Who was Jerry Lawson and Why is he being celebrated by Google Doodle?
Key takeaways:
- Google doodle celebrated Gerald “Jerry” Lawson's 82nd birthday on 1st December 2022.
Gerald “Jerry” Lawson was one of the fathers of modern gaming.
The Google doodle has been designed by Davionne Gooden, Lauren Brown, and Momo Pixel. - One of the fathers of modern gaming who led the team that developed the first home video gaming system with interchangeable game cartridges, today’s Google doodle is dedicated to Gerald “Jerry” Lawson on his 82nd birthday.
- Gerald Gerry Lawson’s achievements are immortalized at the World Video Game Hall of Fame in Rochester in New York.
Davionne Gooden, Lauren Brown, and Momo Pixel are the designers of the Google Doodle.
Who is Gerald “Jerry” Lawson?
- Gerald “Jerry” Lawson was a Brooklyn born New Yorker and his birth date is December 1, 1940.
- Lawson tinkered with electronics from an early age. The innovative mind couldn't help repairing televisions around his neighborhood and creating his own radio station using recycled parts.
- Jerry attended Queens College and City College of New York.
He then departed early to start his career in Palo Alto, California. He very soon stepped into the tech company jungle “Silicon Valley”.
Jerry Lawson :Career
He arrived in California and joined Fairchild Semiconductor as an engineering consultant.- Later Lawson was promoted to Director of Engineering and Marketing of Fairchild’s video game department after a few years. There he led the development of the Fairchild Channel F system.
- The Fairchild Channel F system was the first home video game system console that had interchangeable game cartridges, an 8-way digital joystick and a pause menu, unlike any other system.
- This paved the way for future gaming systems including the Atari, SNES, Dreamcast and more.
- He left Fairchild in 1980 and started his own company, VideoSoft which was one of the first Black-owned video game development companies.
- The software for the Atari 2600 was created by his company and in no time it popularized the cartridge Lawson that his team developed.
- Even though the company closed five years later, Jerry had marlrc his name as a pioneer in the gaming industry.
- He went on to consult multiple engineering and video game companies throughout the rest of his career.
Jerry Lawson : The Google Doodle
The Google Doodle designed by Davionne Gooden, Lauren Brown, and Momo Pixel has a sense of similarity in it yet it's very unique to the eye.
The doodle features a caricatured Gerald “Jerry” Lawson with a gaming console in his hand.
The moving gif of Google displays a play button immersed in a gaming cartridge.
On clicking the play button you let yourself in the shoes of the creator, you can design games and play as much as you want.
The home button leads you to a colorful pixelated dashboard with buttons labeled as play and edit.
On the left top corner you can spot Jerry Lawson's name carved on the console.
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