August 26, 2025 • 10 mins
In the 1970s, Jerry Lawson was instrumental in creating the first cartridge-based video game console and the first digital joystick -- and he did it as one of the only Black engineers in Silicon Valley at that time. Learn about Lawson and the Fairchild Channel F in this episode of BrainStuff, based on this article: https://science.howstuffworks.com/innovation/big-thinkers/jerry-lawson.htm
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to Brainstuff, a production of iHeartRadio. Hey, Brainstuff, Lauren
vogelbam here. If you're a gamer of a certain age,
you've probably got fond memories of popping in a new
cartridge and settling in for a rousing session of Super
Mario or Sonic the Hedgehog, and you've got the late
Gerald or Jerry Lawson to thank for that nostalgia. Jerry
(00:26):
Lawson was an engineer and game designer who helped develop
Fairchild Channel F, which was the first ever cartridge based
video game console released for commercial sale, and in helping
create the Fairchild Channel F, Lawson helped lay the foundations
for the entire gaming industry as we know it. For
(00:46):
the article this episode is based on How Stuff Works,
spoke via email with BENJ. Edwards, a journalist and the
editor in chief of Vintage Computing and Gaming. Edwards interviewed
Lawson back in two thousand and nine after stumbling across
the engineer's image in a nineteen eighty three computer magazine.
Edwards said Jerry was a big name in Silicon Valley
(01:06):
in the nineteen seventies because people came to him for
semiconductor chips from Fairchild. It's neat to know there was
a black man in that position at the time, and
you know, his story must have been amazing to get
him there, and he did have an amazing story. Lawson
was born in Queens, New York, in December of nineteen forty.
He grew up with a fierce mother who ensured that
(01:29):
her son received the best schooling possible, and a longshoreman
father with an avid interest in science. It was under
these influences that Lawson was able to cultivate his natural
interest in engineering, tinkering with various electronics and even creating
his own amateur radio station at the age of thirteen.
He studied at Queen's College and City College of New York,
(01:51):
but Lawson's engineering skills were largely self taught. He made
his way to California's burgeoning Silicon Valley and eventually landed
in nineth teen seventy at Fairchild, a semiconductor company, where
he worked as a field engineer. One of the few
black men in the industry at the time, Lawson also
interacted through the home Brewing Computing Club with other people
(02:12):
who would later become even more influential in the technology industry,
such as Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs, but it was
while working at Fairchild that he met engineer Alan or
al Alcorn, the father of Pong, as Lawson called him
in a keynote speech at the Classic Gaming Expo in
two thousand and five. Alcorn designed and built the two
(02:33):
dimensional tennis game Pong as employee number three for Atari Incorporated,
a company that was a pioneer in arcade games. Released
in nineteen seventy two, as one of the first commercial
video games, Pong became a smash hit and catalyzed to industry.
Al Korn met with Lawson while scouting for electronic parts
for Pong. A Houstuff Works spoke with Alcorn back in
(02:56):
twenty twenty. He explained, I had a question about a
certain part that Fairchild made. They sent out a field
engineer to explain how their parts worked, and that was
Jerry Lawson. Jerry helped me out and we became friends
at that point. In a sense, Lawson and Alcorn were
both friends and competitors in the same space, or frenemies,
(03:17):
as Alcorn pleasantly recalled with a laugh. Lawson told a
story at that keynote event about how he remembered hearing
about a coin operated pong game being placed in a
beer hall or pizza parlor in Sunnyvale, California, which local
kids would shock with a wire, leading the game to
drop all its coins for the kids to steal. This
(03:38):
helped inspire the engineering behind Lawson's own coin operated video game,
Demolition Derby, which possessed a coin defeat mode to prevent
local kids from stealing coins from the game. Although al
Korn didn't recall this specific story, he did remember Lawson
mysteriously retreating into his work before re emerging with the
fair Child Channel F home video game system. What happened
(04:02):
is this, Lawson's superiors at Fairchild got wind of his
side work on games, and they decided to secretly enlist
his skills for their semiconductor company, which wanted to get
into the game industry. How Stuff Works also spoke with
one Jeremy Saucier via email in twenty twenty. He's the
assistant and vice president for Electronic Games and Interpretation at
(04:23):
the Strong Museum of Play in Rochester, New York. He
said in early nineteen seventy six, following Lawson's valuation and recommendation,
his employer Fairchild licensed prototype video game technology from Alpex
Computer Corporation and tasked Lawson, one of the few black
engineers working in Silicon Valley at the time, with developing
it into a commercial product. The company wanted Lawson and
(04:48):
the other Fairchild team members to quickly develop a console
using their specific F eight microprocessor, and not just any console.
