Jerry Lawson was an engineer and game designer who was out of a stereotype of engineers in 1970s America (IGN). During the 1970s, he was one of the few Black engineers.
With his parents’ dedication to education, he was able to cultivate his natural interest in engineering (IGN). His first-grade teacher, Ms. Guble, influenced him to be next George Washington Carver, an African American agricultural inventor (IGN). With her advice, he built and maintained radios at age of thirteen. He provided a service of fixing neighbours’ electronics, taking parts apart, learning how the thing works, and then putting them back together. After attending Queens College and City College of New York, he worked for private sectors in Military Aircraft in Silicon Valley. He later recalls that the experience helped him produce consumer goods as they have to be stronger than military sectors (IGN).
After building a career in Silicon Valley, Jerry Lawson landed at Fairchild Semiconducter Inc. in 1970. He faced a problem that Fairchild is not known for being helpful to customers (IGN). To resolve this recognition, Lawson focused on a one-on-one personal experience. He converted RV into an interactive vehicle, with rear-facing screens and literature about Fairchild, and a lab on wheels. The experimental RV helped the firm to gain the consumer-friendliness.
While he demonstrated Human Interaction via RV, he created a historical impact in the game industry. Allianced with engineer Allan “AI” Alcorn, who designed a tennis game Pong for Atari, Lawson introduced the first cartridge-based video game console to consumers, Fairchild Channel F (HowStuffWorks). His interchangeable Cartridge system influenced the game industry and increased its life span (IGN). Console manufacturers saved space and resources which were assigned to implement games into a limited room. Game developers were able to produce games in a given format and sell them. Consumers got a chance to play other games and expand their game library, which was impossible in consoles with a limited number of games. A dedicated physical cartridge minimized the loss of games compared to when consoles embedded them. The cartridge system still exists in the latest generation consoles, transitioning to digital and cloud systems: Xbox and Playstation have a disk drive to insert CD format. Nintendo designed a dedicated cartridge designed for its exclusive console.
In the project making Fairchild’s console, Lawson played a big part in the hand controller design. The “innovative eight-way joystick”(HowStuffWorks) provides a degree of control by slightly turning left and right. In addition to pushing in on the knob, gamers could pull up on it, which performs like a second button. The rich controls elevate the playability of games, which might be simple (VGC). The joysticks evolved into a modern controller, which provides two joysticks to control the move and sight, with specific control of using triggers and buttons. These additional buttons provide users rich control, which are the objective of Lawson’s controller.
Work Cited
IGN: Joyner, Jazmine. “Jerry Lawson: The Black Man Who Revolutionized Gaming As We Know It – IGN.” IGN, IGN, 22 Feb. 2019, www.ign.com/articles/2019/02/22/jerry-lawson-the-black-man-who-revolutionized-gaming-as-we-know-it. Accessed 24 Nov. 2020.
HowStuffWorks: Yarlagadda, Tara. “Jerry Lawson Forever Changed the Video Game Industry.” HowStuffWorks, 23 July 2020, science.howstuffworks.com/innovation/big-thinkers/jerry-lawson.htm. Accessed 24 Nov. 2020.
VGC: “The Video Game Critic’s Channel F System Review.” Videogamecritic.com, videogamecritic.com/channelfinfo.htm. Accessed 24 Nov. 2020.
Images Cited
Fig 1. Joyner, Jazmine. “Jerry Lawson: The Black Man Who Revolutionized Gaming As We Know It – IGN.” IGN, IGN, 22 Feb. 2019, www.ign.com/articles/2019/02/22/jerry-lawson-the-black-man-who-revolutionized-gaming-as-we-know-it. Accessed 24 Nov. 2020.
Fig 2. Edwards, Benj. “The Untold Story Of The Invention Of The Game Cartridge.” Fast Company, Fast Company, 22 Jan. 2015, www.fastcompany.com/3040889/the-untold-story-of-the-invention-of-the-game-cartridge.
