Google Doodle for December 1 Celebrates Video Game Pioneer Jerry Lawson; Here Is All You Need to Know

The Google Doodle for December 1, 2022, celebrates the 82^nd birthday of Gerald “Jerry” Lawson. Lawson is known as one of the fathers of modern gaming. He was the leader of the team that created the first home video gaming system that used the commercial video game cartridge.

In honour of the video game pioneer, the Google Doodle features games designed by Davionne Gooden, Lauren Brown, and Momo Pixel.

Lawson was born in Brooklyn, New York on December 1, 1940. Always having a knack for electronics, he attended Queens College and The City College of New York. He then moved to Palo Alto in California to work for Fairchild Semiconductor as an engineering consultant. During that time, the area was given the name “Silicon Valley.”

He then led the development of the Fairchild Channel F video game console after he was promoted to Director of Engineering and Marketing of the company’s video game department. The console was the first ever to use interchangeable cartridges. It was also the first home console to have a pause menu and a 8-way digital joystick.

Cartridges became popular in the video game industry when Lawson left Fairchild in 1980 to start his own company, VideoSoft. His company created software for the Atari 2600 console.

Lawson continued to work in the industry as a consultant for the rest of his career. He received accolades from the International Game Developers Association in 2011 for his work on the video game cartridge. Although Lawson died just one month after this, his legacy lives on. There is a permanent display of his contributions at The World Video Game Hall of Fame at The Strong National Museum of Play in Rochester, New York.