back to article RIP Ralph Baer: Father of the games console dies aged 92

Ralph Baer, the engineer and inventor of the first home games console, has died. He was 92. Few modern gamers know of Baer, but all owe him a debt of gratitude for ushering in the first generation of home systems in the 1970s and helping to inspire the arcade and home console explosions in subsequent decades. Baer in the …

  1. Ketlan
    Thumb Up

    Historically significant

    As someone who lived through every one of Ralph Baer's historically significant games, I can only say thank you for getting me in at the start of the techno revolution. Cheers, Mr Baer.

  2. Gene Cash Silver badge
    Pint

    Hoisted one in memory of Mr. Baer when I heard yesterday... I had both a Magnavox Odyssey and a Simon, of course.

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    I don't think I ever knew the name of the console, but I recall slavering over one when we visited a family friend who had one. It seemed utterly amazing at the time and my parents had a hard time dragging me away.

    It must have been satisfying for Baer to look at modern consoles and be able to think "I was there first". Thanks for the memory.

  4. John Brown (no body) Silver badge
    Angel

    RIP Mr Baer.

    ...but I take issue with "Nolan Bushnell, who is said to have attended one of the release events"

    According to this and this, Bushnell DID attend a demo, signed the visitors book to prove it and eventually paid out $0.7m in licensing fees for Pong after a court case. Bushnell later stated he had played the game before Atari brought out Pong.

    "Incidentally, Bushnell’s company, Atari, was the first to take a license under my patents in the 70's. The fact that Nolan Bushnell developed PONG after he played a ping-pong game on an Odyssey 1TL200 at a L.A. Magnavox dealership demo in May of 1972 is also well-known."

    Ralph H. Baer

  5. Splodger

    Had an early, creaky Grandstand console as a lad ( shared with my still arch-enemy twin brother) , complete with paddle controllers and a light gun.

    Thank you Mr Baer, and RIP.

    The game is over.

  6. ukgnome
    Thumb Up

    Hope to see your like respawn

    Bless the chap that brought gaming to the living room.

    I only had the pleasure of a Simon, I actually still have it and it works!

    Let us hope that some young chaps reading this are inspired enough to create, adapt and enthral.

  7. AbelSoul
    Headmaster

    Re: "A game's data was stored on cartridges."

    I was under the impression that the game data for all the games was stored in the console itself and that the cartridges served more as keys which would determine an arrangement of jumpers within the console.

    Perhaps I'm getting the Odyssey confused with another console.

    1. stucs201

      Re: "A game's data was stored on cartridges."

      I think you're closer to being right than the article is. However I'm not sure there was any 'game data' as such, just bits of hard-wired circuitry which could be connected or not to enable or disable various behaviours of the moving squares. It seems that the games were at least as much defined by the overlays, the rule book and the players willingness to stick to those rules as by the console and its cards.

  8. rich_r

    I've got an Odyssey, complete with the rifle attachment - and it's in full working order. Think it came from a jumble sale in the 1980s for about £2 as the cardboard box is a little tatty.

    As I've got the 'Interplanetary Voyage' game card (12), I think that means mine's a 1973 US version. However it seems to work fine on 50Hz UK TVs. I was born in 1973...

    Unfortunately modern LCD TVs don't really like the rough video signal and also lack the electrical charge for the screen overlay films to stay stuck to them.

    1. John Brown (no body) Silver badge

      "Unfortunately modern LCD TVs don't really like the rough video signal and also lack the electrical charge for the screen overlay films to stay stuck to them."

      From reading about the history of the Odyssey, there was a roll of Scotch tape in the box. I'm guessing you didn't get the original roll in your box or the glue has dried out by now :-)

  9. Elmer Phud
    Pint

    Thanks

    This was the start of many a long evening in the pub.

  10. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    I have the pong screensaver installed ..

    .. partly in honour of the first ever game, and partly because I derive a perverse pleasure from having a modern computer display a low resolution games console :).

    RIP, and thanks for the fun.

  11. earl grey
    Unhappy

    RIP sir.

    And condolences to your family and close friends.

  12. Chris Stephens

    The very best performance vid for pong ever.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_2Ck11LMuFc

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