Interview with Ralph Baer, the Father of Video Games

Gamasutra sat down with the Father of Video Games Ralph Baer. This still-very-strong at age 85 engineer received the 2005 National Medal of Technology Award for inventing the home console for video game and spawning the video game industry.

Ralph Baer started out as a young German Jew who got kicked out of school for being Jewish. He went to the U.S. when he was 16, worked a menial job until he decided to study electronics and become an engineer. He briefly became a military man, worked for some firms and even started his own company before working for Sanders Associates in 1958.

The very first video game that he ever created was “chase game”. This game had two spots on the screen; you use a joystick to chase around another spot, being controlled by another person with a joystick.

Baer is also credited for the very first light gun. He said that the idea just started out as a spot on the screen which he wanted to shoot. He used a light pen, and then put a trigger on the pen, and the concept picked up from that.

Ralph relates working with Pong machine creator Alan Alcorn. Apparently, both game designers value record-keeping in their job of making video games. Baer’s disciplined habit of record-keeping allowed him to get the first patent on video game technology.

This patent-holder of the first video game also says that he originally targeted video games for the family, not just for kids, or only for adults. We know – that’s why we love games, no matter what audience generation they’re made to appeal too. Video games are for everyone.

Via Gamasutra

Gamasutra sat down with the Father of Video Games Ralph Baer. This still-very-strong at age 85 engineer received the 2005 National Medal of Technology Award for inventing the home console for video game and spawning the video game industry.

Ralph Baer started out as a young German Jew who got kicked out of school for being Jewish. He went to the U.S. when he was 16, worked a menial job until he decided to study electronics and become an engineer. He briefly became a military man, worked for some firms and even started his own company before working for Sanders Associates in 1958.

The very first video game that he ever created was “chase game”. This game had two spots on the screen; you use a joystick to chase around another spot, being controlled by another person with a joystick.

Baer is also credited for the very first light gun. He said that the idea just started out as a spot on the screen which he wanted to shoot. He used a light pen, and then put a trigger on the pen, and the concept picked up from that.

Ralph relates working with Pong machine creator Alan Alcorn. Apparently, both game designers value record-keeping in their job of making video games. Baer’s disciplined habit of record-keeping allowed him to get the first patent on video game technology.

This patent-holder of the first video game also says that he originally targeted video games for the family, not just for kids, or only for adults. We know – that’s why we love games, no matter what audience generation they’re made to appeal too. Video games are for everyone.

Via Gamasutra