I'm not someone that would be widely considered to be an innovator, but I had a few of the very first microcomputers that came out alone with some accompanying books of how to program them in BASIC, which was very important to the start of my career. The only free games I had early on were the ones I wrote myself, though it was only a few years before I was copying commercial games from others in an Apple II computer club. I also had the 1979 Big Trak- the real world version of logo; in fact if you were to attach a piece of sidewalk chalk to the back of it, it would be even more similar. I've often thought of getting the newer version for my daughter, even though it's not exactly the same: https://www.amazon.com/BBT-BIGTRAK-Big-Trak/dp/B0035IZ85G/
If you're looking for ideas for youth to get into programming, I've had the most success with Scratch: https://scratch.mit.edu/ , but I think Legos and Minecraft (or the free imitation, Exploration Lite)- things that you build with- are also important. Read "Jeff Bezos on the best gift he's ever received": http://www.marketplace.org/2014/12/08/business/jeff-bezos-be... And of course, getting kids into music is a great thing for creativity.
If you're looking for ideas for youth to get into programming, I've had the most success with Scratch: https://scratch.mit.edu/ , but I think Legos and Minecraft (or the free imitation, Exploration Lite)- things that you build with- are also important. Read "Jeff Bezos on the best gift he's ever received": http://www.marketplace.org/2014/12/08/business/jeff-bezos-be... And of course, getting kids into music is a great thing for creativity.