Ralph Baer, often regarded as the “father of video games”, has died at 92. Baer’s pioneering work resulted in the creation of the Odyssey games console which was launched in 1972. The success of the console led to many other companies making their own consoles. The Odyssey was licensed to television manufacturer Magnavox.
Mr. Baer designed a number of the first ever peripherals for consoles and created a number of games. He was born in Germany, with his family fleeing the country prior to WWII. He trained as a radio service engineer in his teens and spent his career in electrical engineering. In 1966, he created a “brown box” console which allowed people to compete on a series of different games. One of these games was based on table tennis, and whilst it may look rudimentary today, was seen as revolutionary at the time.
The brown box evolved into the Odyssey and is cited as kickstarting the video games market. Mr. Baer, who worked closely with Coleco and invented the first gun-based peripheral, had 150 different patents to his name at the time of his death. He was inducted into America’s National Inventors Hall of Fame in 2010.
Are you familiar with the work of Mr. Baer or is this the first you have ever heard about his contribution to video games? Let us know in the comments section below.