True video game geeks know Ralph Baer, who led development of what became Magnavox Odyssey, the first home video game, while working at Sanders Associates (now BAE Systems) in Nashua. I wrote several stories about him while working at the Nashua Telegraph, which is why I have the above photo, taken by Telegraph photographer Don Himsel. It shows the two of us a decade ago (check my hair!) playing Pong on a “brown box,” the initial version of his game, in the basement of his Manchester home. His basement workshop, along with a brown box, is now an exhibit in the American Museum of National History, a Smithsonian museum, in Washington D.C.
Public recognition came late to Baer – it took the rise of geek culture brought him to the attention of folks outside the industry, but he loved it. He was a bit of a ham, but an entertaining one, and his family’s story (they were Jewish and just escaped from Hitler’s Germany) added to the interest.
Baer eventually was named to the National Inventors Hall of Fame and received a National Medal of Technology from President George W. Bush. Sanders Associates never emphasized the Odyssey work, which was always a sideline to their military-electronics business, and Baer didn’t get rich from it. He went on to invent a bunch of other electronic games, including Simon, the lights-and-noises memory game that was a national sensation for a while. BAE didn’t do much to recognize him until a couple of years ago, but they included him in a conference in December 2013, a year before he died at age 92.
On Monday, as the U-L reports, BAE Systems will unveil a plaque at the Canal Street building where Baer and his team worked on the video game as part of an IEEE Milestones event. It will include remarks from BAE and IEEE officials; Arthur Molella, Smithsonian Institution Lemelson Center for the Study of Invention and Innovation; and Mark Baer, Baer’s son.
Return to the Concord Monitor
David: I’m not sure if the following came thru via the hand held device. If it did, I apologize for the repeat. In any event, I’m told your a (fellow) Bates grad…is that true? In any event, it was nice to speak with you the other day and (for what it’s worth) what Lenny Herman caught is, alas, common. BTW, if you want to run the following as a letter to the editor, feel free, I’ve added a few words here and there to give it context if you do Here’s to hoping that our paths cross again soon (there’s quite a bit in the hopper if your interested). – Mark
…………………………………..
Leonard Herman is correct in his mentioning about using the term PONG to describe Ralph Baer’s seminal work. Ralph Baer’s idea for video games actually came to
him long before that product, in the early 1950s but he could not get anyone interested until the 1960s.
Part of that effort is a lovely black and white movie of him and Bill Harrison
(easily YouTubed) playing in 1969 in an effort to get tv cable companies to sign
on. That”s the first recording of anyone playing on a system anything like what
we’ve come to know. In fact so-called ‘video games’ were also called
Participatory Cable TV (PCATV) and sometimes just TV Games by Ralph. One has to remember
that way back then, there were only two words generally used – audio and video –
and not coincidentally, those were the names of the two jacks in the back of the
TVs of the time. The term ‘video games’ eventually stuck…who could call them
audio games after all, to say nothing of PCATV games!. In any event, Ralph’s ideas and products were both prescient and first in time. Pong, a wonderfully catchy name and another
terrific product in its own right, came later. In fact, it’s developer had to
take out a license on account of the pre-existing machines that were built and
sold as the direct desendants of Ralph’s ‘Brown Box.’ One more interesting
point of conjecture is to consider what might have been if the nascent cable
companies of the time would have bought into PCATV. One can easy conclude that
they would have used the devices not only to send out games but, as
contemplated, to interact with the users with regard to many things like
adverts, concerts and more. Sound familiar? Bet it does. That’s just how far
Ralph and Bill Harrison and others who became part of the team were ahead of
their time.
Hi Mark, I’d love to hear more about this subject for a research project I’m working on. Please reach out to caley@breakwaterstudios.com if you see this!