Ralph H. Baer

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Ralph H. Baer (born March 8,1922) is a German-born American inventor, noted for his many contributions to games and the video game industry. In 2005, he was named a recipient of the National Medal of Technology. He invented the home console for video games.

At a young age, Baer was kicked out of school because he was Jewish and had to go to a Jewish school. His father worked in a shoe factory at the time. Two months before Kristallnacht, he escaped from Germany with his family. In America he was self-taught and worked in a factory for a weekly wage of twelve dollars. He graduated from the National Radio Institute as a radio service technician in 1940. In 1943 he was drafted to fight in World War II, assigned to Military intelligence at the US Army headquarters in London.

Baer graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in Television Engineering (unique at the time) from the American Television Institute of Technology in Chicago in 1949. He worked for a few electronics firms and started his own company before joining Sanders in 1958, where he stayed until retiring in 1987.

[edit] Inventions

Baer is best known for leading the development of the Brown Box, the first home video game console. After being sold to Magnavox and being renamed Magnavox Odyssey, the console was released to the public in 1972. Baer, who has a background in television work, developed the system in 1966 for the defense-electronics company Sanders Associates in Nashua, New Hampshire (now part of BAE Systems). It was licensed to Magnavox and for a time was Sanders' most profitable line, even though many in the company looked down on game development.

Baer created the first light gun and game for home television use, known as the Shooting Gallery. He also invented Simon, an electronic pattern-matching game that was immensely popular in the late 1970s and 1980s. He is now partnered with Bob Pelovitz of MicroPROS Technology Solutions, and they have been inventing and marketing toy and game ideas since 1983.

In 2005, at G4's video game award show G-Phoria, Baer received a Legend Award for his work in the development of video games.

Baer is a Life Senior Member of IEEE.