Ralph H. Baer Passes Away at 92

[thisIsLoneWolf]

He seemed like a good man, and I'm thankful for what he did for us.
RIP Mr. Baer.

[kaedesdisciple]

An inspiration, for the hobby that we all share, for his passion for technology (a field in which I am proud to participate), and for his passion for life.

While I mourn his loss, the world is certainly better for having had men like him.

[vintagegamecrazy]

Just found out about this. He was such an honorable man, I remember seeing his panel at MWGC a few years ago and it was a treat. This is tough news to swallow nonetheless.

[otaku]

great guy honored by a president no less for his inventions take the time to read the book about the odyssey its a great read

[sloan]

Hard to say there would have been no video games or home consoles without him. I mean, plenty of others may have gotten the same idea. We will never know.

[T2KFreeker]

Wow, I can't believe I missed this one. Sorry to hear this. Baer was the Man. Not sure where the gaming industry would have went without him. R.I.P. Ralph Baer...

[AdamAnt316]

Hard to say there would have been no video games or home consoles without him. I mean, plenty of others may have gotten the same idea. We will never know.

It truly is hard to say. The concept of playing a game on a computer already existed in the mid '60s, but computers in those days were the size of or larger than a refrigerator (not to mention insanely expensive), so were well outside of the realm of in-home use for most folks. My guess is that, without the 'Brown Box' or Odyssey, gaming would likely have remained mostly limited to universities and such until home computers evolved to the point of showing the sort of graphics needed for a game (late '70s/early '80s?), and might not have gone too far outside of that realm. Of course, the concept of the arcade game does seem to have appeared independent of Ralph Baer's contributions (with a little help from Steve Russell's "Spacewar!", of course), so who knows.
-Adam