The man who created what would become the Magnavox Odyssey, the very first home videogame console, was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame in Akron, Ohio yesterday.
While the gaming system that he developed may be the most significant of his inventions (to us, at any rate), his contributions to electronic gaming don’t end there. Baer is also responsible for the first light gun, which was sold as an expansion to the Odyssey. And he’s also the man who created the hugely popular memory game Simon.
Take a moment to stop and think about how different your life might have been if this guy had just kept working on defense contracts instead of trying to convince the people he worked with that videogames could be worth some money.
Thanks, Ralph. Couldn’t have done it without you.
Video Game Pioneer Ralph Baer Inducted Into Inventors Hall Of Fame [Gamasutra]
