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Ralph Baer
The man who arguably invented video games as we know them, Ralph Baer, has passed away at the age of 92.
Rudolf Heinrich Baer was born in Rodalben, Germany, in March 1922. His family fled to the US in 1938 due to the Nazi threat, and during the second World War he worked for the US military intelligence.
Following the war Baer earned a degree in Television Engineering, and went on to help create the video game industry we all know today.
Baer was the man who developed the very first recognisable game console in the late '60s. His 'Brown Box,' a gaming device with controllers that hooked up to a common TV, would go on to be sold commercially as the Magnavox Odyssey in 1972.
Baer's influence on other leading figures within the fledgling video games industry was apparent. It was the Magnavox Odyssey's Table Tennis game that inspired the creation of Nolan Bushell and Atari's Pong - the first ever video game smash hit.
Baer also designed the popular memory game Simon, and developed an early example of the light gun, which was effectively the first ever video game peripheral.
In 2006, Baer received the National Medal of Technology from President George W. Bush, and he has been inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame., A.V. Club
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Via: Gamasutra, A.V. Club