(December 1, 1940- April 9, 2011)
Photo credits: The Estate of Jerry Lawson (Jerry Lawson)
Before Xbox, PlayStation, or even Atari, you had to buy a machine for each game, but Gerald Anderson “Jerry” Lawson changed that and was one of the founders of the video game industry. He was one of the few Black American engineers who worked in computing at the beginning of the video game era and became the founder of the first black-owned video game development company.
He is best known for leading the team that pioneered the commercial video game cartridge and for his work in designing the Fairchild Channel F video game console.
Early Life
Born December 1, 1940, Lawson grew up in the projects of Queens in New York City. His father was a longshoreman who encouraged science, while his mother was actively involved with Lawson’s education. She arranged it for him to attend a prestigious school outside their predominantly white area. During his teenage years, he broadcasted his radio show from his apartment, and he made money by selling homemade walk-in talkies and fixing his neighbor’s televisions.
Education
He attended Queens College and the City College of New York before taking his talents to Grumman Electric and Federal Aircraft. Manufacture of one of the largest computer companies in the 1970s’ DEC PDP-8 hosted a class in Lawson’s garage. He programmed for many companies and developed program languages, including H.U.D. (Head-up Display) systems for aircraft.
Career
He became a design consultant in Silicon Valley and one of two black members of the Home Brew Computer Club, which started in 1975. This club met to talk about the Altair 8800 and to exchange schematics and programming tips. The members were computer programmers and electrical engineers, including Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak.
He worked for Fairchild as head of engineering and marketing in 1976 for their gaming division. He designed one of the first coin games, Demolition Derby. Lawson set it up so kids couldn’t trigger the micro switch and get free plays which was an issue with another coin-op game before Demolition Derby. For the first five years at Fairchild, the company and the executives thought he was Indian.
“The whole reason I did games was because people said, ‘You can’t do it.’ I’m one of the guys; if you tell me I can’t do something, I’ll turn around and do it,“ once told Lawson San Jose Mercury News reporters.
Blacks in Gaming
According to a study by the International Game Developers Association (IGDA), only 2 percent of game developers in 2005 were Black or African-American. Today IGDA suggests that only 3% of game developers are African-American, a figure that has risen by only 0.5 percent in the past decade. Here are their top 10 in the industry now.
Blacks in Stem
According to engadget.com, Lawson told Vintage Computing that his advice for black males and females interested in science and engineering is to…
“First of all, get them to consider it [technical careers] in the first place. That’s key. Even considering the thing. They need to understand that they’re in the land by themselves. Don’t look for your buddies to be helpful, because they won’t be. You’ve gotta step away from the crowd and go do your own thing. You find a ground; cover it; it’s brand-new; you’re on your own — you’re an explorer. That’s about what it’s going to be like. Explore new vistas, new avenues, new ways — not relying on everyone else’s way to tell you which way to go, and how to go, and what you should be doing.” – Jerry Lawson
Engadget.com
Legacy and Contribution
- He founded Videosoft, the first black-owned video game development company.
- Lawson Produced the game Demolition Derby, One Of The Industry’s Earliest Arcade Games.
- He created the hardware for the first video game console that used interchangeable cartridges, called the Fairfield Channel F. This was the first time a game could be stored externally to allow the storage of multiple games played in one system. It was the first programmable R.O.M. cartridge-based video game console. The F.C.C. approved every cartridge that Lawson produced (26).
- He founded Video Soft, the first black-owned video game development company. This company produced several video games within the first five years. Since then, he had taken on consulting roles in the 1980s. Stevie Wonder had asked him to help create a clock called the Wonder Clock that would wake a child in the morning with the sound of his or her mother’s voice, but it never made it to production.
- Lawson was one of the few Black American engineers who worked in computing at the beginning of the video game era.
Next time you are playing your DS or other gaming devices where you swipe out a game, remember Jerry Lawson.
