Baer, Ralph (1922-2014), a German-American inventor and engineer , is sometimes called the father of the video game . He invented the first commercial video game console, eventually released in 1972 as the Magnavox Odyssey. A video game console is a specialized computer that enables people to play games using their televisions .
Ralph Baer was born west of Stuttgart, Germany , on March 8, 1922. With the rise of the Nazi Party in the 1930’s, Baer and his family faced pressure because of their Jewish ancestry. His family fled Germany in 1938 and moved to the United States. In 1943, Baer was drafted into the U.S. Army. During World War II (1939-1945), he worked in military intelligence.
After the war, Baer earned a B. S. degree in television engineering and worked at several electronics companies. In the mid-1950’s, he joined the electronics company Sanders Associates. He convinced the company to build a game console prototype as a research and development project. The final version, called the Brown Box, was later commercialized as the Magnavox Odyssey. The console enabled players to manipulate a dot on a television screen. Baer and his collaborators developed several prototypes of popular multiplayer games for the console, such as the table tennis simulator Pong. In 1978, Baer created Simon, a tabletop electronic game that tested players’ memory. The device lit up four colored buttons in a certain sequence. Players had to remember the sequence and press the buttons in the same order.
Baer earned many awards for his achievements. They include the 2004 National Medal of Technology Award and the 2008 Game Developers Choice Pioneer Award. Baer retired in 1987 but continued to serve as a consultant for the video game industry. He died on Dec. 6, 2014.
