are so poorly designed and built that you don't want to play on them.

    1. Dave 126

      Pinball Exhibition

      It's on the wrong continent for me, but for anyone near Chicago in October...

      http://www.pinballexpo.net/index2.php

      1. Jim 59

        Re: Pinball Exhibition

        That's a long way to go for a game of Defender.

  3. John Smith 19 Gold badge
    Happy

    In old school pinball machines the relays *are* the computer.

    It's why they call it "Relay ladder logic"

    But otherwise "Hello moto," again?

  4. Sloping Shoulders
    Thumb Up

    One of these days I have promised myself I will get myself a pinball machine - though I do fear it will fail in a thousand horrible different ways. So then of course you have the decision of which machine to buy

    1. jai

      I knew someone who had one.

      and then he got married and so had to sell it.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Have you ever noticed how in "I am legend" Will Smith lives on his own for years then it took only 24 hours for him to die after a woman showed up... And that bitch took the last of his bacon.

        1. Alfred

          Didn't she EXTEND his lifespan

          As I recall, he was in the middle of committing suicide-by-monster, and she turned up and prevented his death.

    2. Simon Rockman

      Black Knight. the one with the magnets

  5. Frankee Llonnygog

    The new logo already looks dated

    While the old logo is so retro that it looks brand new.

    Google would-be-hip fail - again

  6. Simon Rockman

    Typical Naieve marketing makeover

    One of the things I respect about my former employer Motorola for is how little they messed with the logo over the last 75 years. When I was there around 2002 there was a big push to appeal to the teen market. To move away from the brand that made car and police radios.

    The mantra was "not my father's Motorola". The marketing genius, Geoffrey Frost identified much on mobile as the Next Big Thing (shame the software teams let him down), and initiated "Hello Moto".

    He offered Jony Ive whatever he wanted to move to Motorola.

    And through all this he didn't change the logo or font. I've met lots of very smart marketing people and Frost was head and shoulders above the lot.

    Whenever a new 'hot-shot' marketing person starts at a company they do two things - mess with the logo and fire the advertising agency.

    Soon after that they get fired.

    1. John 62

      Re: Typical Naieve marketing makeover

      "Hello, Moto" is incredibly annoying and their ads during the Champions League a few years ago were by far the most annoying of any of the Champions League ads, which have all been crap.

    2. John 62

      Re: Typical Naieve marketing makeover

      I think the best thing that came out of Motorola around that time was look of the RZR. However, I know someone who had a SLVR, which I believe was the same as the RAZR but in candybar form and it was just horrible to use and had an awful screen. I believe Mike Z was to thank for that monstrosity. He of later Nortel fame.

  7. Dave 126

    Custom Pinball Machine

    Ben Heck is known to many of us as the man who creates game controllers for people with only one hand, or making XBOX 360 laptops... however, he was making his own pinball machine a while back.

    If you have a love of hardware hacking, take a look:

    http://benheck.com/

    His latest projects include a 3D-printed Spam-saver lid (the luncheon meat, not the unwanted email) and a PC keyboard with analogue WASD keys for gaming...

    1. Boothy
      Go

      Re: Custom Pinball Machine

      Quote: "and a PC keyboard with analogue WASD keys for gaming".

      I'd buy one of those :-)

      analogue Q & E as well for leaning round corners....

  8. EddieD

    PinSim

    I still play Timeshock! - it was a pretty reasonable sim, and it wouldn't take much ingenuity (a few tilt switches, if you'll pardon the pun) to create a custom controller that responded to body language.

    When I was a student, my addiction to Pinball made it to our Freshers welcome book, where they were advised to find me at the Pinball tables, if they needed help.

  9. Zaphod.Beeblebrox
    Thumb Up

    "pinball is a full-contact sport, which is why it doesn’t work on a computer screen"

    This. Why oh why do folks insist on continuing to try to make pinball games for the PC? They. Just. Don't. Get. It.

    1. Bill Ray (Written by Reg staff)

      I'm guessing it's like a flight simulator - it's never going to be as fun as the real thing, but it's a lot cheaper.

      I can't play them though, they're close enough to remind me what I'm missing.

      Bill.

      1. Rimpel

        Also pinball has been in decline for years now, it's really hard to find the real thing in pubs any more. Searching BITE for pubs with pinball in london returns just 18 results, 2 of which are listed as CLOSED, I know the hole in the wall has had medieval madness for years but its completely knackered and unplayable.

        http://www.beerintheevening.com/pubs/results.shtml?tc=london&pb=on

        When I first started working my housemates and I bought a twilight zone pin between us, god I love that machine!

    2. Mike 16

      Full Contact Pinball

      Not sure about the PC, but Atari (Coin-op) made a pair of Video Pinball machines with a decently-simulated "shooter" (IMHO) and a "nudge" switch in the (very slightly) movable control-panel. The first (Disco-themed, based on the Middle Earth playfield) was called simply "Video Pinball", and sold decently but not spectacularly. The second, "Solar War" (based on the Superman playfield) was ready for production at about the time as Asteroids, so was never sold (although I heard a rumor that 300+ "kits" of electronics were sold to a Greek distributor). Having played both, I can say that the "feel", while not really up to the full mechanical experience, is miles ahead of a console or PC game, and the one I have (sadly, with broken nudge switch) is still running. Unlike my two previous "real" pinball machines.

      1. John 62

        Re: Full Contact Pinball

        Disco Middle Earth pinball? I'd buy that for a dollar!

  10. Ness

    The rainbow circle, just reminds me of the old '24 hour photo development' thingy that used to be in the front window of Boots shops

  11. Michael Wojcik Silver badge

    At last!

    A great article! Finally I too can source those troublesome Williams chips.

    Now if I could only figure out who makes these ones with the funny-looking uppercase sigma on them...

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