Ralph Baer and His All-Purpose Boxes

Posted by Motherboard on Monday, Nov 16, 2009

Back in the late 60s, German-born gadgeteer Ralph Baer began inventing what later became known as video games. Over the ensuing decades he would develop Pong, the rifle you could point at the screen that was the precursor to the Duck Hunt shotgun, and the germ of countless other important concepts that the gaming industry is founded on. Simon, too! He invented that. He was also one of the first people to dip a toe in the murky waters now known as television commerce, but of course nobody with any money in the early 70s had much interest in latching onto the idea that people would one day impulse shop for crappy wares on their televisions. So Baer instead recast the idea, developing a small wooden video game console that attached to a TV and could bring untold hours of lo-fidelity entertainment to rich kids in the suburbs.

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eeniac 3 months ago

This is a wonderful story, i'm glad i found it here since i had no idea about this man until now. It's also an admirable thing how he's not in the position of "Inventor of videogames", and rather he prefers to just be overwhelmed by how technology grew to places he couldn't even imagine. Man, having to deal with Simon over 1k available is something alone to appreciate. I never knew how much you could play simon until it would restart to zero, but probably no-one ever did anyway!
BKallday 3 months ago

this guy understands fun
Giga_Please 3 months ago

Simon. No telling how many hours of addiction and then frustration that gave me in my youth.
wordtoyourmom 3 months ago

dudes, the game is called simon, not simon says. simon says is some schoolyard shit that has been around for like ever.
Orion 3 months ago

For what it's worth, I always called it "Simon Says" even though I knew it was "Simon." And of course the video game name is in reference to the other, so what's the big deal? My qualm is that it wasn't a shotgun for Duckhunt. It was the Zapper.
localola 3 months ago

i want this guy to be my grandfather! he's so cute
sssss 3 months ago

HE invented Simon Says? That's the most bossiest game ever. I love it. Used to play that with my students over the summer.
PixelBound 3 months ago

Weird. I'd never thought of video games supplied by cable. Frankly, I'm surprised this hasn't happened yet. Your remote could double as a controller and you could have access to virtually unlimited games as part of your cable bill.
_SOS_ 3 months ago

I like that. Occasionally you'd need to update the "remote" but it seems like all the new gaming technology could be implemented through the cable signal.