Jerry Lawson was Chief Hardware Engineer and director of engineering and marketing for the video game division of Fairchild Semiconductor; he was also the head engineer of the Fairchild Channel F (the first video game console to use cartridges) and lead it's development team. After the failure of the Channel F and the success of the Atari 2600, he also founded and ran a video game development company called Videosoft, wich made games for Parker Brothers, Milton Bradley, Mattel, CBS and Amiga. He also produced Demolition Derby, one of the earliest racing games (released in 1977). He was honored as an industry pioneer by the IGDS in March 2011. He was one of the few african american electronic engineesr in Silicon Valley. He struggled with diabetes for years, and died of a heart attack in 9 April 2011. 1940-2011
That's sad, may he rest in peace. I think my Dad told me once about that Demolition Derby game, I'll have to see if I can find it somewhere!
