Watch a Documentary on Ralph Baer, the ‘Father of Modern Video Games’

David Friedman made a wonderful short video about video game pioneer Ralph Baer, who just turned 90 and is still inventing. The video is part of a series of a portraits of contemporary inventors. It's absolutely heart-warming to watch a master-of-his-craft still sitting at his work bench, inventing because "he needed a challenge."

Ralph Baer is often called the father of video games. His invention, the Magnavox Odyssey, was the first home console system. I photographed and interviewed him this summer as part of my ongoing series on inventors (the book and app for which will be out eventually I promise).

Since he turns 90 years old this week, and this year marks the 40th anniversary of the video game, I chose for this video some bits from our interview in which we talk about, among other things, why he's still inventing at 90 years old.

Inventor Portrait: Ralph Baer from David Friedman on Vimeo.