Thursday, April 14, 2011

Vintage Computing and Gaming | Archive » Jerry Lawson (1940-2011)

Gerald Lawson had a profound impact on my life and society but until today I had never heard of him. He recently died.

I am very saddened to announce the passing of a truly important figure in the history of video games. Jerry Lawson died Saturday morning, April 9th, 2011, at the age of 70.
Lawson was notable not only for being a rare African American electronic engineer in Silicon Valley, but also for leading the team that created the world's first ROM cartridge-based video game console. I speak, of course, of the Fairchild Channel F, which hit the market in August 1976.

Think about it: without the Fairchild Channel F, no Atari, NES, SNES, Genesis, Dreamcast, Gamboys, or any of the consoles we take for grant it. In short, no Video Game industry.

Vintage Computing and Gaming | Archive » Jerry Lawson (1940-2011)
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