Ralph Baer, the ‘Father of video games’, dead at 92

9 Dec 2014

Steve Wright

Ralph Baer, an engineer primarily responsible for the creation of the first home video game console, has died at age 92.

Baer designed the world’s first home consoles alongside colleagues Bill Harrison and Bill Rusch between 1967 and 1969. Together, they created the original ‘Brown Box’, a prototype that played ping pong and used a light-gun.

The company the trio worked for, Sanders Associates, licensed the machine to Magnavox as the Odyssey in 1972.

Baer himself holds over 150 U.S. and foreign patents.

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Steve Wright

Steve's the owner and Editor-in-Chief of Stevivor.com, the country’s leading independent video games outlet. Steve arrived in Australia back in 2001 on what was meant to be a three-month working holiday before deciding to emigrate and, eventually, becoming a citizen.

Stevivor is a combination of ‘Steve’ and ‘Survivor’, which made more sense back in 2001 when Jeff Probst was up in Queensland. The site started as Steve’s travel blog before transitioning over into video games.

Aside from video games, Steve has interests in hockey and Star Trek, playing the former and helping to cover video games about the latter on TrekMovie.com. By day, Steve works as the communications manager of the peak body representing Victorians as they age.