Gerald ‘Jerry’ Lawson is a name not a lot of people are aware of. However, the person is currently in the news as Google has dedicated a doodle in his memory. Clicking on the doodle leads to an interesting video game that the user can play and know about his life simultaneously.
Lawson was an electronic engineer. He was also the mind behind the world’s first-ever video game cartridge. His contribution for the same earned him the title of the “father of the videogame cartridge“. Let’s dig deep into the life of an important personality of the 20th century.
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Who Is Gerald ‘Jerry’ Lawson?
Born on December 1, 1940, in Brooklyn, New York, Lawson’s father was a dockworker while his mother worked for the city. At the age of 13, he built his own radio station after getting a ham license.
At an early age, he started repairing TVs to earn some money. Despite being one of the few Black men in the gaming industry at the time, he successfully led the team that developed the first home video gaming system with interchangeable game cartridges.
In 1980, he quit Fairchild and started his own company, VideoSoft, which was one of the first black-owned video game development companies. He is often credited for being a pioneer of modern gaming.
They created software for the Atari 2600, which popularised his cartridge. Five years later, the company shut down. However, he continued to consult several engineering and video game companies for the rest of his career. For his contribution, Lawson has been called the “father of the video game cartridge.”
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Google Dedicates Doodle To Lawson
On April 9, 2011, Lawson passed away at the age of 70. He was suffering from diabetes and had already lost one eye and one leg because of it in the early 2000s.
Lawson was survived by his wife, two children, and his brother. On December 1, the Google Doodle was dedicated to him. Users were allowed to make games and modify existing in-built games.
“In 2011, the International Game Developers Association recognised Lawson as an industry trailblazer for his contributions to gaming“, the Google page writes.
The University of Southern California, along with Take-Two interactive, created the Gerald A. Lawson Fund to support black and underrepresented students who want to study and make a career in game design or computer science.
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