>>My name is Karen Lawson and my father Gerald A. Lawson
invented the first cartridge-based home video game system
the Fairchild Channel F in 1976.
My dad's love for anything
mechanical started really really early.
>>His interests were in like, amateur radio and he actually was, uh
fixed television sets, and he taught himself how to do that by
taking things apart and just seeing how they worked.
>>He had a Irish mail hand cart when he was a child and he
could leave it outside because the neighborhood kids couldn't
figure out how to work it, and he thought that was funny.
>>He started at Fairchild Semiconductor I believe in 1972
which was the year I was born. And around that time he worked
on a coin-operated video game
called Demolition Derby.
>>This is part of his tinkering. He put together that game,
created that game in the garage.
>>I wish I could show you a picture of our garage.
I mean, you have all kinds of electronics pieces, you know
capacitors sitting around,
a PDP 11, we had a TRS Model 80,
several, you know, different VIC-20's. I've seen pretty much every
type of computer known to man throughout the 70's and 80's
inside of our garage.
I think word got out at Fairchild
that hey, Lawson worked on this coin-operated video game.
>>So they had him head up
Fairchild's marketing division and put him in charge of
creating a video gaming system for Fairchild.
>>Channel F, the one with all the fun.
The Fairchild Video Entertainment System at your larger JC Penney.
The home entertainment system that never gets old.
Plug in a new Videocart and change the fun!
Play Tic Tac Toe, Shooting Gallery, or just doodle.
Switch Videocarts and play Desert Fox.
Switch again, it's Blackjack.
Or play the two built-in games, Pro Hockey or Tennis Champ.
Channel F for fun. The Fairchild Video Entertainment System.
Just $169.95. Videocart cartridges, $19.95 each
at your larger JC Penney.
>>At the time I understand that there were people who told him
it couldn't be done. What can be done? You can't isolate
the game from the console.
>>He was the type of person that if somebody were to say to him
"Hey, you can't do this"
that would be all the reason he needed to go forward and try to do it.
And for him, it was just,
had nothing to do with money or anything like that as much as it had to do with
just seeing something come to fruition.
>>His passion drove him to what he did, not necessarily an end result.
Like "oh, I'm going to make $5 million this year."
That wasn't what he was about. He was about the work.
The Atari thing.
Hmm.
I think that the fact that the Channel F
was not branded properly, was overpriced,
and the 2600 was great, it was fun to play.
I mean, you know who's, who's going to deny that.
>>I believe that, you know around that time,
I think he might have been disappointed,
but the interesting thing was
when the Atari 2600 came out, my father started a company
called Videosoft, which created software for the Atari 2600.
So I guess he kind of figured, you know what
if you can't beat em join em.
>>He's kind of a trailblazer in terms of
African Americans in the gaming industry.
even though I don't work in engineering, you know,
just being an African American succeding in the industry
opens up doors.
>>I thank him because I've always wanted to create games,
and he is the perfect icon to chase after.
>>Recognizing and evangelizing my father's story and others like him
is necessary so that somebody can have
a person like them to identify with.
You have to see it sometimes to believe it.
You have to.
It's kind of like, you know, "Wow, I can be that."
>>I think that he would love the fact that he's inspiring
younger generations into technology and having them move in that direction.
In order for all of us to be contributors,
we all have to have an opportunity to contribute.
And for too long folks have not had a chance to do that.
I just want people to know
about his contribution to technology and how important it really is.