Imagine if every time you wanted to play a new video game, you had to get an entirely new device: one Nintendo Switch for MarioKart, a second Nintendo Switch for Animal Crossing, a third Nintendo Switch for Pikmin, and so on.
In the early 1970s, before Roblox, Minecraft and Fruit Ninja were available for instant download, each video game had its own gaming system. That meant there was one game per gaming console.
Gerald “Jerry” Lawson was a young engineer working to make video games accessible to more consumers. In 1976 his product the Fairchild Channel F ran the first removable gaming card or cartridge, which meant that one console could now play multiple games.
Lawson’s work on the game cartridge revolutionized the way video games were developed and played. Having multiple cartridges meant developers could create multiple games for a single platform and consumers could decide which games they wanted to play without having to invest in an entirely new console.
After working hard to bring the Fairchild Channel F to the market, Lawson eventually moved on. In 1982 he founded one of the earliest Black owned video game companies, VideoSoft, where he explored creating games of his own, some of them even in 3D!
Read or listen to this StoryCorps story about how Jerry Lawson’s innovative spirit inspired his kids to become creative problem solvers.
Learn more about Jerry Lawson’s invention journey and see how his work continues to provide opportunities for innovation and invention today.
Jerry Lawson was an electrical engineer who was inspired to become an inventor by another famous Black history maker, George Washington Carver.
Like George Washington Carver, Lawson wanted to improve the world around him. He was a tinkerer who loved exploring new ideas and trying new things and used his passion for electronics and coding to help make video games more accessible. Creating video game cartridges took a lot of trial and error, and there were many unknowns along the way. Would the cartridge be able to withstand multiple uses? What if there was an electric spark, would it damage the card? Would people even want to change their games? Sometimes the process of invention is an adventure all of its own! Lawson and his team undertook all of these challenges and more and were ultimately successful.
What might you invent to improve the world? What might your invention journey look like?
Using Scratch, ScratchJr, or another coding platform, code a video game, story or animation that shares a dream invention, or shares the adventure you might face in bringing your invention to the world.