You can’t discuss the history of video gaming without mentioning Gerald “Jerry” Lawson. His engineering mind is the reason why we have games as we know them today.
As a pioneer in the industry, Lawson is responsible for the video game cartridge. Some of you remember blowing on them to make them work, while others remember your elders telling you about them as you wait to download a new update for whatever game you’re playing right now. Either way, it’s all good. But let’s make one thing clear: don’t even try to listen to anyone discussing the history of video games without them mentioning the “Father of the Video Game Cartridge.”
A New York native, Lawson was born in Brooklyn in 1940 with a passion for science and technology. While growing up in public housing in Queens, he built a ham radio in his early teens. That drive propelled him to eventually become a self-taught engineer.
After beginning his studies at both Queens College and City College of New York, he moved to California to begin working at Fairchild Semiconductor (a company responsible for microchips and other electronics) in the 1970s. During that time, Lawson was a part of the Homebrew Computer Club, a hobbyist group that nurtured the brain trust of Silicon Valley with historical figures like Apple founders Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs.
While at Fairchild, Lawson oversaw the development of the Fairchild Channel F, which is the first gaming console that allowed users to swap out cartridges. The development team figured out how to convert games to software that could be stored on ROMs, rather than be natively built into the machinery. This was a massive breakthrough for the medium, as it freed software developers to build and store their works, and for consumers to play multiple games on the same system. Lawson’s team also designed the first 8-way joystick and the pause button, as well.
Although the Fairchild Channel F never became a household name when it launched in 1976, the…
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