Today I was saddened by the news that Ralph Baer had passed away at the age of 92.
Who was Ralph Baer you may ask? He is largely credited as being the inventor of the game console, having worked on the first gaming console the Magnavox Odyessy. And at the time his passing, he had 150 patents in his name.
It's a funny thing with the gaming industry: We don't really recognize the efforts of the pioneers that came before us. Indeed, many of them are in their twilight years yet when one passes on, it usually goes unnoticed. Which is a shame as these were real people, like you and me, and they put in a lot of hard effort into the gaming industry and bring us where we are today. And that surely is worth more than some lines of text in some newspaper obituary column.
Still, you can't deny with the efforts of Ralph Baer, we wouldn't be using the gaming consoles as we know them - and gaming today would be a much different place.
And for that, Mr. Baer, I salute you
No comments:
Post a Comment