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The father of videogames, 92...
[HR][/HR]<!-- / icon and title --><!-- message -->Ralph H. Baer is not likely a name most would recognize, but he was a GIANT of the electronics industry, as the man who pioneered the video game console nearly 50 years ago and invented several phenomenal devices in his lifetime.
Baer's family fled the hatred and violence against Jews leading into World War II, fleeing to the US just two months prior to Krystallnacht, the pivotal anti-Semitic attack on Jewish businesses and people that marked the full effect of Nazi hatred, and he later became a naturalized US citizen.
Baer took electronics courses and left a factory job for an illustrious career as an electrical engineer and inventor. In 1966, he began work on a concept of electronic games played using an ordinary television set, and by 1971 had licensed the equipment to Magnavox, which was dubbed 'Odyssey' and marked the first version of a consumer game console. He was also noted for inventing the highly popular 'Simon' color matching game marketed by game maker Milton-Bradley.
He was active in the industry into 2013, working long after retirement from the company he worked at for several years in 1987.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ralph_H._Baer
[HR][/HR]<!-- / icon and title --><!-- message -->Ralph H. Baer is not likely a name most would recognize, but he was a GIANT of the electronics industry, as the man who pioneered the video game console nearly 50 years ago and invented several phenomenal devices in his lifetime.
Baer's family fled the hatred and violence against Jews leading into World War II, fleeing to the US just two months prior to Krystallnacht, the pivotal anti-Semitic attack on Jewish businesses and people that marked the full effect of Nazi hatred, and he later became a naturalized US citizen.
Baer took electronics courses and left a factory job for an illustrious career as an electrical engineer and inventor. In 1966, he began work on a concept of electronic games played using an ordinary television set, and by 1971 had licensed the equipment to Magnavox, which was dubbed 'Odyssey' and marked the first version of a consumer game console. He was also noted for inventing the highly popular 'Simon' color matching game marketed by game maker Milton-Bradley.
He was active in the industry into 2013, working long after retirement from the company he worked at for several years in 1987.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ralph_H._Baer
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