DO YOU KNOW

Who introduced the Pause button to video games? The short answer is Gerald ‘Jerry‘ A. Lawson (1 December, 1940 – 9 April, 2011) an African-American engineer and video game pioneer. Fairchild Semiconductor International, Inc was founded in 1957 and was a division of Fairchild Camera and Instrument. It became a pioneer in the manufacturing of transistors and of integrated circuits but by the time Lawson arrived, two of it’s main founders Gordon Moore and Robert Noyce had left the company to found Intel.

Fast-forward a few years to November 1976 and under Lawson’s leadership, Fairchild released the Fairchild Channel F. Lawson had previously built his own arcade video game ‘Demolition Derby‘ in his garage using Fairchild’s F8 microprocessor. He would later use that same microprocessor to engineer the console. Using the F8 microprocessor gave the system enough computing power to implement AI sub-routines that also made it the first console system allowing gamers to play against the computer.

In yet another first, the Channel F was also allowed players to Pause their game. The controller had a Hold button that could be used to stop the game and change parameters like game speed.

The First Cartridge System
The video game prototype at Fairchild was always intended to be a home game. The initial idea for a video game cartridge came from Wallace Kirschner and Lawrence Haskel, who worked for Alpex Computer Corporation and licensed the technology to Fairchild. A team that included Lawson, Ron Smith and Nick Talesfore refined the technology and turned it into a practical, commercial product. Photo Credit: Wikimedia

OFF the WALL

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