Google Doodle today: One of Google's most famous services, Google Doodle, is celebrating the life of American computer engineer, Gerald Anderson Lawson. The legendary engineer was born on December 1, 1940. He invented the videogame cartridge that made games like Super Mario, Contra reach millions of homes across the world. Gerry Lawson designed the Fairchild Channel F console. He is called the father of the videogame cartridge.
Google Doodle today is an interactive game where you will have to give manual inputs to access information about Gerry Lawson. It is indeed a fitting tribute to the man who revolutionized home entertainment. Today, the video game industry is worth billions and is the incubator of independent thought and creativity. Several of the games have inspired blockbuster movies and OTT shows. In the early eighties, it was a niche segment. Because of the engineer's contributions, video games became popular all over the world, including India. In the late 1990s, games like Super Mario, Contra and Double Dragon reached thousands of households and almost all middle-class children of the decade have some memories of them.
Lawson was born in Brooklyn. His father Blanton was a longshoreman and his mother worked for the city council. His grandfather had a degree in physics but was a postmaster. As a teenager, he used to fix broken television to augment his meager family income. Interestingly, he joined two colleges but didn't finish both degrees. He showed an early interest in radio technology and electronics.
In 1970, he joined Fairchild Semiconductor in San Francisco and created an arcade game called Demolition Derby in his garage.
He worked his way up to become the Chief Hardware Engineer. In 1976, the company released the Fairchild Channel F console designed by him and his team. He also designed swappable game cartridges.
Before this, game consoles would have pre-programmed games that would not allow people to swap games.
The invention made video game consoles a value-for-money proposition as customers can now play many games on the same device by changing these cartridges.
His console also had the pause button, an industry-first at the time.
Also read: Google Doodle today: Google celebrates Gerald ‘Jerry’ Lawson, creator of first-ever video game console
Interestingly, in 1977, he interviewed Steve Wozniak and rejected him for a job at Fairchild. Wozniak would later create Apple computers, one of the biggest companies in the world.
"In 1980, Lawson left Fairchild to start his own company, VideoSoft—one of the earliest Black-owned video game development companies. The company created software for the Atari 2600, which popularized the cartridge Lawson and his team developed. Although they closed five years later, Lawson had solidified himself as a pioneer in the industry and continued to consult multiple engineering and video game companies throughout the rest of his career," Google said in a statement.
He died a decade ago due to diabetes complications.
