Google Doodle celebrates Jerry Lawson, inventor of video game cartridges
Google Doodle celebrates Jerry Lawson, inventor of video game cartridges
Google Doodle today celebrates and honours the life and legacy of Jerry Lawson, an American electronics engineer known for leading the group that developed the first commercial video game cartridge and created the Fairchild Channel F video game system.
According to CNET, Jerry Lawson was a frontiersperson of modern gaming, and while he was one of the few black men in the industry at the time, he led the team that developed the first home video game system with interchangeable game cartridges. For his contribution during the early days of video games, Lawson has been dubbed the "father of the video game cartridge".
Born on December 1, 1940, in Brooklyn, New York, Gerald "Jerry" Lawson began tinkering with electronic devices at an early age, repairing televisions and building his own radio station with parts he bought at local electronics stores.
After graduating from Queens College and City College of New York, Lawson moved to California in 1970 to work as an applications engineering consultant for Fairchild Semiconductor.
"To honour the American electronics engineer's contribution to gaming, Google created a collection of interactive Doodle games to mark Lawson's 82nd birthday on Thursday. The games, which are reminiscent of early video games of the 1970s, take you on a journey through key points in Lawson's career and offer a glimpse into early games' graphics and objectives. You're also invited to create your own video game or make edits to existing ones," the news outlet further reported.
"In 2011, the International Game Developers Association recognised Lawson as an industry trailblazer for his contributions to gaming. The University of Southern California also created the Gerald A. Lawson Fund to support underrepresented students who wish to pursue undergraduate or graduate degrees in game design or computer science. Lawson's achievements are memorialised at the World Video Game Hall of Fame in Rochester, New York," says the Google page dedicated to Mr Lawson.