Inventing Video Games
About this video
An inventor's odyssey.
An intimate video portrait of Ralph Baer, known as the "Father of video games" for his invention of Magnavox Odyssey, the first mass produced home console system.
Developed from a 1968 prototype simply known as the “brown box”, Odyssey was released in 1972, three years before that of Atari’s Pong whose inventor Nolan Bushnell is also cited as the daddy of digital gaming.
Games on the "closed circuit electronic playground" were stored on a removable printed circuit board card or cartridge and included Tennis, Simon Says, Haunted House and numerous sporting pursuits. Interestingly, he always envisaged games as interactions between two or people, rather than a solo pursuit.
Baer was presented with the National Medal of Technology and Innovation in 2004 and is still inventing at the age of ninety. His comments reveal the passion and creativity behind the inventive process:
"What else do you expect me to do? I need a challenge and I still get a big charge from making something work. I write the hardware, I push the button, I download it into the microprocessor and it works. Ahhh, beautiful. I am basically an artist... who sits there and loves what he does."
Related Links and Media
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Magnavox Odyssey Console Set.
Image: Evan-Amos, Wikimedia Commons
Licence: Public DomainMagnavox Odyssey Console Set.
Image: Evan-Amos, Wikimedia Commons
Licence: Public Domain
