- Ralph H. Baer is a video game pioneer, inventor, and engineer known as "The Father of Video Games" who is noted for his many contributions to games and the video game industry.
- In 2006, he was awarded the National Medal of Technology for inventing the home console for video games and spawning the video game industry.
- He held more than 150 patents.
- He helped to develop the Simon electronic game.
- His family fled Germany before WWII and emigrated to the United States. As a teenager, he got into electronics and trained as a radio service engineer. He became an electrical engineer.
- Baer often stated that it was never his goal to pioneer a multibillion-dollar industry. Originally, in 1951, his goal was to convert his concept from an idea in his head to physical reality. The company he was working for in 1951 dismissed his original idea as folly, but 15 years later, a subsequent employer considered his idea to be feasible, allowing Baer to construct the first prototype in 1966. Baer's original idea ultimately became the first TV gaming console, released in 1972, the Magnavox Odyssey.
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