"The father of video games" has died at the age of 92 years Bashny.Net

Gone from the life of a pioneer Ralph Baer consoles


portal Gamasutra сообщил the death of Ralph Henry Baer, ​​citing its own sources of the people close to him. Some publications, evaluating its contribution to the digital entertainment industry, Baer called the "father of video games».

Heinrich Rudolf Baer was born in 1922 in Germany in a Jewish family members who successfully fled to the United States two months before the event Хрустальной night .

In America Baer changed his name. He graduated from the National Institute of Radio in 1940 and even managed to serve in military intelligence. Benefits former military helped in the subsequent formation of the American television Institute of Technology. In 1949, Baer received a Bachelor's Degree and became a television engineer.

He worked in Wappler, Loral Electronics, Sanders Associates and IBM, but we remember him for his contribution to the video game industry. In fact, it Baer first created what is now the home gaming console.

In 1966, he began to explore the possibilities of computer games on the TV screen. While televisions are becoming cheaper, which opened up a huge market for other uses of these devices, including the military, with which he was familiar, since 1987 he worked in the military organization.

Implementation is that the first name was Brown Box. The name was derived by the color of the film, in which wraps the body to make the surface texture of the tree. Baer recalled that in a quarter of an hour after the start of the demonstration of the device representative of the Patent Office the room was filled with people: all employees want to play on the floor.

TV manufacturers are interested in an unusual gadget was difficult. In 1971, the Bayer company licensed console Magnavox, and "brown box" was the marketing name Magnavox Odyssey.

It was the first digital home game console in history. It is interesting that it was not the logic transistor-transistor and diode-transistor: The housing contains about 40 diodes and transistors 40.

Even in the absence of sound and pretty bad marketing campaign (users thought that the console will not work with the TV is not firm Magnavox), has sold more than 300 thousand. Copies. All under the console was released 27 games .

Their logic elements included the cartridges, but no elements on printed circuit boards was not - there were simply track connecting contacts. However, Baer also proposed the idea of ​​active cartridges. Included also were stickers on the screen sheets for account management and other game items.

In addition, Bayer has created Shooting Gallery . It was the first light gun for home video game consoles and the first peripheral device for a game console. The gun was sold along with the game for him.

In 1978-1979, Baer was involved in the creation of three well-known electronic games: Simon , the sequel to Super Simon and less popular Maniac .

In 2006, President Bush awarded Baer National Medal of Technology and Innovation. In 2008, the inventor of the Pioneer Award was under Game Developers' Choice Awards. Baer had the status of a lifelong member of the Института Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE).

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December 6, 2014, Ralph Baer Henry died at his home in Manchester, New Hampshire. For '92 Baer got his life in his name more than 150 patents.

Source: geektimes.ru/post/242598/