Feature: 'Father Of Games' Ralph Baer Talks Pong, Xbox

In today's main feature, Gamasutra catches up with Ralph Baer, creator of the Magnavox Odyssey and the game concept later known as Pong, as he made a special appearance at the Museum of the Moving Image in Queens, New York as the star of the Video Games 1.0 exhibition. Among a number of comments made in an exclusive interview with Gamasutra, Baer noted of his relationship to Nolan Bushnell, who created Pong based on Baer's concepts: "I've met [Nolan Bushnell] only once. We were supposed to meet on several occasions, once to have a face-to-face play-off in Pong, but he never showed up." When asked about what he thought of games today, Baer noted: "I don't play them, they're too complicated. My grandkids recently got a racing game for their Xbox, and I tried playing it for 10 minutes, but couldn't. The controls were too much. I understand that the Xbox is supposed to have analogue controls, but it sure didn't feel that way", continuing: "They're too complicated for me. But not for today's kids." You can now read the full Gamasutra feature on the subject, including more wisdom from one of gaming's seminal figures (no registration required, please feel free to link to this feature from external websites).