Today’s Google Doodle celebrates Jerry Lawson, the ‘father of the video game cartridge’

Google’s interactive Doodle today celebrates the life and accomplishments of video game pioneer Gerald “Jerry” Lawson on what would have been his 82nd birthday. The Doodle lets you play five retro pixel-art platformers in your browser — with two even letting you play as Lawson. The Doodles’ creators want to inspire young people to follow in his footsteps, and it includes a built-in level editor and creator to nudge them on that path.Lawson was known as the “father of the video game cartridge,” which he developed as Director of Engineering and Marketing at Fairchild Semiconductor. In 1976, the company released the Fairchild Channel F home console, with Lawson serving as lead developer. The Channel F (the “F” stood for “fun”) was the first system with interchangeable game cartridges, a novel concept in an era when games were permanently coded into hardware. Interchangeable ROM-based cartridges were a massive breakthrough that let users build entire libraries rather than playing one game ad nauseam.GoogleToday’s Doodle includes games from guest artists and game designers Davionne Gooden, Lauren Brown and Momo Pixel. “The concept starts with the player as a little Jerry Lawson,” explained Brown. “This takes us through anecdotes about Jerry’s life, parts of his journey that he went about to create the cartridge. Once you complete the level, you then get to create your own game with an editor that allows you to reimagine the level design and innovate like Jerry Lawson... Continue reading at 'Engadget'

[ Engadget | 2022-12-01 18:15:43 UTC ]
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Amazon discounts select Kindles in celebration of recent FAA decision

You just know Amazon's been waiting forever for this cheeky product discount. But heck, if it means not having to buy a $20 Dan Brown book before rushing to catch a flight, we'll take it. In celebration of the FAA easing its personal electronic device restrictions (not to mention Delta and... Continue reading at Engadget

[ Engadget | 2013-11-04 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Ender’s Game

It’s an odd week when you follow up a review of a movie about a homophobe—Jean-Marc Vallée’s excellent Dallas Buyers Club—with a review of a movie by a homophobe, or, rather, based on a best-selling book by a very prominent one. Before the release of Ender’s Game, an adaptation by... Continue reading at Slate

[ Slate | 2013-11-02 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Google Plus Remains an Afterthought for Publishers

A recent study by Shareaholic found that Google Plus generated just .04 percent of traffic referrals in September. Facebook, by comparison, drove 10.37 percent. Gigya, an analytics company, found that in the second quarter of this year, 2 percent of social sharing happened through Google Plus,... Continue reading at Digiday

[ Digiday | 2013-10-31 00:00:00 UTC ]
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VIDEO: Could bees book win top literary prize?

The winner of the UK's leading award for non-fiction books, the Samuel Johnson Prize, will be announced next week, here Nick Higham speaks to nominated author Dave Goulson Continue reading at BBC News

[ BBC News | 2013-10-30 00:00:00 UTC ]
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VIDEO: Mantel: 'Be patient' for next book

The double-Booker Prize winning author Hilary Mantel has told fans to 'be patient' as there may be a gap of several years until her next novel. Continue reading at BBC World

[ BBC World | 2013-10-26 00:00:00 UTC ]
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VIDEO: NYC's graffiti history and other arts stories

An exhibition on New York's graffiti traces the history of the art form in the city, a Parisian museum shows how immigrants helped shape comic books worldwide - and other stories from the world of arts. Continue reading at BBC World

[ BBC World | 2013-10-24 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Duly Noted: The best steak houses in town (Video)

Warren Buffett, perhaps surprisingly, has seen Breaking Bad and says the character he most identifies with is Saul. Read into that what you will. -- Bloomberg video above Chicago is a time zone away from the ocean, so it's no surprise there is an overflow of excellent steak houses. The good... Continue reading at Silicon Valley Business Journal

[ Silicon Valley Business Journal | 2013-10-23 00:00:00 UTC ]
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McDonald's Happy Meal: Books included during November (+video)

McDonald's Happy Meal: Books will be served with one of four original titles in Happy Meals for two weeks in the month of November. Continue reading at The Christian Science Monitor

[ The Christian Science Monitor | 2013-10-13 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Watch Videos from Thursday at the Frankfurt Book Fair

Watch our Frankfurt Book Fair video interviews with Peter Usborne (Usborne Books), Bob Campbell (Wiley), Jamie Byng (Canongate), Richard Nash (Small Demons), and other leading figures in the publishing industry. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives

[ Publishing Perspectives | 2013-10-11 00:00:00 UTC ]
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5 reasons Alice Munro was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature (+video)

Merit trumped politics this year when modest, retiring, universally admired Canadian author Alice Munro received the Nobel Prize in Literature.  Continue reading at The Christian Science Monitor

[ The Christian Science Monitor | 2013-10-11 00:00:00 UTC ]
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VIDEO: Meet the Author: Val McDermid

Author Val McDermid tells the BBC's Nick Higham about her latest book Cross and Burn, the eighth novel in The Wire in the Blood series. Continue reading at BBC World

[ BBC World | 2013-10-11 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Videos from Frankfurt: Brazil, Predictions, Charlie Redmayne, and Casper Grathwohl

On the first day of the 2013 Frankfurt Book Fair, the Publishing Perspectives video team interviewed agents, publishers and organizers about their expectations for the near future of the industry. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives

[ Publishing Perspectives | 2013-10-10 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Videos from Frankfurt: CONTEC, Publishers Launch and More

The Publishing Perspectives team attended CONTEC Frankfurt and Publishers Launch at the Frankfurt Book Fair to find out what the crowds were buzzing about. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives

[ Publishing Perspectives | 2013-10-09 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Furloughed by the government? At least you've got time to read. (+video)

In the wake of the government shutdown, Baltimore-based breathe bookstore café is offering a 10 percent discount to furloughed workers. Continue reading at The Christian Science Monitor

[ The Christian Science Monitor | 2013-10-08 00:00:00 UTC ]
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VIDEO: Children on their favourite books

To celebrate Children's Book Week, the charity Booktrust has compiled a list of 100 books that they say every child should read by the age of 14. BBC News asked some children what they thought. Continue reading at BBC News

[ BBC News | 2013-10-08 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Scribd Founder Envisions Google Glass–like Wearables For E–Reading

The content on Scribd, the San–Francisco based startup that aims to create the digital library of the future, is available on a range of devices, from laptops to smartphones to tablets. But CEO Trip Adler tells Fast Company we won't be reading e–books in our hands in the future––they'll be... Continue reading at Fast Company

[ Fast Company | 2013-10-07 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Google Play Ebooks Expands to 9 New Asian Countries

Google has expanded Play ebook sales to Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam, and New Zealand. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives

[ Publishing Perspectives | 2013-09-26 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Advertising Week Video: How Publishers Can Use Data More Effectively

For digital publishers, effectively harnessing data can turn a large but poorly understood audience into the targets advertisers covet, or help predict when certain consumers will be most likely to buy. The Weather Company has figured this out -- noticing that drops in summer temperatures, for... Continue reading at Advertising Age

[ Advertising Age | 2013-09-26 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Google patent filing describes tailored online book clubs, minus the wine

The phrase "virtual book club" may not conjure romantic visions of low-lit rooms and vintage wines, but you don't necessarily need those things to throw fancy words around. Amazon-owned Goodreads hosts user-created online clubs, but a Google patent application that's surfaced today imagines a... Continue reading at Engadget

[ Engadget | 2013-09-19 00:00:00 UTC ]
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