Ralph Baer, The Father of Video Games, Passed Away

You’ve probably heard journalists call Shigeru Myamoto the “Godfather of Gaming” from time to time—a title well earned by the Japanese Developer—but such a well-known reputation does leave one to question—if Myamoto is the Godfather of gaming, who’s the regular ol’ father? The “founder”, if you would, the one whom we can trace back to at the root of our culture and industry?

It depends who you ask, because there are a lot of early figures in the industry and a lot of alleged “firsts” that sometimes contradict each other, but by and large most would agree the title belongs to the late, great Ralph Baer—an inventor with over 150 patens to his name and the man behind the Magnavox Odyssey, the very first home console system ever released back in 1972. He even created the “Brown Box”, a prototype of the Odyssey, back in 1969—three years before pong (which was inspired by the game “Tennis” on the Magnavox Odyssey) and eight years before the Atari 2600.



You’ll notice I said “late”—that’s because, sadly, just yesterday Ralph Baer passed away at the ripe age of 92, leaving behind him an impressive legacy and irrefutable contributions to the art of games, and the field of engineering and computer sciences.

Ralph Baer was born in Germany in 1922, moving to Holland while fleeing the Germans before WW2, subsequently moving to America afterwards. In 2006, he was awarded the National Medal of Technology by President George W Bush for his contributions to the video game industry and computer engineering. He was also acknowledged as the founder of video games in the 2008 GDC awards, and was inducted into the Inventor’s Hall of Fame in 2010.

The whole industry will morn his loss and remember his contributions moving forward.