Ralph Baer, 'Father of Video Games,' Passes Away

CommanderFrank

CommanderFrank

Cat Can't Scratch It
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A sad day for video gaming with the passing of Ralph Baer at the age of 92. His name may not be a familiar one to many people outside of the gaming industry, but if you like gaming, you have ‘The Father of Video Games” to thank for your gaming enjoyment.

Baer developed the very first console video game system, originally known as the Brown Box, but later licensed and sold as 1972's Magnavox Odyssey, which laid the foundation for video games as we know them today.
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I didn't realize that Nintendo ripped off the Odyssey's design. Disgusting.
 
That is sad to hear that he passed away. Without him the past time of many of us would not be there.
 
I had a Magnavox Odyssey. All mine did was play Pong. I think what your image is the successor to the original as I don't remember there even being a cartridge slot.
 
Zohar78 said:
Looks like both did! i can see part where nintendo got some design for new/snes in it. it could also be how stuff was disigned to look during that time.
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Not sure how you really see Nintendo there. The NES used controllers with d-pad + 4 buttons. games went into the front. Nothing other than the color matches. the SNES was top loaded, but that is it.

Atari on the other hand actually copied their design and it all went to court.
 
Exavior said:
Not sure how you really see Nintendo there. The NES used controllers with d-pad + 4 buttons. games went into the front. Nothing other than the color matches. the SNES was top loaded, but that is it.

Atari on the other hand actually copied their design and it all went to court.
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blocky desifn of the console, the color, something about the block writing. its not much and could simply be disigns of the time. kinda like you can tell 90's model trucks ford, dodge and gm due to their quite square design.
 
Grandma got us one. Pong was such a fun game. Still remember playing it.
 
cageymaru said:
I had a Magnavox Odyssey. All mine did was play Pong. I think what your image is the successor to the original as I don't remember there even being a cartridge slot.
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This is correct. The Fairchild Channel F was the first video game machine that had interchangeable cartridges.

Anyway, it's a sad day (even though it was yesterday), and even worse that major news sites don't even have the slightest mention of a person who actually did have a major influence in changing the world.
 
Nytegard said:
This is correct. The Fairchild Channel F was the first video game machine that had interchangeable cartridges.

Anyway, it's a sad day (even though it was yesterday), and even worse that major news sites don't even have the slightest mention of a person who actually did have a major influence in changing the world.
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Yes that is sad.
 
This is a very sad day for all gamers. I had a friendship with Ralph for the last dozen years or so via my work at The American Classic Arcade Museum (ACAM). The last time I saw Ralph was in September when Ralph donated some equipment to ACAM's education program, which is for college students in video game development to study the groundbreaking titles of early video game history. Ralph was not well at that time, and our staff all believed that he would not be with us for much longer. He was a truly charming and under-appreciated individual he will be missed.
 
We spoke to him on the phone a couple times here at work (Arcade Odyssey), he was a cool guy
 
He was very good people. So long and thanks for all the games.
 
many thanks to the person who started an industry that brings us all together here on the [H]
 
Nytegard said:
This is correct. The Fairchild Channel F was the first video game machine that had interchangeable cartridges.

Anyway, it's a sad day (even though it was yesterday), and even worse that major news sites don't even have the slightest mention of a person who actually did have a major influence in changing the world.
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It was on CNN.
 
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