Play the first video game console

Spending on video games in the United States alone has reached an average of $17 billion dollars per year. It’s hard to imagine that just 40 years ago, there was almost zero spending on video games because they were just newly invented in our homes and at the arcades. While many people credit Atari founder Nolan Bushnell as the creator of the video games, the “Father of Video Games” is actually a gentleman named Ralph Baer. Ralph was born in 1922 and had true visions of the modern-day video game console back in the 1950s and 1960s. In 2006 Ralph was awarded the National Medal of Technology and received it from U.S. President George W. Bush.

In 1967, Ralph Baer and his colleagues at Sanders Associates developed a prototype for the first multiplayer, multiprogram video game system. The prototype, with its adhesive brown wood grain vinyl, became known as the “Brown Box” and eventually was used as the basis for what became the Magnavox Odyssey in 1972 – the first commercial video game home system.

Now, for one day only, the Brown Box is coming to Canada at the Personal Computer Museum. Join us on Saturday, September 21, 2013 from 10:00 am to 4:00 pm as we celebrate Ralph’s invention and our love for video games.

Tickets will be available at a cost of $5 each (proceeds to go directly to the Personal Computer Museum) that will give you five minutes of play time with the box, and a lifetime worth of bragging rights! Bring your own camera (or smart phone) for a photo opportunity you will always cherish (we also can provide photos for you at a nominal charge). Just click on the “Register for Event” button below to buy your tickets ahead of time (tickets also available on-site)

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