GAME DESIGNER

Ralph H. Baer

1922 - 2014

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Ralph Henry Baer (born Rudolf Heinrich Baer; March 8, 1922 – December 6, 2014) was a German-born American inventor, game developer, and engineer. Baer's Jewish family fled Germany just before World War II and Baer served the American war effort, gaining an interest in electronics shortly thereafter. Through several jobs in the electronics industry, he was working as an engineer at Sanders Associates (now BAE Systems) in Nashua, New Hampshire, when he conceived the idea of playing games on a television screen around 1966. With support of his employers, he worked through several prototypes until he arrived at a "Brown Box" that would later become the blueprint for the first home video game console, licensed by Magnavox as the Magnavox Odyssey. Read more on Wikipedia

His biography is available in different languages on Wikipedia. Ralph H. Baer is the 6th most popular game designer (down from 5th in 2019), the 1,774th most popular biography from Germany (down from 1,555th in 2019) and the most popular German Game Designer.

Ralph H. Baer is most famous for inventing the first video game console, which he called the "Brown Box." He is also credited with creating the first home video game system, the Magnavox Odyssey.

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Among GAME DESIGNERS

Among game designers, Ralph H. Baer ranks 6 out of 77. Before him are Gary Gygax, Shigeru Miyamoto, Lizzie Magie, Markus Persson, and Hideo Kojima. After him are Jeff Kinney, Alexey Pajitnov, Satoru Iwata, Gunpei Yokoi, Gabe Newell, and Toru Iwatani.

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Contemporaries

Among people born in 1922, Ralph H. Baer ranks 102. Before him are Paul Marcinkus, Hussein-Ali Montazeri, George Blake, Kim Hunter, Rajko Mitić, and Elmer Bernstein. After him are Yvonne De Carlo, Anker Jørgensen, José Froilán González, Patrick Macnee, Serge Reggiani, and Stephen Kim Sou-hwan. Among people deceased in 2014, Ralph H. Baer ranks 93. Before him are Jean-Luc Dehaene, Alice Herz-Sommer, Ben Bradlee, Oscar de la Renta, Stuart Hall, and Gottfried John. After him are Valeri Kubasov, Christopher Jones, Ignatius Zakka I Iwas, Jack Bruce, Fred Phelps, and Run Run Shaw.

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In Germany

Among people born in Germany, Ralph H. Baer ranks 1,774 out of 7,253. Before him are Duchess Anna Amalia of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel (1739), Georg Stumme (1886), Barbara Sukowa (1950), Duke Louis of Mecklenburg-Schwerin (1725), Maurice, Landgrave of Hesse-Kassel (1572), and Carl Sigismund Kunth (1788). After him are Prince Oskar of Prussia (1888), Wenceslaus I, Duke of Saxe-Wittenberg (1337), Princess Josephine of Baden (1813), Wilhelm Adam (1877), Matthias Kleinheisterkamp (1893), and Friedrich Parrot (1791).

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Among GAME DESIGNERS In Germany

Among game designers born in Germany, Ralph H. Baer ranks 1. After him are Reiner Knizia (1957).

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