<div dir="ltr"><h1 style="box-sizing:border-box;font-size:16pt;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif">Radio ham who revolutionized the video game industry</h1><p style="box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:16px"><img src="https://scontent-lhr3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/52997038_2265720846784755_7089252115171770368_n.jpg?_nc_cat=109&amp;_nc_ht=scontent-lhr3-1.xx&amp;oh=34025689c244cda8a24f8df5cae53573&amp;oe=5D208876" width="325" border="1" align="right" style="box-sizing: border-box; max-width: 100%; height: auto;">IGN Entertainment have published an article about the African-American radio amateur <strong style="box-sizing:border-box">Jerry Lawson WA6LVN</strong> who revolutionized the video game industry <br style="box-sizing:border-box"><br style="box-sizing:border-box">His enthusiasm for amateur radio started when his parents bought him a ham radio receiver kit. <br style="box-sizing:border-box">&quot;I built it and it worked,&quot; he recalled. &quot;I think the greatest joy I ever had in my life was when I put that thing together by myself with nobody helping me.&quot; <br style="box-sizing:border-box"><br style="box-sizing:border-box">He passed his amateur radio exam at the age of 13.<br style="box-sizing:border-box"><br style="box-sizing:border-box">In the 1970&#39;s Jerry became a member of the famous Homebrew Computer Club—a gathering of computer enthusiasts that included Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak WA6BND, founders of Apple computers. In later interviews he recalled that he did not have a particularly good impression of the Steves, and even turned Steven Wozniak WA6BND down to instead take an engineering position at Fairchild. <br style="box-sizing:border-box"><br style="box-sizing:border-box">Video games were just a budding concept in the 70s, but Lawson would become the Chief Engineer of Fairchild’s Video Game division, starting with a clandestine project to port an Alpex game from the Intel 8080 to the Fairchild F8.<br style="box-sizing:border-box"><br style="box-sizing:border-box">In this position, Lawson had a significant amount of freedom, and the partnership would lead to the Alpex video game cartridge idea to be licensed by Fairchild. History often cites Lawson as being the sole inventor of the cartridge, but he is more appropriately the person who lead the commercialization of a polished version of it.  <br style="box-sizing:border-box"><br style="box-sizing:border-box">Read the IGN article at <br style="box-sizing:border-box"><a href="https://uk.ign.com/articles/2019/02/22/jerry-lawson-the-black-man-who-revolutionized-gaming-as-we-know-it" target="_blank" style="box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(0,51,102);text-decoration-line:none">https://uk.ign.com/articles/2019/02/22/jerry-lawson-the-black-man-who-revolutionized-gaming-as-we-know-it</a><br style="box-sizing:border-box"><br style="box-sizing:border-box">Engineers of History: Jerry Lawson, Video Game Pioneer (1940-2011) <br style="box-sizing:border-box"><a href="https://www.allaboutcircuits.com/news/engineers-of-history-jerry-lawson-video-game-pioneer-1940-2011/" target="_blank" style="box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(0,51,102);text-decoration-line:none">https://www.allaboutcircuits.com/news/engineers-of-history-jerry-lawson-video-game-pioneer-1940-2011/</a></p></div>