Remembering The Father of Video Games

Photo of Ralph Baer in his Manchester, NH, home,October 2011. 
Photo by Jeremy Clowe for Norman Rockwell Museum. All rights reserved.

I was sorry to hear about the recent passing of Ralph H. Baer (1922-2014). Considered "the father of video games," Baer held over 150 patents in the U.S. alone, and was responsible for the creation of such early games as Ping-Pong in the 1960s; and Odyssey, the first home video game console, in the 1970s.

As someone who was obsessed with video games in middle school/early high school, I was thrilled when I had the opportunity to travel to Manchester, New Hampshire in October 2011, to meet Baer and conduct a videotaped interview in his home/studio for Norman Rockwell Museum (where he had been an art donor). Then 89 years old, Baer seemed as active as ever, still tinkering in his studio and trying out new ideas. He was also quite generous with his time, offering a quite thorough interview and explanation of his early experiments in television engineering, which lead to the idea of interactive video gaming. Here is a quick edit I created yesterday of some of the footage: 

Yes, that's Baer trying out Simon, which he also created. I remember being quite taken with that musical toy as a kid, and it's pretty wild to realize that this pioneering engineer also advanced the electronic toy and greeting card industry—I enjoyed having the opportunity to literally see his creativity at work during our meeting. 

Photo by Jeremy Clowe. All rights reserved.

Five decades later, video games are a billion dollar industry (today it's my pre-teen nephew hooked on such games as Minecraft). It's nice that Baer had the opportunity to see just how far his ideas had come; it was an honor for me to spend some time getting to know him.

Related Links:

"Video game designer Ralph Baer invented your childhood," Washington Post, December 8, 2014

"Portrait of a Game-Changer," my 2011 article for Norman Rockwell Museum

Interactive Imagination

I have been looking at new ways of using video. I like the idea of video art, and started getting some ideas during my trip to New York City last week. I'm heading back tomorrow, so maybe we will have a chance to visit MoMa again, or see some other interactive displays.

At work the talk is all about mobile apps, a way of enhancing the visitor's experience through technology. Of course I am all for it, and have developed quite a bit of material-- video, writing, photography, to support the creation of new, multi-layered content. An idea of what is possible is this interactive timeline for Norman Rockwell's years in Stockbridge, Massachusetts, which I co-directed and produced much of the content for (we won a 2007 "best website" award for this mini-site from the New England Museum Association).

Interviewing Ralph H. Baer in Manchester, New Hampshire,
October 18, 2011.

This past fall I had the chance to meet a man who was thinking about interactive content back during the very early days of the television medium. Ralph H. Baer is generally considered the "grandfather of video games." Back in the late 1960s, this creative engineer developed the first of a series of games to play on a television screen, including the popular ping-pong game. A few years later he teamed up with Magnavox to release Odyssey, the first home video game console, based on his original “Brown Box” prototype. Baer continued to experiment with technology in the 1970s, creating the immensely popular music game SIMON. At age 89, this pioneer is as active as ever, serving as a consultant for engineering and the video game industry, and still hard at work on new ideas. 

I had the pleasure to conduct a very long videotaped interview with Ralph for the Norman Rockwell Museum Archives, and it was a true pleasure-- very inspiring for me. Hopefully I can share more of this interview at a later date. In the meantime, you can read more about Ralph in this blog I created for the Museum-- get your game on!

Ralph H. Baer's website: www.ralphbaer.com