Gerald “Jerry” Lawson and his team developed the first home video game system with a removable tape box.
Lawson was born in Brooklyn, New York in 1940. He tinkered with electronics from an early age, fixing televisions around the neighborhood and assembling radios using recycled parts. He attended Queens College and City College of New York before beginning his career in Palo Alto, California.
At the time, the city and its surroundings were known as “Silicon Valley” due to the explosion of new technology companies and innovative startup programs.
Upon arrival in California, Jerry Lawson joined Fairchild Semiconductor as a technical consultant. A few years later, he was promoted to Technical and Marketing Director of Fairchild’s video game division. Here he led the development of the Fairchild Channel F system – the first home video game system console that could replace various game cartridges, 8-way digital joysticks and buttons. pause on the toolbar. Channel F paved the way for future gaming systems like Atari, SNES, Dreamcast, etc.
In 1980, Lawson left Fairchild to start his own company, VideoSoft – one of the earliest video game development companies owned by people of color. The company created the software for the Atari 2600, which helped popularize the game box that Lawson and his team had developed. Although they closed five years later, Lawson established himself as an industry pioneer and continued to consult for numerous engineering and video game companies for the rest of his career.
In 2011, the International Game Developers Association recognized Lawson as a pioneer for his contributions to the gaming field. The University of Southern California also established the Gerald A. Lawson Foundation to assist students who wish to pursue an undergraduate or graduate degree in game design or computer science. Lawson’s achievement is commemorated at the World Video Games Hall of Fame in Rochester, New York.