Issue 9
Issue 9
“It took me four years to paint like Raphael, but a lifetime to paint like a child.”
–Picasso
Why do we write about virtual reality? Why do we write about Home? What is it about games and worlds of imagination that so fascinates us?
I recently had the chance to spend a lot of time interacting with a child. It was a fascinating experience; as adults, we grudgingly learn to accept that the world simply is the way it is, and we spend our lives adapting to it. Think back to when you were a child, though; the world was a fantastically interesting place where the rules seemed fluid. I found myself, as an adult, trying to teach a child basic lessons about How Things Work by framing even the most monotonous activities as a game.
Humans love to play. We never quite forget the memory of how wondrously alive the world seemed when we were kids. Watch the “making of” featurette on Finding Nemo; the Pixar animators were given the opportunity to play like children again, and you can see the gleeful childlike reversion in their faces.
I’m bringing this up because video games are a staggeringly massive industry today. Most forms of entertainment are fairly passive experiences; watch a movie, read a book, see a play, and so forth. Video games, on the other hand, require interactivity. They require you to, on some level, actively identify with what you’re seeing onscreen — and, in some cases, choose how you want to alter it.
Virtual reality takes it one step further. Games at least give you objectives to fulfill and parameters you have to stay within; worlds like Home, on the other hand, largely give back to you what you put into them. It is a chance for adults to play.
This is why we decided, with the release of the Hub, to go all the way back to the beginning. Our cover story is an interview with the father of video games himself: Ralph Baer.
Yeah. Ralph Baer.
Mr. Baer’s story is a fascinating one. Forget video games; this man was born before video itself existed. If you look at what he’s survived, and what he’s gone on to pioneer, here’s someone who has seen the real world in far greater detail than most of us reading this will ever experience.
Do you actually understand how your computer works? Or your television? We live in a society filled with such complex machines that most of us understand little more than the most basic functions of those devices. Ralph Baer, on the other hand, figured out the rather byzantine process of how to make electrical signals interact on a screen.
Make no mistake: every single video game out there — every single piece of the video game industry, hardware and software alike — fundamentally owe their existence to Ralph Baer. We are as children staring at the sky compared to this man’s intellect.
This is why we’ve dropped hints that this issue was going to feature a story like nothing you’d ever seen before in the pages of HSM. Do yourself a favor and pick up a copy of his book, Videogames: In the Beginning. Having the opportunity to interview a legitimate genius who is synonymous with the industry he created is an exceedingly rare gift. It would be like having the opportunity to interview Turing about the computer, or Marconi about the radio.
And here’s the best part: his work in pioneering the video game is just the tip of the iceberg for this remarkable man. As you read our interview with him, and you study his biography, you realize just how astonishing his body of work is. By the time he was my age, he was already designing power-line carrier signal equipment for IBM. I’m lucky I can find my toothbrush.
We’re proud to bring this story to you, the community that lives entirely in digital signals and screens. And we’re enormously grateful to Mr. Baer for taking the time to talk to HomeStation Magazine. In an issue packed with content, this story isn’t just the cherry on the top; it’s a Death Star-sized cherry with a superlaser.
From all of us at HomeStation Magazine, thank you for coming along with us on this ride.
NorseGamer
Editor-in-Chief, HSM
Hurry up and be tomorrow, dammit.
oooooo
can’t wait the excitement is killing me!!! lol
Well?
Killing you? I have been waiting for 2 months lol.
Ha ha!
You always do a great job with your stories Burbie. Very well done.
Joanna
Another great issue HSM! Loves it ^__^
Issue 9 may be the best yet! Great job all!
A special congratulations to Burbie for producing an absolutely awesome story! And our deepest gratitude, as a publication, to Mr. Baer for being so gracious with his time and feedback. We really do appreciate it.
I would pay for a printed magazine like this…any other like me out there?