All rights reserved.Ĭontact the webmaster with questions or comments about this site. PONG Story: Ralph Baer, inventor of the videogameĬlose this window to return to the Computer Museum of America.Ĭopyright © 2002 Computer Museum of America.PONG Story: Magnavox Odyssey - The first videogame console.How Video Games Invaded The Home TV Set by Ralph Baer.The History Of The Personal MicroComputer, Home Game Console and Arcade Machine by Jean-Claude Gerow.which simulated background color graphics, and by using a different set of. Classic Gaming Expo 2000 - Ralph Baer biography Magnavox released the first video game console, the Odyssey, in 1972.Magnavox continued making Odyssey units through the '70s but couldn¹t ultimately compete with Atari¹s advanced circuitry, color grahics and sound, and more user-friendly game controls. This, however, did not prevent Bushnell and Atari from creating their own home game system with low-cost, large scale integrated circuits, designed primarily for games like tennis, hockey and ping-pong-like games. Magnavox sued Bushnell for copyright infringement, and the company won a $700,000 settlement. Soon thereafter, he created the coin-operated ping-pong game, Pong, for use in arcades and bars. Nolan Bushnell, later president of Atari, attended a demonstration of the Odyssey in 1972 and played the tennis game hands-on. Despite this drawback, 100,000 Odyssey units were sold the first season. ![]() However, the ad campaign gave the mistaken impression that the game system could only be used with Magnavox television sets. The Odyssey was advertised with much fanfare in the fall of 1972. For $25, customers could purchase the pump-action rifle. The player controls had knobs for vertical and Each card could be used for multiple games using the static-cling color overlays. The Magnavox Odyssey was priced at $100 had came with six game cards for Tennis, Football, Hockey, Ski, Submarine, Cat & Mouse, Haunted House, Analogic, Roulette, States, Simon Says and Table Tennis. It also had programmable cards and a pump-action plastic rifle and ran on six "C" batteries. Baer¹s original "Brown Box" used color graphics, but the Odyssey had plastic screen overlays to save on costs. The latter company decided to pursue the project and created the first Odyssey prototype game in 1972. Baer held demonstration meetings with representatives from GE, RCA, Zenith, Sylvania and Magnavox. The next logical choice was the television manufacturers. ![]() However, it would take 10 more years for cable to became a viable market. Initially, Baer was hoping to sell his system to the cable industry. With a few engineers at his disposal, he created a game-playing system he called the "Brown Box," using diodes and transistors from television set technology. In 1966, while working with Sanders Associates, a military electronics development company, Baer pursued his idea with better support. That company wasn¹t very enthusiastic about Baer¹s idea. While Nolan Bushnell is generally credited as the father of the videogame industry, the title of invetor of the videogame is rightly reserved to Ralph Baer.īaer first began toying with the idea of using television for game-playing back in 1949, while working for Loral.
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