My friends Seamus Blackley (co-creator of the Xbox) and Vanessa Burnham (author of Supercade: A Visual History of the Videogame Age 1971-1984) have revealed their next project: Innovative Leisure. The company reunites the incredible talent behind numerous Atari arcade classics and brings them under one roof to create iOS games. Here’s an excerpt from an excellent story by VentureBeat’s ”Dancing” Dean Takahashi:

“We are looking at the new arcade, and 99 cents on the iPhone is the new quarter,” Blackley (pictured above), president of the startup Innovative Leisure, said in an exclusive interview with VentureBeat. “People are playing on all these new devices and are finding the joy of the arcade games.”

The “Jedi Council” team includes Ed Rotberg, creator of the classic Atari game Battlezone; Owen Rubin, creator of Major Havoc and Space Duel; Rich Adam, creator of Gravitar and co-developer of Missile Command; Ed Logg, co-creator of Asteroids and Centipede; Dennis Koble, creator of Touch Me and Shooting Gallery; Tim Skelly, the only non-Atari veteran arcade game designer who worked for Cinematronics and created games such as Rip-Off; and Bruce Merrit, creator of Black Widow.

Innovative Leisure is so full of awesome that my head is on the verge of exploding. You can (but shouldn’t) ignore my personal biases for Seamus and Van; I adore both of them, so I’m obviously excited about their startup. You can’t ignore the talent and influence of the game creators working with them. This is the videogame equivalent of The Rat Pack getting back together to show the world their classic talents on a new medium. (Geeking out again.)

I’d love to hear what you think of Innovative Leisure. Are you excited by old-school Atari creators taking their talents to South Beach the iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch?

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I just got back from CES 2012 and I’m off to New York in a few hours. Since I won’t have access to my home consoles, my next few days of gaming will be on my iPad. Of course I’ll be playing lots of Civlization Revolution. I’m also excited to play Run Roo Run!, a new game from 5th Cell, the creators of the phenomenal Scribblenauts. I’ve only played a few minutes and I’m already charmed by this super-cute platformer. I’m actually looking forward to the plane ride to JFK just so I can play more!

How about you? What’s on your weekend playlist?

As a few of you know, I’m starting off 2012 with a new computer and a new phone. To keep the whole newness thing going (and hopefully bring me some new luck), I’ve decided to use new videogame sounds on my phone. Previously, my phone had a pair of sounds from Final Fantasy VII: the fanfare riff and a piano version of “Those Who Fight”. They were fantastic as a notification sound and a ringtone, respectively, but it’s time for something new!

For 2012, I’m going with sounds from The Legend of Zelda. Right now I’m juggling three different clips for notifications. The first two are from the original game: the “secret” sound and the fanfare sound. I also have an orchestral version of the fanfare sound from Skyward Sword, but I’m digging the old-school sounds a bit more. As for my ringtone, I’m using a clip of Fredde Gredde’s excellent acoustic Wind Waker medley. (He’s selling MP3s of his various videogame covers using a name-your-price system.) May the Zeldafication of my phone bring me luck in the new year!

Any of you using videogame sounds and/or music on your phone? Want to join me in changing phones sounds in 2012?

There were tons of fantastic gadgets released in 2011. Whether we’re talking about new phones, tablets, portable consoles, laptops, etc., I’m sure that most of you purchased a consumer electronics device that dazzled you. Out of all the gadgets in your geek arsenal, which one impressed you the most this year?

As for me, it’s clearly the iPad 2. Apple kicked off the current tablet computing craze with the original iPad in 2010. The sequel, with its superior processor, made it even better. It’s just an amazingly diverse device. For entertainment, I can play games, watch movies, listen to music, read comic books, video chat with friends, and more. For work, it’s far more useful than I anticipated, particularly with the Logitech Tablet Keyboard for iPad. I wrote several articles and updated this blog on the iPad 2. For work (a little) and play (a lot), I love my iPad 2. It’s the most life-changing gadget I’ve bought since TiVo.

How about you? What was your favorite gadget of 2011?