The first commercial cartridge based home video game console the
Fairchild Channel F, which debuted at the Chicago Consumer Electronics
Show in June of nineteen seventy six. Lawson particularly contributed
(05:10):
to the project by developing a prototype for the console's
handheld controller, an eight way digital joystick that represented a
major innovation in putting that microprocessor to use. Edwards said,
Jerry Lawson didn't create the Channel F by himself, but
he was instrumental in its creation. He was a project
leader of sorts, pulling it together and also championing its development.
(05:33):
He was one of a team of engineers that designed it.
He worked on the electronic circuit design and played a
big part in the mechanics of the hand controller design.
Lawson was able to put his quick thinking skills to
use to bypass significant engineering problems in the creation of
the console. In that classic gaming Expo keynote, Lawson recalled
(05:53):
having an epiphany in the middle of the night about
a radiation signal issue that they were trying to fix.
Called his team member. In the wi hours, they went
back to the office working on a calculation. They wound
up shortening the cord from the console to the hand
controller by just a couple inches, which fixed the signal
issue and allowed them to bypass the FCC, which had
(06:14):
been blocking the approval of their product. Lawson was also tenacious.
He sat in the FCC's lobby for three days until
someone finally gave him approval for his product. Although the
Channel F garnered some interest when it launched on the
consumer market in the fall of nineteen seventy six, it
wasn't exactly a smashing success, especially since the Atari Video
(06:36):
computer system console also known as the Atari twenty six hundred,
quickly dominated the industry when it hit shelves following year.
It was developed by Alcorn and others at Atari. Alcorn
said that the lack of commercial success for the Fairchild
Channel F was due more to the semiconductor company's inexperience
with video games, whereas Atari's bread and butter was games
(06:57):
so they were better equipped to tackle the games market,
but that innovative joystick lived on as a third party
controller for the Atari. The Fairchild Channel F also introduced
for the first time the pause mechanism to the video
game world. Sascier said its most significant achievement was its
use of interchangeable cartridges, which proved revolutionary the potential of
(07:22):
playing dozens or even hundreds of individual games on a
platform unlocked the possibility of selling tens of millions of games.
After leaving Fairchild, Lawson continued to work as an engineer,
even working with Alcorn from time to time. A Lawson
founded the first black owned video game developing company, Videosoft Incorporated.
(07:43):
He also fostered support for the next generation of black engineers.
In his interview with Edwards, Lawson recalled a moving story
in which a child recognized him on the Las Vegas
Strip and shook his hand and thanked him. Edwards said,
Jerry mentored engineering students Stanford in his older age, even
when he was in relatively poor health. I think that
(08:05):
he wanted to inspire the next generation to be great engineers.
In twenty eleven, the International Game Developers Association honored Lawson
for his work in moving the video game industry forward.
He would pass away not long after, at the age
of seventy from complications due to diabetes. However, his legacy
(08:25):
lives on in the memories of those who knew him
and the thriving gaming industry. Since twenty thirteen, the Strong
Museum of Plays International Center for the History of Electronic
Games has housed and displayed some of Lawson's personal papers
and professional artifacts. He posthumously received the id at Xbox
Gaming Heroes Award at the Game Developer's Choice Awards in
(08:47):
twenty nineteen, and Google celebrated what would have been Lawson's
eighty second birthday on December first of twenty twenty two
by featuring him as the day's Google Doodle and heralding
him as one of the fathers of modern gaming. How
Stuffworks also spoke with Renee Gittens via email in twenty twenty,
who was then the executive director of the International Game
(09:08):
Developers Association. She said, Jerry Lawson was undoubtedly one of
the influential forces within our industry from the time he
developed Demolition Derby onward, including his leadership of the Fairchild Channel.
F's development. The invention of these cartridges influenced not only
the console technology, but also the marketing, sales, and bred
(09:28):
the video games made available. Without cartridges, the progress of
the games industry would have been far slower and more limited.
We are proud to recognize Jerry Lawson's accomplishments and influence,
and it is uplifting that he remains an inspiration to
this day. Today's episode is based on the article Jerry
(09:50):
Lawson Forever Changed the Video Game Industry on HowStuffWorks dot Com,
written by Tara Yarlagatta. A brain Stuff is production of
by Heart Radio in partnership with HowStuffWorks dot Com and
produced by Tyler Klang. Four more podcasts on my heart Radio,
visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen
to your favorite shows.
