Before you press start on the next Mario or Zelda adventure, let’s hit pause and meet the man responsible for powering up your childhood memories and 1-uping the competition with his revolutionary industry innovation.
Gerald “Jerry” Lawson helped invent the first console with interchangeable cartridges. Before Jerry, players were limited to a preset selection of games built into the electronic system. Great if you wanted to enjoy 15 versions of Pong, but Jerry decided to take games to the next level.
One of the few Black engineers in Silicon Valley in the 1970s, Jerry worked for a company called Fairchild Camera and Instrument. He was part of a team that launched a product called Channel F, which laid the groundwork for video game systems like the Nintendo Switch we have today.
Lawson and his team carefully refined and enhanced the technology which enabled games to be stored as software on removable cartridges. These cartridges could be inserted and removed from a console unit without the risk of electric shocks. This innovation empowered users to build their own game libraries and presented a fresh avenue of revenue for console manufacturers.
His influence on the industry was so great, Lawson was dubbed the “father of modern gaming” by Black Enterprise Magazine in 1982.
Thanks to Jerry and his swappable game cartridges, pizza parties and sleepovers always reached their top score.
Kevin David Creative 