Google on Thursday celebrated the 82nd birth anniversary of Gerald ‘Jerry’ Lawson, one of the fathers of modern gaming, with a creative and playful doodle which takes the users on a fun journey of games.
Lawson led the team that developed the first home video gaming system with interchangeable game cartridges.
Gerald “Jerry” Lawson – one of the fathers of modern gaming, led the team that developed the first home video gaming system, paving the way for today’s gaming consoles.
Check today’s #GoogleDoodle to know more and create your own video game from scratch > https://t.co/pXCbIyOLiR. pic.twitter.com/mZn2Divp8E— Google India (@GoogleIndia) December 1, 2022
Who is Gerald “Jerry” Lawson?
Born in Brooklyn, New York in 1940, Lawson experimented with electronics from an early age. He would repair televisions around his neighborhood and create his own radio station using recycled parts.
Lawson attended Queens College and City College of New York but left early to begin his career in Palo Alto, California, an area known as Silicon Valley due to the number of tech companies based there.
He became an engineering consultant for Fairchild Semiconductor before being promoted to director of engineering and marketing of Fairchild’s video game department.
There, Lawson led the development of the first home video game console that had interchangeable game cartridges, a joystick, and a pause menu.
This console, called Channel F (with the F standing for fun), paved the way for consoles like Atari, SNES, and Dreamcast.
In 1980, Lawson started his own company called VideoSoft, one of the first Black-owned video game development companies, which created software for the Atari 2600.
Lawson was considered to be an industry pioneer and went on to be a consultant for engineering and video game companies.
