A legend in the world of videogames has passed on: Ralph Baer died on Saturday Dec 6, 2014.
Magnavox Odyssey Console
Ralph is somebody I've studied extensively, and have a great appreciation for. I taught videogame history for about 10 years at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design, and he is a big part of the origin story of videogames.
As far back at the 1950's, as a TV technician, he envisioned a way to use a TV as something other than just a viewing device - though he received hard pushback in the early days, he kept pushing. In 1966, while at Sanders Associates (a military and defense contractor), he made this work official, and transcribed four pages of notes about the idea. In the next two years, he and a small team worked on a prototype that would ultimately play simple tv games: pong, a chase game, a simple shooting game, and more. He called this the "brown box" prototype.
It's one thing to develop a product, it's another to get it produced: after many dead ends, his company struck a deal with Magnavox in 1971, and produced the Magnavox Odyssey in 1972, the first commercial home videogame console.
When people think about the early days of gaming, they often think "Atari". It's a long and complicated story, and it must be mentioned here: Ralph made incredible contributions to gaming, but was overshadowed by Nolan Bushnell and Atari. While the Magnavox Odyssey was the first home console, the first true smash videogame hit wasn't in the home: it was in the arcade. Atari's first game, Arcade Pong, was released in 1972, and was a smash hit. They would follow with many more, and enter into the home console market as well. Over the next 10 years, Atari would dominate the business, and become the fastest growing company in US history (NYT, 1982).
In the end, both men were incredibly important to the industry, in different ways. They ran in the same circles, attended the same events, competed and fought in court. Both brought something unique, and we're better for both of them,.
I purchased a mint condition Odyssey console quite a few years ago, and dug it out today in his honor. Things have changed a bit from 1972 to today: this console is powered by 6 "C" batteries, and has overlays for the TV that you would place over the screen to add color and important gameplay elements.
Thanks for pushing and fighting Ralph, I can't count the hours of fun I've had gaming. Hope your Odyssey continues.
If you'd like to learn more about Ralph and the Odyssey, start here:
