Google Doodle Honors Jerry Lawson, the Father of Modern Video Games
Yesterday’s Google Doodle honored Jerry Lawson, father of modern video gaming, in a very fun and hopefully inspiring way.
Yesterday’s Google Doodle was one of the more creative and special ones. It sent you to a quick introductory side-scroller video game you could play with your keyboard. And once you completed the gameplay run-through, it allowed you to build and play your own simple video games. As you completed the intro level though, flags would give you an introduction to yesterday’s honoree, Jerry Lawson, a pioneer of modern video gaming.
Jerry Lawson
Gerald Lawson was always interested in science and electronics and even built his own radio station out of his childhood bedroom in Jamaica, Queens. By the time he graduated from Queens College and City College of New York, he moved to what’s now Silicon Valley and joined Fairchild Semiconductor as an engineering consultant. Eventually he was promoted to Director of Engineering and Marketing in Fairchild’s video game department. And from here he lead the development of the Fairchild Chanel F. The “F” stood for fun. This early gaming system was the first to have interchangeable game cartridges, and an 8-way joystick.
In 1980, Lawson started the first Black-owned video game development company, VideoSoft. Through VideoSoft he helped create software for the Atari 2600, which popularized the interchangeable cartridge system that Lawson’s team at Fairchild had created. Using this technology, the Atari 2600 went on to become one of the most popular and successful gaming systems in the world.
Jerry Lawson passed away in 2011 at the age of 70, but his work in video gaming can still be seen today. And so for what would have been his 82nd birthday on December 1st, Google honored his memory and contribution.
The Google Doodle
If you didn’t have a chance to check it out yesterday, the Google Doodle was very fun and silly. There were a variety of simple video games, some reminiscent of the Atari days. But each game came with editing options. Want to add fire? Or extra blocks to jump on? Well then let’s do it. And it looks like making yesterday’s doodle fun, silly, and enjoyable was completely the point.
In a video talking about the doodle, Anderson Lawon, Jerry’s son, said that he wanted people to be inspired by it.
“When people play this Doodle, I hope they’re inspired to be imaginative. And I hope that some little kid somewhere that looks like me and wants to get into game development, hearing about my father’s story makes them feel like they can.”
Hopefully, you had a chance to check out yesterday’s Google Doodle. And if you did, take a moment to thank Jerry Lawson for helping make modern video games what they are.
Did you know about Jerry Lawson and his contribution to the development of modern video games? Which of the mini google games was your favorite? How did you edit the games or did you play them the way they were? Let us know in the comments!
Happy Adventuring!