Welcome to Brainstuff, a production of iHeartRadio. Hey, Brainstuff, Lauren
vogelbam here. If you're a gamer of a certain age,
you've probably got fond memories of popping in a new
cartridge and settling in for a rousing session of Super
Mario or Sonic the Hedgehog, and you've got the late
Gerald or Jerry Lawson to thank for that nostalgia. Jerry
(00:26):
Lawson was an engineer and game designer who helped develop
Fairchild Channel F, which was the first ever cartridge based
video game console released for commercial sale, and in helping
create the Fairchild Channel F, Lawson helped lay the foundations
for the entire gaming industry as we know it. For
(00:46):
the article this episode is based on How Stuff Works,
spoke via email with BENJ. Edwards, a journalist and the
editor in chief of Vintage Computing and Gaming. Edwards interviewed
Lawson back in two thousand and nine after stumbling across
the engineer's image in a nineteen eighty three computer magazine.
Edwards said Jerry was a big name in Silicon Valley
(01:06):
in the nineteen seventies because people came to him for
semiconductor chips from Fairchild. It's neat to know there was
a black man in that position at the time, and
you know, his story must have been amazing to get
him there, and he did have an amazing story. Lawson
was born in Queens, New York, in December of nineteen forty.
He grew up with a fierce mother who ensured that
(01:29):
her son received the best schooling possible, and a longshoreman
father with an avid interest in science. It was under
these influences that Lawson was able to cultivate his natural
interest in engineering, tinkering with various electronics and even creating
his own amateur radio station at the age of thirteen.
He studied at Queen's College and City College of New York,
(01:51):
but Lawson's engineering skills were largely self taught. He made
his way to California's burgeoning Silicon Valley and eventually landed
in nineth teen seventy at Fairchild, a semiconductor company, where
he worked as a field engineer. One of the few
black men in the industry at the time, Lawson also
interacted through the home Brewing Computing Club with other people
(02:12):
who would later become even more influential in the technology industry,
such as Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs, but it was
while working at Fairchild that he met engineer Alan or
al Alcorn, the father of Pong, as Lawson called him
in a keynote speech at the Classic Gaming Expo in
two thousand and five. Alcorn designed and built the two
(02:33):
dimensional tennis game Pong as employee number three for Atari Incorporated,
a company that was a pioneer in arcade games. Released
in nineteen seventy two, as one of the first commercial
video games, Pong became a smash hit and catalyzed to industry.
Al Korn met with Lawson while scouting for electronic parts
for Pong. A Houstuff Works spoke with Alcorn back in
(02:56):
twenty twenty. He explained, I had a question about a
certain part that Fairchild made. They sent out a field
engineer to explain how their parts worked, and that was
Jerry Lawson. Jerry helped me out and we became friends
at that point. In a sense, Lawson and Alcorn were
both friends and competitors in the same space, or frenemies,
(03:17):
as Alcorn pleasantly recalled with a laugh. Lawson told a
story at that keynote event about how he remembered hearing
about a coin operated pong game being placed in a
beer hall or pizza parlor in Sunnyvale, California, which local
kids would shock with a wire, leading the game to
drop all its coins for the kids to steal. This
(03:38):
helped inspire the engineering behind Lawson's own coin operated video game,
Demolition Derby, which possessed a coin defeat mode to prevent
local kids from stealing coins from the game. Although al
Korn didn't recall this specific story, he did remember Lawson
mysteriously retreating into his work before re emerging with the
fair Child Channel F home video game system. What happened
(04:02):
is this, Lawson's superiors at Fairchild got wind of his
side work on games, and they decided to secretly enlist
his skills for their semiconductor company, which wanted to get
into the game industry. How Stuff Works also spoke with
one Jeremy Saucier via email in twenty twenty. He's the
assistant and vice president for Electronic Games and Interpretation at
(04:23):
the Strong Museum of Play in Rochester, New York. He
said in early nineteen seventy six, following Lawson's valuation and recommendation,
his employer Fairchild licensed prototype video game technology from Alpex
Computer Corporation and tasked Lawson, one of the few black
engineers working in Silicon Valley at the time, with developing
it into a commercial product. The company wanted Lawson and
(04:48):
the other Fairchild team members to quickly develop a console
using their specific F eight microprocessor, and not just any console.
