Ralph Baer in 2005 with their inventions: ‘Ping Pong’ and ‘Simon’. / AP
He invented the “box brown “as it is informally called Magnavox Odyssey, the first home console that was released in 1972. This Saturday, Ralph Baer (Rodalben, Germany, 1922) died at his home in Manchester (New Hampshire, USA) to the 92 years. Jewish, he fled with his family from Nazi Germany to the United States in the fall of 1938, and was the first to turn television into a center of interactive entertainment
Before discovering the benefits of electronic entertainment served in the US Army. After graduating as a radio technician in 1940, in 1943 he was called up. He then transferred to London, in a military intelligence unit. At the end of the war, back to civilian life, he began working at a nascent technology industry Sanders Associates. After years of prodding got the green light from his superiors to realize his idea. In 1966 showed the first prototype of its Brown Box. Not convinced them of the potential of the invention and changed companies. Sanders was specialized in military technology. Although his day was occupied creating theater boiler equipment, speakers and panels with integrated circuits, Baer consider an incipient park of 40 million television represented an interesting market for your idea.
In 1972 Magnavox his new employer, licensed the first video game console. It had nothing to do with what is now understood as such. It was a rugged device with a slot for cards where the games were kept. This model came to have a catalog of 27 titles. The console, priced at $ 100, sold more than 100,000 units
The Magnavox Odyssey, the first home console in history. / Wikicommons
One of the most successful games was a tennis simulation, a prototype of the legendary Pong Atari worked whose development Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak when they were just two friends who needed money with a dream: to create Macintosh computers. A Baer is considered the precursor of sports-themed games with an archaic football, ice hockey supposedly, handball and the aforementioned court. The differences between sports or mechanics demanded certain abstraction, since the console was in black and white, the slow progress and the size of the significant pixels.
In his curiosity to explore new forms of digital interaction created also the first simulator game. Odyssey had a light gun that created the illusion of hunting ducks on TV. Ten years later the Sega Master System models and Nintendo Famicom relanzaban this idea.
His inventiveness led him to create the first mental pastime linking electronics, programming and skill with memory. Simon , a popular game in which you have to repeat a sequence of light, color and sound with four buttons was born from the imagination of Bauer, though he sold the firm toy MB both the market . American and Europe
Bauer returned to Sanders, where he retired in 1987. He said goodbye to the industry he founded before it took off . Magnavox hegemony lasted only five years until Atari launched its model 2600. The inventor of a product category whose turnover is now comparable to the film, the battle between his adopted country and Japan was lost. The relay Atari took a centennial company dedicated to the cards, Nintendo, which Sega also joined Japanese. In the next generation Sony and Microsoft came to the pitch. Since then, competition is constant and with two very pronounced philosophies. While in the West succeed the most competitive and designed in action in Asia games pleasing repetitive mechanical, more relaxed.
Throughout his life he recorded 50 US patents and more than 100 in all the world. His last public appearance was in 2006 when he decided to donate their prototypes and documentation of cultural inventions Smithsonian Institution of Washington. Then-President George W. Bush awarded him the National Medal of Technology for his contribution to the industry
The ‘children’ cry to his ‘father’
Now that the creators of the game becoming visible media-even if stars like David Cage, Phil Fish, Ken Levine and Jonathan Blow-, the death of parent of all causes homage of his child on social networks.
Ken Levine, creator of Bioshock , dismisses as follows:.. “I met Ralph Baer once in Video Games Live seemed very proud of what I accomplished I’m glad there seen how great has been done [the game]. ” Tim Schafer, co-creator of Monkey Island and genius of Lucas Arts has also been shorter: “RIP Ralph Baer Thanks for EVERYTHING.”.
From Spain, he also dismisses fondly. Raul Rubio, leader of Tequila Works, the company that works in one of the most anticipated games of PlayStation 4 ( Rime ), says: “Ralph Baer was a pioneer Without their effort and curiosity we would not be here. . Thank you, Mr. Baer “. Ivan Lobo, president of the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences and Gamelab, stresses the importance achieved again exiled genius of an immigrant: “Not many of the 1,800 million people now know who play video games is. Nor will stop to think what would have happened if Baer, who had to flee with his Jewish family in Germany, had not had a second chance in America. It seems relevant to someone who is on the verge of death one day end after changing the world we live in. “
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