"PIONEERS OF THE VIDEO INDUSTRY"
RALPH H. BAER
"I can never thank Ralph enough for what he gave to me and everyone else."
- Steve Wozniak, co-founder Apple Computers
Portrait of Ralph H. Baer by German Designer and Artist Barto
RSVP TO ATTEND NOW AT: mfeldman@cameraco.com
Networking and Refreshments Begin at 6:30pm
Presentation: 7pm-9pm
After the meeting Mr. Baer will have a limited supply of his Book "Videogames: In the Beginning" available for purchase with his autograph. Mr. Baer also comments that he has been around long enough in the Electronics Industry to have been offered a job by Lee DeForest! It should be a GREAT evening for us!
Join the BOSFCPUG as we team up with our friends at SMPTE New England for yet another must-attend networking & socializing mixer to be held in the studios of National Boston Video Center at 115 Dummer Street in Boston!
With special thanks to SMPTE member David P. Allen, the contributing Editor, Emeritus of Videography Magazine, we are pleased to present a special evening of retrospective and reflection with Ralph H. Baer, a distinguished Video Technologist, Inventor and Consultant.
Ralph H. Baer, inventor, technical developer (with over 150 U.S. Patents) and consultant is the creator of the first video game console (Magnavox Odyssey) and considered by many as the "father of video games" In 2006, he was awarded the National Medal of Technology for inventing the home console for video games and spawning the video game industry.
Producers, Editors, Digital Content Creators: Get out of your production offices and editing suites to Network and interact with members of Boston's digital filmmaking community as you mingle and swap stories and business cards.
SMPTE NEW ENGLAND & BOSCPUG PRESENT:
"PIONEERS OF THE VIDEO INDUSTRY"
DATE: Wednesday, May 23rd
TIMES: 7:00PM - 9:00PM (Doors open at 6:30PM)
RSVP TO ATTEND NOW AT: mfeldman@cameraco.com
***NOTE: please be sure to pre-register if you plan to attend, it will make the check-in process more efficient and allow us to get accurate numbers for seating and refreshments***
Ralph H. Baer, born March 8, 1922 is a German-born Jewish American video game pioneer, inventor, engineer, widely known as "The Father of Video Games" who is noted for his many contributions to games and the video game industry.
In 2006, he was awarded the
National Medal of Technology by President Bush for inventing the home console (Magnavox Odyssey) for video games and spawning the video game industry as we know it today. Mr. Baer has over 150 U.S. and foreign patents and has been inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame in 2011.
ABOUT RALPH H. BAER
Mr. Baer graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in Television Engineering (unique at the time) from the American Television Institute of Technology in Chicago in 1949. He worked for a few electronics before joining Sanders Associates in 1956, where he stayed until retiring in 1987. He started his own invention, development and licensing electronic toy and games business in 1975.
Mr. Baer is best known for his original concept of playing games on an ordinary home TV set and for leading the development of the Brown Box, the first home video game console and his pioneering patented work in establishing video games.
In 2006, Baer donated all his videogame hardware prototypes and documents to the Smithsonian Institute. Ralph Baer's prototypes and documentation are housed at The Smithsonian Lemelson Center. Mr. Baer is a Life Senior Member of the IEEE.
Mr. Baer’s documents of electronic toys and games that he invented and developed have been donated to the Strong Museum of Play where they are being archived along with contributions from other T&G inventors.
INVENTIONS
Mr. Baer started development of the "Brown Box" console video game system and several other videogame prototypes in 1966 at the defense-electronics company Sanders Associates in Nashua, New Hampshire (now part of BAE Systems). In 1971, patents covering basic videogame technology held by Mr. Baer and two associates were licensed to Magnavox, and after being renamed Magnavox Odyssey, the console was released to the public in 1972. For a time it was Sanders' most profitable line, though many in the company looked down on game development. Baer created the first light gun and game for home television use, sold grouped with a game expansion pack for the Odyssey, and collectively known as the Shooting Gallery. The light gun itself was the first peripheral for a video game console. Another notable invention by Mr. Baer is Simon, a hand-held electronic pattern-matching game that was immensely popular in the late 1970s and 1980s.
Mr. Baer received the 2008 Developers Choice Awards "Pioneer Award.” The award recognizes individuals who have contributed the advancement of the videogame industry through technology, concept, or gameplay design. "The Right to Baer Games - An Interview with Ralph Baer, the Father of Video Games" (GamaSutra and Game Developer magazine.)
Directions:
FROM THE MASS TURNPIKE: Take exit 18 – Allston Cambridge (left-hand exit). Pass through tolls and stay right towards Cambridge/Boston and onto Storrow Drive. Do not cross over the bridge/river. Go one mile on Storrow Drive to first exit on right – Boston University. Go to the stop sign and take a right onto Commonwealth Ave. Go through two sets of lights (not including pedestrian light) to the first legal left-hand turn. Take the legal left turn over tracks onto St. Paul Street. Take the first right onto Dummer Street. National Boston is fifty yards away on the right at 115 Dummer Street.
FROM EXPRESSWAY, RTE 93 NORTH AND SOUTH: Exit onto Storrow Drive West towards the Back Bay. Take the Kenmore Square exit, staying right on the exit ramp. Take the first right onto Baystate Road and go about one mile to the end of the road. At the end of Baystate Road, turn left and follow to the end to reach Commonwealth Avenue. Take the right onto Commonwealth Ave. Follow Commonwealth through two sets of lights and take the first legal left hand turn onto St. Paul Street. Take the first right onto Dummer Street. National Boston is fifty yards away on the right at 115 Dummer Street.
FROM KENMORE SQUARE: Take Commonwealth Avenue outbound/west towards Brighton. Go through four sets of lights, then take the first legal left-hand turn onto St. Paul Street. Take the first right onto Dummer Street. National Boston is fifty yards away on the right at 115 Dummer Street.
BY SUBWAY/MBTA: National Boston is on the Green line at the Boston/St. Paul Street stop. From Park Street, take an outbound Boston College B Train. St. Paul Street is the 5th stop after the Kenmore Square stop. Walk across the tracks towards CVS onto St. Paul Street. Dummer St is the first right off of St. Paul Street. National Boston is fifty yards away on the right at 115 Dummer Street.
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