Ralph H. Baer is gone. He made video games, as in, he created the industry. That's pretty interesting in and of itself, but that is not the most interesting thing about Ralph. There are tons of interesting things about him. Personally, I find the most interesting thing about him is he not only built something from nothing, he continued to work on that newborn something quietly and enthusiastically every single day until he died.
I find that most interesting because he proved it can be done.
Other interesting things about Ralphie... Let's see... Had em' right here... Oh ok, So he was born in Germany but had a hard time over there cause his family were Jew's when it really wasn't cool to be a Jew in Germany. Baer's family left a few months before Kristallnacht, which is a defunct German holiday where confused Germans go door to door kicking the shit out of Jew's.
Ralph Baer and his family traveled to America, where it's ok to be whoever you want to be as long as you aren't black.
Ralph got really into radios, was drafted into WWII as a military intelligence operative, then returned to Germany and fucked up their shit. That had to feel pretty good on some level.
Goddam, the file on this guy is massive... Let's just hit the high notes. Ok, Bachelor of Science in Television Engineering before the discipline even existed. Chief engineer at Wappler, Inc where he pioneered surgical cut machines, epilators, and low freq pulse gen equipment. Worked at Loral, IBM, Transitron... Blah blah blah... Jesus, did this guy sleep?
And finally (not really he did a ton of other stuff) dude made the Brown Box and the Magnavox Odyssey, the first consoles. How must it have felt to be talking about what were to become video games at that time?
He must have been the weirdest of the weird guys at parties. I imagine him walking up to people in a conversation about a recent boxing match and positing the ability to actually control the action of the boxers on screen through electrode manipulation, only to have them roll their eyes are give the 40's version of Bye Felicia.
I'm sure he wasn't bothered, he was beyond proving a point or corralling the masses. The show wasn't about him, only the vision mattered. He was Lucy on the sidewalk with the chalk.
Anyway, he's dead and there will be no more Ralph in the world, and that is sad. But there is room for others who will no doubt come along and elaborate on the picture Volta and Edison and Tesla began painting. They are out there right now as a matter of fact.
I hope information hasn't taken my radio silence for submission. Just a detour, the plan hasn't changed. Also, had nothing to do with this clusterfuck, my plate is super full, ask the kids. Also Dragon Age: Freaky Tales is the truth. Also Ubisoft get your shit together, Jade left for a reason. Also Midrats at 3:00 also JERBZ.
The Protoculture Mixtape V.XX Full Stop
