As a child, Gerald Lawson had a mother in the PTA of his school, a vested interest in the quality of his education, which served him well as an engineer, even in high school, when he made some money on the side repairing TV sets.
Early in his professional career, Lawson worked as a consultant for Fairchild Semiconductor. He had access to microprocessors that helped him improve Demolition Derby, an arcade game he developed in his off time.
At the time, gaming consoles were incredibly restrictive, as the games were built in to the console’s circuitry and couldn’t be safely changed. Lawson’s team created the Fairchild Channel F, which revolutionized the industry as the first console to use interchangeable cartridges, allowing multiple games to be played on the same device. It was an innovation that found its way to gaming giants like Atari and Nintendo. Every major console on the market uses the method that Lawson made possible.
Lawson died on April 9, 2011, at age 70.