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TIGSource ForumsPlayerGeneralRIP Ralph Baer (1922-2014)
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Author Topic: RIP Ralph Baer (1922-2014)  (Read 881 times)
Sgt. Pepper
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« on: April 29, 2015, 01:24:48 PM »

(I didn't see a thread about this, so I've decided to make one)

Some (or most) of you may know this, but Ralph Baer is dead. He's actually been dead since December of last year. If you ask the average gamer "Who was Ralph Baer?", they'll just usually shrug and go back to whatever they were doing. In reality, Baer is the forgotten hero of video games. He created the mother of all video game consoles, the Brown Box, which TV manufacturer Magnavox rebranded as the Odyssey. The story of the Brown Box is an interesting one, but I'll just give a short summery. In the late 1950's, Baer was working at a TV technician. He saw that if you moved the knobs on those primitive TV sets, things would move. He thought, "This would be cool", and proposed the idea to his boss, but his boss turned him down flat. A little later, in the late 1960's, after writing a 4-page document about the subject, and acquiring backing from Sanders (a defense company), Baer and his staggering  army of 2 technicians, create the Brown Box. With it, came the game Tennis, which a certain Nolan Bushnell saw and decided to make a clone of it known as Pong. Baer sued, won, and in effect made Atari, Bushnell's company, a licensee. Bushnell got credit for inventing video games though, and Baer was more or less forgotten. Other highlights of his career include creating the electronic game Simon, which still entertains kids today. He was not that bitter about his lack of credit for his invention, but when he got the Congressional Medal of Honor in 2006, he finally felt like he got the recognition he deserved. Rest in peace, Ralph Baer.

TL;DR: Ralph Baer died, the creator of the Magnavox Odyssey and Simon. Rest in Peace.
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oahda
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« Reply #1 on: April 29, 2015, 01:33:25 PM »

Oh. Never heard of him nor his stuff. Now I know! Hand Thumbs Up Right
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Sgt. Pepper
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« Reply #2 on: April 29, 2015, 01:48:43 PM »

Oh. Never heard of him nor his stuff. Now I know! Hand Thumbs Up Right

 ^ My point exactly  Tongue
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ProgramGamer
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« Reply #3 on: April 29, 2015, 02:28:10 PM »

I've done school presentations about video games in the past and never heard of him before. Thanks for sharing!
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Sgt. Pepper
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« Reply #4 on: April 29, 2015, 02:35:36 PM »

I'm glad I could educate people about Ralph Baer  Grin
« Last Edit: May 01, 2015, 04:31:05 PM by Sgt. Pepper » Logged
Sgt. Pepper
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« Reply #5 on: May 01, 2015, 04:31:19 PM »

I found a nice little video made by Magnavox in 1972 about the Odyssey:



(Is there a way to embed YouTube videos?)
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Uhfgood
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« Reply #6 on: June 18, 2015, 11:58:32 AM »

I knew about him, but I hadn't heard that he died.
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