(upbeat music)
- [Narrator] This is the Fairchild Channel F
video game console.
Never heard of it?
Well, you should have.
It was the very first at-home video game console
that allowed users to play different games
using removable cartridges.
Sound familiar?
That's because companies like Nintendo and Atari
followed suit and popularized removable cartridges.
Until that time, people could only play games
that were built into the console themselves.
This console, to put it lightly,
changed the face of video games as we know it.
The original console was invented by Jerry Lawson in 1976,
who revolutionized the at-home gaming market
with his leadership and innovation.
Jerry is now known as the father of modern gaming.
He was a pioneer for video games first and foremost,
but he was also one of the only African American engineers
in his field.
Jerry Lawson was born in Brooklyn in 1940
and always had a love for science and engineering.
Growing up in Queens from a young age,
his role model was George Washington Carver,
another prominent black inventor.
"I had a picture of George Washington Carver
on the wall next to my desk,"
he said to Vintage Computing & Gaming.
His first grade teacher told him, "This could be you."
He told the publication that,
"This kind of influence led me to feel
I wanted to be a scientist.
I wanted to be something."
He was self-taught.
At the age of 13, he received his amateur ham radio license
and would save up money he earned
from repairing television sets
to build his own station in his room.
In 1970, he became an applications engineering consultant
for Fairchild Semiconductor in Silicon Valley.
While he was there, he created the early arcade game
"Demolition Derby" in his garage, which became one
of the earliest microprocessor-driven games.
By the mid 1970s, he became the chief hardware engineer
and director of engineering and marketing
of the video game division at Fairchild.
In that position,
he led the development of the Fairchild Channel F console,
which was released in 1976.
The technology was the first
where people could remove cartridges at home.
The technology was licensed from Alpex,
but Lawson and his team changed the technology
in order to use the Fairchild 8 processor,
as well as figuring out
how to make interchangeable cartridges work
without causing electrical damage.
Now, people had a stockpile of games at home,
creating a new revenue stream for manufacturers
through game sales,
a foundation that the video game industry relies on today.
The Channel F also featured an eight-way joystick
designed by Jerry and a pause button,
also the very first for an at-home video game console.
Unfortunately, other companies caught wind
of what Jerry was doing and worked to make versions
that were higher-powered and with better marketing.
And so came the release of the Atari 2600 in 1977,
whose popularity overshadowed Jerry's console,
making it unsuccessful.
But the community begs to differ, as Lawson's innovations
as the first person to create removable cartridges
and the revenue model that followed
earned him the title "The Father of Modern Gaming."
Interestingly enough,
Jerry Lawson was the only black engineer
in the Homebrew Computer Club in Silicon Valley,
a hobbyist group which included Steve Jobs
and Steve Wozniak.
His work didn't go unnoticed, though.
In 1980, Jerry Lawson left Fairchild
to create his own video game development company,
Video Soft, which actually made software for the Atari 2600.
While Jerry passed away in 2011,
it's his legacy that has continued on,
not only for video games,
but for the barriers he broke and the pathway he forged.
That same year, Jerry was honored for his work
by the International Game Developers Association.
His invention is also on display
at the World Video Game Hall of Fame in Rochester, New York.
We and video gamers across the world salute you, Jerry,
for all the work that you've done
to help revolutionize the way we play video games today.
And every time you hear this sound,
(cartridge clicking)
thank Jerry Lawson.
(upbeat music)
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(upbeat music)