TV Game Unit #8, 1968

TV Game Unit #8, 1968

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Description
What do you do after you invent the video game? Try to make it better!
While preparing their video game system prototype, the “Brown Box” to be presented to potential investors, Ralph Baer and his colleague Bill Harrison created TV Game Unit #8. They wanted to demonstrate a more advanced technology that would allow the user’s paddle to determine, in the direction and speed of the game ball, when the two would collide. This would allow for games such as baseball and more realistic hockey game play.
This TV Game Unit #8 interfaced with the "Brown Box," but proved too expensive to pursue in these early stages. Since it was not going to be shown to investors just yet, it was never covered with brown wood grain self-adhesive vinyl to match the "Brown Box." A few years later, this technology was key when Baer and his colleagues started to design and build arcade games.
Location
Currently not on view
Object Name
game chassis
Date made
1968
patent holder
Baer, Ralph H.
inventor
Baer, Ralph H.
Physical Description
aluminum (overall material)
Measurements
overall: 3 1/4 in x 12 1/4 in x 10 1/4 in; 8.255 cm x 31.115 cm x 26.035 cm
ID Number
2006.0102.07
catalog number
2006.0102.07
accession number
2006.0102
Credit Line
Ralph H. Baer
See more items in
Medicine and Science: Computers
Popular Entertainment
Baer
Family & Social Life
Computers & Business Machines
Data Source
National Museum of American History
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