Atari. Magnavox. Intellivision.
Each evokes memories of the golden age of video games, which brought the first wave of consoles you could connect to your home television.
But there’s an oft-forgotten person from that era whose contributions to the industry still resonate today: a black engineer named Jerry Lawson.
Lawson oversaw the creation of the Channel F, the first video game console with interchangeable game cartridges – something the first Atari and Magnavox Odyssey systems did not use.
![](https://www.gannett-cdn.com/presto/2020/02/22/USAT/62f836d4-ba93-4491-87f2-23f479f1637a-Jerry-Lawson-Black-Enterprise-December-1982-Courtesy-The-Strong-Rochester-New-York..jpg?width=660&height=464&fit=crop&format=pjpg&auto=webp)