Born in Brooklyn, New York, Jerry Lawson attended Queens College and City College in New York before leaving early to start his career in Palo Alto, California.
Posted Date – Fri, 02 Dec 22 at 03:45pm
San Francisco: Gerald “Jerry” Lawson, one of the fathers of modern gaming, led the team that developed the first home video game system with interchangeable game cartridges and is the subject of today’s Google Doodle.
Born in Brooklyn, New York, Jerry Lawson attended Queens College and City College in New York before leaving early to start his career in Palo Alto, California.
After arriving in California, Lawson joined Fairchild Semiconductor as an engineering consultant.
A few years later, Lawson was promoted to director of engineering and marketing for Fairchild’s video game division, leading the development of the “Fairchild Channel F” system, the first home video game system console with interchangeable game cartridges.
Lawson left Fairchild in 1980 to find VideoSoft, one of the first black-owned video game development companies.
The company developed software for the Atari 2600 that popularized the ink cartridges developed by Lawson and his team.
Although the firm closed after five years, Lawson had established himself as an industry pioneer and went on to consult with numerous engineering and video game companies for the remainder of his career.
In 2011, the International Game Developers Association named Lawson an Industry Trailblazer for his contributions to gaming.
Lawson died in 2011 of complications from diabetes.
His accomplishments are commemorated in the World Video Game Hall of Fame in Rochester, New York.
