Microsoft Celebrates 50 Years with Retro-Tech ‘The Original Build’ Activation

To mark its 50th anniversary, Microsoft is unveiling The Original Build – a high-design, interactive retro experience that transports you back to 1975; the early days of Microsoft.

The activation, debuting at Microsoft’s annual Build event, is far from your typical developer conference booth – it’s a fully immersive, 1970s-themed developer workspace modelled after the start-up environments where Bill Gates, Paul Allen, and their teammates created Microsoft.

To commemorate the last five decades, Microsoft is transporting developers back in time while celebrating the future, offering visitors the chance to see if they have what it takes to be one of the original Microsoft players, as well as reflect on their own origin stories through a number of activities and unlocks.

It’s a fusion of brand storytelling, experiential design, and technological nostalgia that honours the past while inspiring the future of a new generation of developers.

Key Elements Include:

- The Activation: Guests enter a recreated version of Microsoft’s founding years and embark on an immersive experience, completing timed coding activities on 'sleeper PCs'— hybrid retro computer exteriors with modern tech inside. The activation uses Altair 8800 shells, the world’s first microcomputers and home to the first product ever developed by Microsoft. Inside, the PCs are powered with Altair-Duino Pro 3.0, a modern Arduino microcomputer that faithfully emulates the original Altair and is powered by Microsoft’s latest technology, including Copilot and Azure in the cloud. Participants who complete all three activities will be memorialized on a leader board and earn a personalized, retro Microsoft employee badge (seen in attached assets), making them part of the original team.

- Easter Eggs: As visitors complete coding activities on the 'sleeper PCs,' they unlock surprise interactions connecting their 'sleeper PC' to the space around them – including a mysterious phone call with a leading dev and getting to watch a long-forgotten Microsoft film from the archives. We’ve also hidden special Microsoft artifacts throughout the space for guests to discover, like real photos of Bill, Paul, and the team from the 1970s, their early recruitment docs, and more.

- Creative Concept: Centred on the idea of celebrating 'self-taught devs' the experience captures the spirit of early innovation — for both Microsoft and its developer community.

- Design-Led Execution: Everything from UI design and ASCII art to furniture and brand ambassador wardrobe is art directed with period accuracy, layered with modern storytelling mechanics and visual cues.

- Creator Integration : A built-in content zone invites execs and influencers to capture and share their own origin stories, with a (potential) Satya Nadella drop-in. The space also spotlights a custom 'sleeper PC' build by the internet’s favourite PC influencer, Linus Tech Tips’ (16+ M followers on YouTube), who recently appeared on Jimmy Fallon.

- Merch: What’s more Microsoft are also giving away limited-edition 70s inspired signature items at their activation including velour tracksuits, trucker caps, tote bags, iron-on patches etc.

- Digital Experience: For those unable to attend in person, the company reimagined the experience on Microsoft-owned GitHub, transforming the platform’s repository feature into an interactive, narrative-rich space. Using cryptic social cues to lead devs in, the repo reveals a retro-inspired brand story told through illustrated text-adventure game-style content, custom ASCII-art animations, and virtual re-creations of our coding challenges, making this one of the most inventive uses of GitHub to date.

- Strategic Objective: This activation was created to build brand love and deepen the connection between Microsoft and the developer community that is so essential to the company’s success. Every developer dreams of building 'the next big thing' and this experience taps into that mindset in a memorable way that can be enjoyed not just at Build, but also through social and creator engagement. And as a bonus, the current cultural obsession with the feeling of nostalgia achieved through retro and vintage notions makes this project even more relevant.

Created in partnership with Assembly, a DJE Holdings Co, and with experience design support from by Missing Pieces, this is a nostalgia-fuelled brand moment that blends narrative, design, and interactive tech