How Interactive Video Games Helped Shape the Modern Computer World

This paper briefly describes the development of “Brown Box” interactive video game console, developed by IEEE Fellow, Masaru Ibuka Consumer Electronics Award and Edison Medal, and National Medal of Technology recipient Ralph H. Baer, and its influence on the personal desktop computer. Baer not only changed the course of history with respect to the start of the modern video game industry, but he also – whether knowingly or not at that moment – helped to significantly shape the world of computers.