While unfortunately and sadly, physical games are conveniently becoming passé by the very same gaming industry, pretty much without physical installable video games, would have been relying on going everyday to an arcade room.

Jerry Lawson: The Black Engineer and Entrepreneur Who Changed Video Games - The Strong National Museum of Play

Luckily, back in the 70’s, late great Gerald "Jerry" Lawson invented a way that people didn’t need to leave home and still play video games at home and allowed a recycling of games consoles that previously, were unable to switch built-in games.

Jerry Lawson was one of the first Black engineers in the video game industry and led the development of the first gaming console with interchangeable cartridges in 1976 along with his team at Fairchild Camera and Instrument.

The Untold Story Of The Invention Of The Game Cartridge

Of course, his motivation was right away after he built his own arcade cabinet, Demolition Derby.

Called the Fairchild Channel F, it was a big novelty in the early days of home console gaming and pioneered all their predecessors, Atari was the first and was actually able to capitalize on the new concept and by 1983, Fairchild Channel F assets and technology were already sold and discontinued development.

Despite the short life of Fairchild Channel F and leaving before the company's abrupt end, in 1980 Lawson founded Videosoft, a video game development company that made software for the Atari 2600 in the early 1980s, as the 2600 had displaced the Channel F as the top system in the market.

Unfortunately, Mr. Lawson exited the industry due the Video Game Industry Crash of 1983 (a whole topic that can be discussed at a later time) and Videosoft closing operation by 1985.

For the rest of his life, he served as tech consultant for the State of Stanford until he passed away in April 2011.

As its birthday is this week (December 1), Google honors his legacy via Google Doodle by letting aspiring designers and engineers make their own games, complete with cartridge theming. 

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The game editor is a simple, browser version of something like Mario Maker. After playing a short introductory sequence to help you get familiar with the controls and editing tools, the doodle opens up to a menu, where you can play pre-made games as well as make and share your own.

Thank you Mr. Lawson and we are sorry that the industry opted to conventional goe digital and streaming as a new medium for games.