A couple days ago, Benj Edwards over at the Vintage Computing and Gaming blog posted an interview with Jerry Lawson.
Much of the interview discusses Mr. Lawson’s experiences as a black man working in the electronics industry, and his experience growing up in the 40s & 50s with a mother who was very passionate about his education. And, like many of computing history’s pioneers, he got his start as a HAM radio operator, which gave him electronics experience and social connections.
Another big part of the interview covers his work at Fairchild Semiconductor, where a project he started in his garage grew into the Fairchild Channel F, the first home video game system featuring programs on cartridges (released in 1976). In many ways, the Channel F was more advanced than the Atari 2600, which came out a year later.
Jerry continues to attend classic video game conventions, and his son has nominated him for a fellowship at the Computer History Museum. It’s good to see he’s still involved with the vintage gaming scene. Maybe I’ll run into him some day.
Anyway, I don’t want to give away all of Jerry’s history, so go read the interview. It’s a little long, but it’s a deep look into the history of one of my favorite video game systems and the man behind it.
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