TV Game Unit #1, 1967
date: label: Date made
content: 1966
name: label: inventor
content: Baer, Ralph H.
label: patent holder
content: Baer, Ralph H.
notes: label: Description
content: From this assemblage of metal, wires and glass tubes, the future of video games would be built.
label: Description
content: In 1966, while working for Sanders Associates Inc., engineer Ralph Baer began to look into new ways to use television, focusing specifically on interactive games. In 1967, he created the first of several video game test units. Called TVG#1 or TV Game Unit #1, this device, when used with an <a href="http://americanhistory.si.edu/collections/search/object/nmah_1301995">alignment generator</a>, produced a dot on the television screen that could be manually controlled by the user. Now that he was able to interact with the television, Baer could design increasingly sophisticated interfaces and programs.
label: Description
content: TV Game Unit #1 was designed by Baer and built with the assistance of Bob Tremblay, a technician who worked with Baer at Saunders. Though transistors were available, Baer, who had received his bachelor’s in television engineering, choose to use the familiar and proven technology of vacuum tubes for this early test unit.
label: Description
content: Like all the Ralph Baer prototypes, TV Game Unit #1 was used as evidence in many patent infringement cases. It still bears many of the court exhibit labels left over from these trials, as may be seen from the photograph.
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
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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: 2006.0102.01
label: accession number
content: 2006.0102
label: catalog number
content: 2006.0102.01
objectType: label: Object Name
content: vacuum tube spot generator
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: aluminum (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: glass (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 4 1/4 in x 6 in x 5 in; 10.795 cm x 15.24 cm x 12.7 cm