During a multifaceted geek chat with Nerd Friend X, Late Night with Jimmy Fallon came up. As a tech enthusiast and a gamer, I feel obligated to support the show. It helps that I actually dig Fallon’s humor and my buddy Gavin works on the show. I was surprised to learn that Nerd Friend X hates the show and Fallon. It’s one thing if he doesn’t like Fallon’s humor and the show’s writing; it’s not for everyone. As a gamer and tech enthusiast, I feel that he should support it. After all, nobody else in late night features game developers and tech editors.

I love that Epic Games’ Cliff Bleszinski showed Gears of War 3 on the show. It’s awesome that Naughty Dog’s Evan Wells and Christophe Balestra dropped by to demo Uncharted 3. Microsoft got a ton of press when Microsoft’s Kudo Tsunoda showed Kinect to mainstream America on Fallon. TheVerge.com’s Joshua Topolsky (ex-Endgadget) drops by regularly to tell Jimmy and his audience about the latest and greatest in consumer electronics. Is there a late-night show that’s more nerd-friendly than Late Night with Jimmy Fallon?

Jimmy Fallon, his writers, and his producers are the future of late night…at least the future of what I want late night to be. People that grew up with games and/or obsessed with nerd toys are getting older. I love that there’s a late-night TV-show that covers my interests with respect and enthusiasm. I dream of the day Fallon gets the 11:30 slot, bringing great games and tech content to “the big show”. With your support, he’ll get there.

What do you think of Late Night with Jimmy Fallon featuring videogames and consumer electronics? If Fallon gets an 11:30 show, do you think he’ll continue bringing on game developers and tech experts as guests? Or will games and geek stuff be relegated to after midnight instead of before it?

My pal Chris Cross at Tarver Games recently blogged about a few slick company t-shirts. Available now is a sweet Ghosts Attack t-shirt. The shirt features the icon from Cross’ slick iOS game. Coming soon, partially because I pestered him about how cool it would be, is a Tarver Games t-shirt. I’ve always loved the Tarver Games logo. Donkeys are funny.

Picking up a Ghosts Attack t-shirt has been proven by Ivy League statisticians to increase the coolness of your wardrobe by 22 percent. Matching it with some RPad.tv swag (an excellent holiday gift) improves your wardrobe immeasurably. Seriously though, the Ghosts Attack shirt looks great and supports future projects from Tarver Games. Pick one up if you get a chance (please)!

Check out this picture of my customized Blackbox Case for iPad 2. It’s completely awesome. It’s made from bamboo, one of the most sustainable materials in the world. It’s handcrafted in the USA by an American company. Best of all, it has my face and web site on it! This is pretty much one of the three best iPad 2 cases ever made.

I’ll be writing more about the case over at Padvance. For now, let me know what you think.

The Manny Pacquiao game for iOS is free today. Head on over and download Manny Pacquiao: Pound for Pound if you’re a fan of the Filipino boxer or if you’re looking for some unintentional comedy. The game looks…meh and the videogame version of Pacquiao looks like he was rejected from the Street Fighter and Tekken tournaments, but you can’t really complain about a free game. Ha!

Trevor Eckhart recently posted an alarming video and some scary results on Carrier IQ. The software is found on millions of phones and is used by three out of the four major American mobile carriers. According to Eckhart, Carrier IQ can track a crazy amount of information, including individual keystrokes. The company, of course, denies that the program presents a security risk. While the amount of information and what’s being done with it is still being debated, the bottom line is that carriers and phone makers do not provide a way for customers to opt out of the tracking.

While Carrier IQ is potentially evil, I don’t believe carriers and phone manufacturers are using it for malicious purposes. That would be suicidal. Any company caught compromising or selling information gathered by Carrier IQ would be sued to high heaven (is there a low heaven?) and would become a pariah. That said, I believe there’s a risk there. What if your phone is lost or stolen? Would a hacker be able to extract tons of information through Carrier IQ? If you’ve entered credit card or password information on your phone, would Carrier IQ present a backdoor for hackers to access it?

There’s a lot of misinformation floating around and a lot of information that has yet to be confirmed on Carrier IQ. Personally, I’m alarmed by the whole thing. Fortunately, I plan on switching to a Galaxy Nexus on Verizon in the near future. The phone and the carrier do not use Carrier IQ.

Are you concerned about Carrier IQ privacy issues?