It’s sometimes hard to believe that it really wasn’t that long ago when we weren’t carrying computers around in our pockets. What comes in a small package now seems light years from its more primitive origins. Without the imaginative minds of early innovators, the sophisticated computers and entertainment systems of today might not be what they are. If you grew up on TV video games like I did, one of these innovations, the video game console, was created in Nashua and it’s one of many New Hampshire inventions.

German-American inventor, game developer, and engineer Ralph Baer imagined the idea the playing games on a TV screen while working in the electronics industry.
Electronic Engineering TimesLiane Enkelis (Photography), public domain/Wikimedia Commons
While he was an engineer at Sanders Associates in Nashua, New Hampshire, he had the support of his employers to work on what would become the first video game console.
Walter Bibikow/DigitalVision via Getty Images
He created several prototypes until settling on a "brown box" device that would later become the blueprint for the Magnavox Odyssey game console in 1972.
Rolenta/Wikimedia Commons

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While considered quite simple today, the Magnavox Odyssey was a watershed moment in home entertainment technology and was superseded by the Magnavox Odyssey 2 in 1978.
Jesmar/Wikimedia Commons
Baer is credited with co-developing three other popular electronic games, including Simon, a pattern-matching game that became extremely popular in the 1990s.
Shritwod/Wikimedia Commons
Baer passed away at his home in Manchester, New Hampshire in 2014. Visitors to the Smithsonian Institution can view his donated hardware prototypes in a replica of his workshop.
The Smithsonian Institute, Public domain/Wikimedia Commons

Sometimes I learn as much as you do when I’m putting together these articles, and this is a nugget that I certainly did not know about! My inner teenage self owes a debt of gratitude for Mr. Baer’s creativity and imagination.

You might be surprised to learn what other New Hampshire inventions are out there. Would you have guessed a stagecoach, a mountain climbing train, or the alarm clock?

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