Ralph Baer: Shine On, You Crazy Tech-Wizard.

Pour a 40 on the grounds, my nerds. We have lost one of the greats.

When one thinks of the pioneers of video games, we remember Nolan Bushnell, Alan Alcorn, Shigeru Miyamoto and Gunpei Yokoi. One name that isn’t as spoken as often in that pantheon, which is arguably more important than the rest, is Ralph Heinrich Baer. Those who don’t recognize this name should drop to their knees and give thanks, for without him we wouldn’t have gotten this:

Which inadvertently led to this...

Which led to these becoming popular...

Which led to this...

Which has brought us to these...

Ralph Baer was the man who conceived an idea of games being played your television set back in the late 60’s. His Brown Box design was purchased by Magnavox and re-titled the Magnavox Odyssey, the world’s first commercial home gaming console. The first game released for the Odyssey was a little game called “Table Tennis”. Take a look at the world’s first home video-game:

Seem familiar? That’s because Nolan Bushnell in 1972 attended a Magnavox trade show and had an opportunity to play it hands-on. Seeing this demonstration prompted Bushnell to assign Alan Alcorn to create a coin-operated arcade version. Alcorn soon created the arcade machine “Pong” which sparked the demand for arcade machines in the United States. Another interesting fact: Baer and his team also created the first ever game peripheral, the world’s first-ever light gun.

Yet, we could never shoot that damn dog.

Baer also assisted Coleco with their consoles and well as assisting Magnavox with the Odyssey 2. He later created the popular Milton-Bradley game Simon. It’s amazing to hear about the work that Baer gave to the people of the 80’s and 90’s and surprising that he isn’t mentioned more for his contributions.  He even received the National Medal of Technology in 2006, it’s the highest honor that the US can grant for technological progress, for what you ask? FUCKING VIDEO GAMES, that’s what.

So in honor of this man, Castwave Studios will have this picture up on our website and various social media outlets for the next few weeks.