Imagine having to buy a new Xbox or PlayStation console any time you wanted to play a new game – I for one would have needed an entire room for my collection. If not for Gerald Lawson, pioneer of video game cartridges, perhaps that might have been the reality we would be living in.
Born in New York on December 1st, 1940, Jerry Lawson had somewhat of a familial inkling towards science. His grandfather had graduated as a physicist (although he was never able to find a job in the field), his father was a long shoreman, whose love for science had earned him the nickname science bug by Lawson and his mother worked for New York City and highly valued education all played a crucial role in his development.
From a very young age, Lawson was primed for greatness and realizing their child’s brilliance, Lawson’s parents constantly encouraged him to pursue his scientific hobbies (Ham radio and Chemistry being his favorite) – his mother also made sure her son received the best possible education.
With motivation from his parents coupled with inspiration he drew from George Washington Carver (whom he found out in the first grade); Jerry Lawson was earning money by fixing TV sets and attaining an amateur ham radio license before hitting 14 years of age. Whatever he made, funded equipment for a radio station which he broadcast from his room. Even though Jerry Lawson attended both Queens College and City College of New York, Jerry Lawson did not graduate from either, that being said he had basically been educating himself since he was a child.
Self-taught with a drive for greatness, Jerry Lawson joined Fairchild Semiconductor in 1970. It is during this time, he made the game Demolition Derby in his garage with the Fairchild microprocessors, making it one of the first games ever to utilize microprocessors. By the mid 70’s, Lawson’s ingenuity and passion had earned him a spot as Chief Hardware Engineer for Fairchild Semiconductor. The new post entitled him to more freedom, and it is during this time he would go on to make history.
With his new role in the company, Jerry Lawson led development for the Fairchild Channel F console, which was released in 1976 and used swappable game cartridges as well as video game controllers. This might not seem like a big deal but at the time this was the pinnacle of technology as games had to be programmed into the hardware meaning every game required its own console. Cartridges allowed users to create gaming collections, opening a whole new revenue stream for video game companies.
While the Fairchild Channel F flopped in the market, its cartridge technology was implemented by the infamous Atari 2600 console, which cemented the technology as the foundation of modern games. This feat is one of the main reasons the videogame industry is worth a whopping $90 Billion in 2020 and is showing no signs of slowing down.
Creator of Pong, Allan Alcorn perhaps best summed up Lawson’s achievement, “The Fairchild Channel F was designed the way you should design a video game…. its most significant achievement was its use of interchangeable cartridges, which proved revolutionary, the potential of playing dozens, or even hundreds of individual games on a platform unlocked the possibility of selling tens of millions of games.”
While at Fairchild, Lawson along with Ron Jones were the only black members of the Homebrew Computer Club – which served as a melting pot of ideas for computer enthusiasts. Some other notable members of the club included Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak.
After leaving Fairchild after 10 years, Jerry Lawson founded Videosoft the first ever video game company owned by a black person. The company primarily made software products for Atari 2600. Unfortunately, Videosoft’s run only lasted for 5 years after which Lawson started consulting work at different companies.
In March 2011, Jerry Lawson for memorialized in the video game industry for his work in the development of video game cartridges by the International Game Developer’s Association. Only a month later, he lost his life after a long battle with diabetes.
Jerry Lawson is also featured in the Netflix series High Score.