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Ralph H. Baer, father of video games, passes away at 92
Examiner ^ | 12/7/2014

Posted on 12/07/2014 1:10:09 PM PST by Monty22002

The father of video games, Ralph H. Baer, has passed away at age 92. He came to rest in his New Hampshire home on the night of Saturday, Dec. 6 according to Wikipedia and a Facebook post by video game historian Leonard Herman, a friend of Baer.

Dubbed the "Thomas Edison of the home TV game" by Popular Electronics Magazine in 1980, Baer's Odyssey game system was the first home video game system. The patent for the idea was filed on August 10, 1970 and the system was released by Magnavox in 1972.

(Excerpt) Read more at examiner.com ...


TOPICS: News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: baer; games; obituary; ralphbaer; video; videogame; videogames
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To: Kirkwood
i thank you Sir...
61 posted on 12/08/2014 4:45:44 AM PST by Chode (Stand UP and Be Counted, or line up and be numbered - *DTOM* -w- NO Pity for the LAZY - 86-44)
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To: Chode
Ya. DEC was the leader in innovation, too. Just too bad that they were stuck in the “not invented here” mode. the Group that I worked for was given some leeway.

A lot of the ideas around clustering and RAID were developed by DEC.

Anyway, it is all moot now. The company doesn't exist any more. Or if it does it has been rebranded as HP.

62 posted on 12/08/2014 6:19:28 AM PST by dhs12345
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To: Monty22002

I actually owned one of those systems—it was pretty cool.


63 posted on 12/08/2014 6:23:23 AM PST by ShadowAce (Linux -- The Ultimate Windows Service Pack)
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To: mowowie
Odyssey had nothing on my Fairchild Channel F video game system.... Still have in my attic somewhere.

No, but the Channel F came out several years later. VERY cool controllers on the Channel F, as you could TWIST the joystick to rotate.
64 posted on 12/08/2014 6:24:46 AM PST by Dr. Sivana ("If you're litigating against nuns, you've probably done something wrong."-Ted Cruz)
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To: Bettyprob
The father of gaming would be whoever invented the idea of changeable cartridges, so that one system could play multiple games. I believe the Atari 2600 was the first home console to do that, or at least the system that popularized it.

Nope. The original Odyssey had cartridges already. Keep in mind that these devices had NO CHIPS in them! The carts were simple shorting different combinations of leads, very primitive. Very cool.
65 posted on 12/08/2014 6:26:21 AM PST by Dr. Sivana ("If you're litigating against nuns, you've probably done something wrong."-Ted Cruz)
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To: Gideon7
It was an elegant design, but had nothing in common with modern digital video games.

It had enough in common that EVERY home video player (except GCE Vectrex) paid royalties on the patent for 17 years. Mattel went to court over it and got spanked.
66 posted on 12/08/2014 6:29:27 AM PST by Dr. Sivana ("If you're litigating against nuns, you've probably done something wrong."-Ted Cruz)
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To: Monty22002
Magnavox must’ve been really poorly managed, since they basically blew the entire game market at home.

Yup, after they came out with the Odyssey2, which was a marginal player (full flat keyboard, 2 KB RAM, pathetic processor), they decided to make its successor backwards compatible, despite the small installed base of games.

As North American Phillips, they released some Atari 2600/ColecoVision games that were really excellent (War Room on Coleco was GREAT!). Bad timing, as they came to market during the great video game melt down of 1983-84.
67 posted on 12/08/2014 6:32:59 AM PST by Dr. Sivana ("If you're litigating against nuns, you've probably done something wrong."-Ted Cruz)
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To: dhs12345
Caught flack from the guys at work (at DEC). They were convinced that I was a fool. “Why would anyone want a computer in their home.”

The real question then was "Why would anyone want a DecMate in his home?" [The Rainbow was actually somewhat usable, if immovable]
68 posted on 12/08/2014 6:35:56 AM PST by Dr. Sivana ("If you're litigating against nuns, you've probably done something wrong."-Ted Cruz)
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To: Chode
and you say you worked for DEC???

He might well have. They didn't WANT to make the DOS/CPM-86 Rainbow, and DecMates were used at those stations that were doing "personal computing" type stuff. The DecMates were based on the same 12-bit processor used in the PDP-8s.
69 posted on 12/08/2014 6:38:37 AM PST by Dr. Sivana ("If you're litigating against nuns, you've probably done something wrong."-Ted Cruz)
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To: Chode
i had one of the first Micro-VAX's the company ever bought under my desk back in the day, and THAT, was the t!ts...

With the worst mouse ever (ROUND) until Apple ripped off the design with the original iMac.
70 posted on 12/08/2014 6:40:07 AM PST by Dr. Sivana ("If you're litigating against nuns, you've probably done something wrong."-Ted Cruz)
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To: Dr. Sivana
never saw one with a mouse, musta been after i left
71 posted on 12/08/2014 3:11:12 PM PST by Chode (Stand UP and Be Counted, or line up and be numbered - *DTOM* -w- NO Pity for the LAZY - 86-44)
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To: Dr. Sivana

Lol. My pc was a DOS based machine. It was an Epson running word perfect and lotus 123.


72 posted on 12/08/2014 5:16:56 PM PST by dhs12345
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