Jerry Lawson, we hardly knew ye...

These things still fuel my nightmares
with their dead eyes, jerky
movements and birthday wishes...

No, really, to my great shame I had no idea who this guy was until yesterday when I read that he passed away at age 70. Jerry Lawson invented the video game cartridge. Yeah, he was the guy. Before Jerry Lawson, video games were dedicated single-game home consoles or built into cocktail tables at Chuck E. Cheese. Speaking of which, someone should bring back the video game cocktail tables from Chuck E. Cheese. I should be able to play Ms. Pacman wherever I'm eating. Hey remember when Chuck E. Cheese had a bar? Like you'd be playing in the ball crawl with the rest of the kids while the adults were getting plastered, smoking and watching horse racing. Man, the 80's were a different time...

This is either a Channel F console,
or a wood-paneled Foreman Grill
with optional sex-toy attachment.

Anyway, back to Jerry Lawson. He designed the internal workings of that classic game console, the Fairchild Channel F. What's that? You don't remember the Fairchild Channel F? That's probably because you live in the universe where Atari ripped it off and the Channel F was a minor footnote in video game history and not the parallel universe where Jimmy Carter won a second term, Spock has a beard and the Channel F took America by storm with it's stunning 3 color graphics and memorable games like 'Video Blackjack' and 'Space War.'

This screen shot is from 'Watergate: The Game'
The blue dot is the grand jury using the Indictment Ray on G. Gordon Liddy.

So while Channel F was garage sale fodder before most of us were born, and cartridges have gone quietly into the night (being replaced first by CD's, then DVD's and now magic), we indoor kids owe Jerry Lawson our everlasting gratitude. He basically invented game consoles as we know them and without him we would have had to read, or go outside. So on behalf of the allergy-prone, sports-averse kid in all of us, here's to you Jerry!

"Back in my day we called them game tapes. 'Let's go solve a game tape' you'd say."

-Jerry Lawson