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Ralph Baer | Video game pioneer, 92

Ralph Baer, 92, a video game pioneer who created both the precursor to Pong and the electronic memory game Simon and led the team that developed the first home video game console, died Dec. 6 at his home in Manchester, N.H.

Ralph Baer, 92, a video game pioneer who created both the precursor to Pong and the electronic memory game Simon and led the team that developed the first home video game console, died Dec. 6 at his home in Manchester, N.H.

Born in Germany, Mr. Baer escaped the Holocaust with his family.

He started thinking about what later became the home video-game console while working as a TV set designer in the 1950s. In the next decade, he started working on TV games as chief engineer for Sanders Associates, now BAE Systems.

That led to the Brown Box, which was licensed by Magnavox and came out with the Odyssey in the early 1970s. The console, which connected to a television, could play about two dozen games, including one called Table Tennis that was a precursor to Pong.

His son, Mark Baer, recalled playing early versions of video games on a small black-and-white TV perched on a shoe stand.

Mr. Baer received the National Medal of Technology from President George W. Bush in 2006 and was inducted into the U.S. National Inventors Hall of Fame in 2010. - AP