Ralph Baer

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Ralph Baer emigrated from Nazi Germany in 1938 and earned a B.S. in television engineering after World War II. He thought that TV owners should be able to do more than change channels and turn the set on or off—he wanted people to interact with their sets, playing games like ping pong, tennis, and checkers. In 1966 he began experimenting with ways to realize his vision. The video game industry for the home market launched in 1972 when Magnavox debuted the Odyssey game console, based on Baer’s inventions.