Inventor Portrait: Ralph Baer, video game inventor, who turns 90 years old this week
[cross-posted from my photography blog]
Ralph Baer, the father of video games, turns 90 years old on Thursday. One of his early inventions, the Magnavox Odyssey, was the first home video game system. It turns 40 years old this year. I photographed and interviewed Ralph over the summer for my ongoing Inventor Portraits Project, and this seemed like a good time to share some of the video in which we discuss, among other things, why he’s still inventing at 90 years old.
At one point in our interview he expressed frustration that modern kids don’t read anymore because they’re too busy playing with their smartphones. So I asked him if he thinks kids play too many video games today. Did he accidentally unleash a monster with his invention? His answer:
Yeah. I did a bit. What I thought I unleashed was a family game. If you’ll stop to consider for a second, what’s the ping pong game? You can’t play ping pong with yourself. It was meant to be played by two people. And we had four-handed ping pong and hockey games early on, also. I always thought of it as a family game. And it just sort of degenerated into a one player type thing which was never in my mind.
I thought that was interesting. I think I see a pendulum swinging back in Baer’s direction with consoles like the Nintendo Wii, which put an emphasis on group play.
Anyway, Happy 90th Birthday, Ralph!
Comments
I love the workbench shots.
Posted by: Lenore | March 6, 2012 8:50 PM
What an interesting man.
He seems to have a lot of character & drive. I think it’s amazing that he’s still coming up with new ideas that are making it onto store shelves.
What an inspiration.
Posted by: Mark | March 11, 2012 3:46 AM
Hats off to you! :)
Posted by: Kumar | March 30, 2012 2:24 AM
Oh man … time is going so fast.
Posted by: Hard | April 4, 2012 8:57 AM
There’s some beautiful photography in that video, gorgeous piece. Kudos.
Posted by: Sue | April 12, 2012 10:46 AM
Funny timing: Just yesterday I was trying to think of the name of that great-awful font used for the Odyssey logotype. (See http://www.myfonts.com/fonts/mti/computer/computer/) I was inspired by this c1980 Wang classic: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BvcdhrZl_l4
In any case, thanks for the great piece. I hope to blog it soon.
Posted by: John Nack | April 29, 2012 2:03 PM