Very first video game cartridge based system is due to...

[Fatal Rewind]

I hate putting this up at the last second, but I only found out about this a couple of hours ago, yet I've known since the 1980s (not long after it was released) what the Fairchild Channel F video game system was (never played one though, but I've always wanted to).

The Fairchild Channel F, the very first cartridge-based system that beat out the Atari 2600 by about a year, was mainly due to a black man named Jerry Lawson, which I never knew about until now:

www.yahoo.com/news/nintendo-atari-black-engineer-changed-090805949.html

Pretty damn cool. I can totally relate in the story about how when an interviewer told a member of the International Game Developers Association's diversity advisory board about the above just stopped him "in his tracks", as that's how surprised I was too.

So, for anyone who has ever played a game on a console--whether it was cartridge-, CD-, DVD-, or even digitally downloaded-based--we all owe Jerry a big debt of gratitude.

[Keiphus]

That is awesome. Your knowledge of retro gaming always gives me a wealth of information. I will gladly read the story.

[Queen of Hearts]

He changed everything about gaming forever and deserves recognition. Thank you.

[Jaxon]

That's pretty cool. Game cartridges were my life growing up. I owe him a lot.

[Fatal Rewind]

^Same here

Feb 27, 2020 10:50:22 GMT -5 Queen of Hearts said:

He changed everything about gaming forever and deserves recognition.

Definitely. In general, I usually hate the word "countless" in regards to something, but yes, it was definitely countless of thousands of hours of playing my Atari 2600, Vectrex, Atari 7800, Sega Genesis/32X/CD (Starflight on the Genny ALONE took literally almost an entire year of note taking in regards to what planets were worth going to and mining minerals to sell to Starport later) and Wii over the years, which continues to this day with no end in sight.

RIP Jerry, and thanks for your brilliance. (Btw, wonder if his Demolition Derby game is in a museum somewhere? I'd like to play that.)

[ScarsFromThePast]

Fatal Rewind,
Would you say he's directly responsible for all the Sega cartridges? What about the 32-bit adapters that looked like caartridges in a sense?

[Fatal Rewind]

I'd say everything cartridge-based and onwards can be attributed to him, just like how death and black metal bands owe it to Elvis Presley to this day, as all that music descended from rock and roll.

[Queen of Hearts]

I'm about to watch this review.

[Fatal Rewind]

^Ah, so will I then Mark can be pretty funny.

[Keiphus]

He certainly is not given enough credit. His name is often forgotten when newer people try to take credit for the cartridge and console.

[Audacity]

to the legend who started it all!

[Phantom Phreak]

I had never heard of him until this thread. TY. Let us honor him!

[Len Crobbs]

I want to hold that in my hands. I wan to see and touch so many old console systems, including this.

[Miss Ginny]

Hey. Better late than never. We still have a few days to absorb all the great people.

[Javier9101983]

Hands down. Awesome thread and vid about the console.