Anyone who goes online Thursday (and that includes you, if you’re reading this) can stop by the Google homepage for a special treat: A set of create-your-own video games inspired by the man who helped make interactive gaming possible.
Gerald “Jerry” Lawson, who died in 2011, would have turned 82 on Dec. 1. He led the team that developed the first home video gaming system with interchangeable cartridges, paving the way for future systems like Atari and Super Nintendo.
Lawson’s achievements were particularly notable considering he was one of very few Black engineers working in the tech industry in the 1970s. Yet, as his children told Google, “due to a crash in the video game market, our father’s story became a footnote in video-game history.”
Recent years have ushered in new efforts to recognize Lawson: He is memorialized at the World Video Game Hall of Fame in New York,…
