Gerald Lawson Biography
Gerald Lawson was born December 1st, 1940 in Brooklyn, New York. An important event while growing up in the projects of Queens in New York City, was Gerald got a start on his lifelong love of tinkering. His love for all things electronic and gadget-y compelled him toward the engineer side of things. As a youth, he operated his own ham radio and as a teenager he made money by repairing his neighbors' television sets. Lawson worked for as the head of engineering and marketing for Fairchild Semiconductor's gaming outfit in the mid-'70s, and developed the first home gaming console that utilized interchangeable cartridges, the Fairchild Channel F. One of Gerald Lawsons most important life events was creating his own videogame company called Videosoft which produced videogames. Another important life event was when Gerald Lawson created Demolition Derby which was one of the earliest arcade games in the industry. After a lifetime of innovation Gerald Lawson was honored as an industry pioneer by the International Game Developers Association.
The biggest problem Gerald Lawson solved was creating interchangeable cartridges to be used with gaming systems that only had one game available for the whole system. Gerald Lawson achieved his goal by creating the Fairchild Channel F gaming system. Gerald Lawson was a huge success in the video game and technology field. A famous quote of Gerald Lawsons is that he encouraged other young black men and women to become invested in science and engineering careers. Gerald Lawson got along with all of his peers and was part of The Homebrew Computer Club, an early collective of computer hobbyists, that would go on to produce such other computer legends as Apple founders Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak. Gerald Lawson died April 9, 2011.
The biggest problem Gerald Lawson solved was creating interchangeable cartridges to be used with gaming systems that only had one game available for the whole system. Gerald Lawson achieved his goal by creating the Fairchild Channel F gaming system. Gerald Lawson was a huge success in the video game and technology field. A famous quote of Gerald Lawsons is that he encouraged other young black men and women to become invested in science and engineering careers. Gerald Lawson got along with all of his peers and was part of The Homebrew Computer Club, an early collective of computer hobbyists, that would go on to produce such other computer legends as Apple founders Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak. Gerald Lawson died April 9, 2011.