Shouldnt Ralph Baer (creator of Video games) get the recognition that he deserve

For those who dont know him, Ralph Baer was the person who basically created Video games with the invention of the brown box, the first home game console. I know hes recieved some awards for his creation, but it seemsthat many people dont know him yet theyll know other people like Nolan Bushnell or Shigiru Miyamoto. It upsets me that he doesnt get the recognition that he truly deserves.

I looked him up just out of curiousity and it seems like just last year he was awarded the National Medal of Technology by the president himself. That seems like some pretty wicked recognition to me.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ralph_Baer

What can you expect as new generations of gamers appear? Ralph Baer is certainly not recognized far and wide. Don't quote me on this, but I think people have fiddled around with computer systems to create an interactive environment before Mr. Baer. Vortexx

Sorry, I just did quote you. However, that's because you're right! :D On that note, here's what Wikipedia says!

The earliest known interactive electronic game was created by Thomas T. Goldsmith Jr. and Estle Ray Mann on a cathode ray tube[3] in 1947. The game was a missile simulator inspired by radar displays from World War II. It used analogue circuitry, not digital, to drive the CRT, and used an overlay for the targets since graphics could not be drawn at the time.[1]

On May 5, 1951, the NIMROD computer was presented at the Festival of Britain. Using a panel of lights for its display, it was designed exclusively to play the game of 'NIM', this was the first instance of a digital computer designed specifically to play a game.[4] NIM is a simple game, where you start with a number of piles of tokens - traditionally matches. Each player in turn takes one or more tokens from any one pile, and the game continues until the last token is taken from the last remaining pile. The simplest way of playing the game is when the winner is the one who takes the last item. There is also a 'Reverse' game, where the loser is the one forced to take the last token. NIMROD could play either version of the game.

Tennis for Two recreation.

In 1952, Alexander S. Douglas made the first computer game to use a graphical display, OXO (Noughts and Crosses), for the EDSAC computer.

In 1958, William Higinbotham made an interactive game named Tennis for Two for the Brookhaven National Laboratory's annual visitor's day. This display was meant to promote atomic power, and used an analog computer and the vector display system of an oscilloscope.[5][6]

In 1961, MIT students Martin Graetz, Steve Russell, and Wayne Wiitanen created the game Spacewar! on a DECPDP-1 computer which also used a vector display system.[1][6]

The Magnavox Odyssey released in 1972.

In 1966, Ralph Baer resumed work on an initial idea he had in 1951 to make an interactive game on a television set. The Brown Box, the last prototype of seven, was released in May 1972 by Magnavox under the name Odyssey. It was the first home video game console.[1]

For technology sure he should get recognized but as a game designer, uh name me one significant game he created?dvader654

He is one of (if not THE) guys who created the machines that allowed people like Miyamoto and Kojima to make games. This is like saying Henry Ford should be ignored because he never drove a car like Mario Andretti.

Personally i couldnt care about the guy, all he did was possibly create the first game console. Why does he deserve an award? what else has he contributed to the gaming industry apart from that? he should get some awards for continued contribution to the gaming industry. And as far as i am aware thats all he has contributed to the gaming industry, so why should one man recieve an award for one single achievment when there is designers and developers who have been constantly contributing to the gaming industry and recieved no award.

Baer definitely gets credit in my book, though frankly I was more impressed with Simon rather than the Brown Box/Odessy. EVERYONE had a Simon back in the day. It was really the first electronic multiplayer toy that I remember a lot of people having. It was the original Mario Party. But yeah, without the Odessy there may not have been an Atari, and without Atari the modern console industry would not exist.

all he did was possibly create the first game console. 1005

Yeah, totally not recognition-worthy.

In fact, I'd rather see the dude who came up with the Chicken McNugget get credit before Baer.

[QUOTE="1005"]

all he did was possibly create the first game console. Shame-usBlackley

Yeah, totally not recognition-worthy.

In fact, I'd rather see the dude who came up with the Chicken McNugget get credit before Baer.

Well in all fairness, more Chicken McNuggets have been sold than video games or consoles, and those McNuggets are really good with the barbeque sauce.

Again as a technician sure but not as a game designer. Kuturagi was involved in creating the Playstations, do we give him credit as a game designer, no. Will he ever be mentioned with the likes of Miyamoto, Kojima, Carmack, Wright, etc,. Different categories as far as I am concerned.

dvader654

Kutaragi and Baer aren't in the same class, seeing as Kutaragi was involved with developing a product within the confines of an established, proven concept (video images being manipulatedon a TV screen)that was originally established by Baer. In that sense, Kutaragi owes just as much to Baer as anyone else.

They're totally different categories, of course. What I'm saying is that without Baer there might be no use for people like Miyamoto and Kojima. They owe their entire careers to him, because without him, they would not be what they are. That's where the Ford/Andretti analogy came from - without the inventor, there is no use for the driver. Hence the inventor is far more important in the grand scheme of things.

Maybe it IS asking a bit much, though - this idea that people should be gracious towards inventors and creators. I wonder if Speilberg ever thinks about the person(s) who invented the camera, and where he'd be if he/she/they hadn't? Probably not, hmmm? I guess it's a little too much to askcreators to appreciate people whose creations allow them to create things. And certainly not the public, who couldn't frigging care less.

Who?

If he really did it, then I should at least know about him. That's pretty messed up.

Who?

If he really did it, then I should at least know about him. That's pretty messed up.

AquaMantor

Most people aside from collectors don't even know of the console. A lot just assume that Pong was the first video game. Speaking of which:

Magnavox settled a court case against Nolan Bushnell for patent infringement in Bushnell's design of Pong, as it resembled the tennis game for the Odyssey. Over the next decade, Magnavox sued other big companies such as Coleco, Mattel, Seeburg, Activision and either won or settled every suit. In 1985, Nintendo sued Magnavox and tried to invalidate Baer's patents by saying that the first video game was Higginbotham's Tennis For Two game built in 1958. The court ruled that this game did not use video signals and could not qualify as a video game, and as a result Nintendo lost and continued paying royalties to Sanders Associates.

Ralph Baer went on to invent the c.lassic electronic gameSimon for Mattel in 1978. Magnavox later released several other scaled down Pong-like consoles based under the Odyssey name (which did not use cartridges or game cards), and at one point a truly programmable, cartridge based console, the Odyssey2, in 1978.

Nintendo's first venture in the electronic gaming world was the distribution of the Magnavox Odyssey in Japan in 1975, before the company introduced its own consoles.

Wikipedia