The Brown Box Golf Game Accessory, 1968
date: label: Date made
content: 1968
name: label: patent holder
content: Baer, Ralph H.
label: inventor
content: Baer, Ralph H.
notes: label: Description
content: This strange-looking contraption was actually used to play an early video game.
label: Description
content: To play the golf game on the <a href="http://americanhistory.si.edu/collections/search/object/nmah_1301997">“Brown Box,”</a> a prototype for the first multiplayer, multiprogram video game system, Baer and his colleagues mounted a golf ball on a joystick handle. This allowed the player to use a real golf club to practice his or her putting skills. Magnavox licensed the "Brown Box" and released the system as the <a href="http://americanhistory.si.edu/collections/search/object/nmah_1302004">Magnavox Odyssey</a> in 1972. Though it was never produced commercially, the golf accessory was covered with brown wood-grain, self-adhesive vinyl so that it would match the "Brown Box."
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
setName: label: See more items in
content: Medicine and Science: Computers
label: See more items in
content: Popular Entertainment
label: See more items in
content: Baer
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content: Family & Social Life
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content: Computers & Business Machines
publisher: label: Related Publication
content: Baer, Ralph H.. Videogames: In The Beginning
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Ralph H. Baer
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: 2006.0102.11
label: accession number
content: 2006.0102
label: catalog number
content: 2006.0102.11
objectType: label: Object Name
content: game accessory
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: aluminum (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: paper (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: vinyl (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 6 in x 10 1/4 in x 4 1/2 in; 15.24 cm x 26.035 cm x 11.43 cm