The first commercial cartridge based home video game console the
Fairchild Channel F, which debuted at the Chicago Consumer Electronics
Show in June of nineteen seventy six. Lawson particularly contributed
(05:10):
to the project by developing a prototype for the console's
handheld controller, an eight way digital joystick that represented a
major innovation in putting that microprocessor to use. Edwards said,
Jerry Lawson didn't create the Channel F by himself, but
he was instrumental in its creation. He was a project
leader of sorts, pulling it together and also championing its development.
(05:33):
He was one of a team of engineers that designed it.
He worked on the electronic circuit design and played a
big part in the mechanics of the hand controller design.
Lawson was able to put his quick thinking skills to
use to bypass significant engineering problems in the creation of
the console. In that classic gaming Expo keynote, Lawson recalled
(05:53):
having an epiphany in the middle of the night about
a radiation signal issue that they were trying to fix.
Called his team member. In the wi hours, they went
back to the office working on a calculation. They wound
up shortening the cord from the console to the hand
controller by just a couple inches, which fixed the signal
issue and allowed them to bypass the FCC, which had
(06:14):
been blocking the approval of their product. Lawson was also tenacious.
He sat in the FCC's lobby for three days until
someone finally gave him approval for his product. Although the
Channel F garnered some interest when it launched on the
consumer market in the fall of nineteen seventy six, it
wasn't exactly a smashing success, especially since the Atari Video
(06:36):
computer system console also known as the Atari twenty six hundred,
quickly dominated the industry when it hit shelves following year.
It was developed by Alcorn and others at Atari. Alcorn
said that the lack of commercial success for the Fairchild
Channel F was due more to the semiconductor company's inexperience
with video games, whereas Atari's bread and butter was games
(06:57):
so they were better equipped to tackle the games market,
but that innovative joystick lived on as a third party
controller for the Atari. The Fairchild Channel F also introduced
for the first time the pause mechanism to the video
game world. Sascier said its most significant achievement was its
use of interchangeable cartridges, which proved revolutionary the potential of
(07:22):
playing dozens or even hundreds of individual games on a
platform unlocked the possibility of selling tens of millions of games.
After leaving Fairchild, Lawson continued to work as an engineer,
even working with Alcorn from time to time. A Lawson
founded the first black owned video game developing company, Videosoft Incorporated.
(07:43):
He also fostered support for the next generation of black engineers.
In his interview with Edwards, Lawson recalled a moving story
in which a child recognized him on the Las Vegas
Strip and shook his hand and thanked him. Edwards said,
Jerry mentored engineering students Stanford in his older age, even
when he was in relatively poor health. I think that
(08:05):
he wanted to inspire the next generation to be great engineers.
In twenty eleven, the International Game Developers Association honored Lawson
for his work in moving the video game industry forward.
He would pass away not long after, at the age
of seventy from complications due to diabetes. However, his legacy
(08:25):
lives on in the memories of those who knew him
and the thriving gaming industry. Since twenty thirteen, the Strong
Museum of Plays International Center for the History of Electronic
Games has housed and displayed some of Lawson's personal papers
and professional artifacts. He posthumously received the id at Xbox
Gaming Heroes Award at the Game Developer's Choice Awards in
(08:47):
twenty nineteen, and Google celebrated what would have been Lawson's
eighty second birthday on December first of twenty twenty two
by featuring him as the day's Google Doodle and heralding
him as one of the fathers of modern gaming. How
Stuffworks also spoke with Renee Gittens via email in twenty twenty,
who was then the executive director of the International Game
(09:08):
Developers Association. She said, Jerry Lawson was undoubtedly one of
the influential forces within our industry from the time he
developed Demolition Derby onward, including his leadership of the Fairchild Channel.
F's development. The invention of these cartridges influenced not only
the console technology, but also the marketing, sales, and bred
(09:28):
the video games made available. Without cartridges, the progress of
the games industry would have been far slower and more limited.
We are proud to recognize Jerry Lawson's accomplishments and influence,
and it is uplifting that he remains an inspiration to
this day. Today's episode is based on the article Jerry
(09:50):
Lawson Forever Changed the Video Game Industry on HowStuffWorks dot Com,
written by Tara Yarlagatta. A brain Stuff is production of
by Heart Radio in partnership with HowStuffWorks dot Com and
produced by Tyler Klang. Four more podcasts on my heart Radio,
visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen
to your favorite shows.
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