Hi, I'm Ralph Baer. Well, I'm usually known as the inventor of the video game, particularly the
console video game business.
We built a succession of seven models, the last one of which we called the Brown Box
because it was covered by brown adhesive paper. And then we went on a two year trek trying
to find somebody who would take a license and actually produce something. That turned
out to be Magnavox.
COMMERCIAL VO: This is Odyssey, the new electronic game simulator. You attach Odyssey to your
television set in seconds to create a closed circuit electronic playground.
RALPH BAER: The Odyssey sold quite well. About 100,000 were sold the first year in '72. By
the end of life in '74, 350,000 Odysseys were in homes. Not a bad start.
So several million people played video games by then.
COMMERCIAL VO: It's new from Magnavox. Odyssey.
RALPH BAER: For the last 30 years I've been doing toys and games, some of which became
quite well known like Milton Bradley's Simon game for example. But by and large I'm in
the same boat as other inventors. You know, we come up with a lot of stuff, spend a lot
of time developing and building things, marketing them, and if we're lucky out of 10 or 15 items
we do a year, maybe one or two of them will wind up with a licensing agreement.
My measure of success isn't a proper explanation of why I do what I do. First of all, my wife
died in 2006. She died on a Friday, on Monday the President of the United States hung a
National Medal of Technology around my head. She didn't make it.
So here I am. We built this house 53 years ago. I rattle around in it alone. So what
do you expect me to do? All my friends, they're all gone. I've outlived them all. I'll be
90 in March of next year. So what am I gonna do? I need a challenge.
And I still get a big charge out of making something work. I write the hardware, I push
a button, I download it into the microprocessor, and it works. Aah. Beautiful. It's like I'm
basically an artist, right? I'm no different from a painter who sits there and loves what
he does. Would you ask a guy who's been painting all his life, "Why do you keep painting? Why
don't you retire?" Retire to what? I mean, stop painting? This is insane. I mean, why
would you want to do that, right?
[laughs] So here I am.