A True Game-Changer

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StomperYoshi

"You can't just butcher a deal like this; you're looking at the next big thing!" - Bill Enders

Ralph Baer had spent at least a year at Sanders Associates bringing his idea of a home arcade cabinet to life, and had been spending even longer to bring it to the market. First, he and the team behind the Brown Box tried selling it to TelePrompter Corporation, but nothing came from the deal as that company was hit by an economic recession. Then, the Brown Box was pitched to the biggest names in TV manufacturing, such as RCA, Magnavox, Motorola, Zenith, and GE. RCA was the only company to express interest, but Sanders Associates had to back out due to their disagreement with the terms of the deal. At that point, it seemed like the home arcade cabinet was a lost cause.

That is, until one of RCA's negotiators, Bill Enders, furiously lobbied to strike a better deal with Sanders, as, in his own words, it was 'the next big thing'. [1] It took a ton of effort for him to successfully negotiate with his superiors, but it paid off: by the summer of 1969, the deal was settled: RCA would offer the Brown Box team a fair royalty fee, and the RCA Studio was greenlit. The rest, as they say, is history.

AP856061445018.jpg

Ralph Baer and the Brown Box prototype.

[1] Same POD as this story's original incarnation - OTL Enders moved to Magnavox so he could get them to release the Brown Box instead.
 
Last edited:

StomperYoshi

A while back I said I'd give my earlier timeline a good rewrite, and now I'm finally putting forward the effort to do so. You can find the original here:

Changing the Game

"You can't just butcher a deal like this; you're looking at the next big thing!" - Bill Enders Ralph Baer had spent at least a year at Sanders Associates bringing his idea of a home video game console to life, and had been spending even longer to bring it to the market. First, he and the team...
www.alternatehistory.com
 
nick_crenshaw82

nick_crenshaw82

StomperYoshi said:
Ralph Baer had spent at least a year at Sanders Associates bringing his idea of a home video game console to life,
Click to expand...
No offense but would any of those words actually be used in that context or wouldn't the following work better for the time period:
"Ralph Baer had spent at least a year at Sanders Associates bringing his idea of a home arcade cabinet to life"
StomperYoshi said:
At that point, it seemed like the video game console was a lost cause.
Click to expand...
Same thing here, my research indicates that before the 1970s the term would be electro-mechanical games.
 

StomperYoshi

nick_crenshaw82 said:
No offense but would any of those words actually be used in that context or wouldn't the following work better for the time period:
"Ralph Baer had spent at least a year at Sanders Associates bringing his idea of a home arcade cabinet to life"

Same thing here, my research indicates that before the 1970s the term would be electro-mechanical games.
Click to expand...
Thanks for the tip - I fixed up the anachronistic terminology. IOTL "video game" wasn't coined until 1973.
 

StomperYoshi

In July 1970, the RCA Studio would finally see its release. It technologically resembles OTL's Magnavox Odyssey, but uses a woodgrain exterior rather than OTL's white plastic finish. While the initial price of $100 (about $600 in today's money) seemed like a setback, there turned out to be quite the demand for the home arcade[1]. After a surprisingly successful first month on the market, RCA decided to boost awareness and sales through corporate nepotism - namely, advertising it nationwide on their subsidiary, NBC. The RCA Studio would end up selling 100,000 units by the end of the year.

Despite a strong launch for what was essentially the first thing of its kind, Ralph Baer though the RCA Studio still had untapped potential. Namely, he had ideas for a few improvements - the ability to play a few extra games and the ability to play sound.[2] So, one fateful day, he went to CEO Robert Sarnoff's office to make the proposal. Baer admitted in later interviews that he never forgot Sarnoff's response.

"You know, Mr. Baer, what you have here is a true game-changer.[3] It's the most amazing device I've ever seen. It's the perfect direction for RCA - revolutionizing the field of entertainment. It's been a real spark of inspiration to me.[4] I'm all in for it." - Robert Sarnoff

[1] "Home arcade" is basically TTL's word for OTL's "video game console".
[2] He also had these ideas OTL but Magnavox shot them down.
[3] Roll credits.
[4] A spark Mr. Sarnoff didn't really have OTL. His tenure in the company was remembered for his attempts at making RCA a conglomerate at the expense of its core technology business. Here, the RCA Studio inspires him to focus on technology and entertainment.
 
1972
  • Index

    • StomperYoshi

    After spending a few years under development, the RCA Studio Enhancer was released in August 1972. For an initial price of $35, RCA Studio owners were able to place this into the cartridge slot of the home arcade, granting it the ability to play twice as many games with twice as much controllers and play sound through its speakers. RCA would also attract new customers by releasing the RCA Studio Pro three months later, which had the features of the Studio and the Enhancer all in one device. Combined, the Studio and Studio Pro would sell 1,220,000 units, solidifying RCA's position in the industry.
    This, of course, was good news to Ralph Baer, as well as Robert Sarnoff, who held a company party the day he found out one million Studios were sold. However, he'd make up for it the next day by directing most of RCA's engineers to start dedicating RCA's resources to what he had in mind for the company's next product, the Capacitance Electronic Disc.
    That same year, Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney had established Syzygy, Inc. after finding success with their arcade game, Computer Space. The first engineer they hired, Al Alcorn, was given the task of designing the first game to be released under the newly founded Syzygy Games label. However, no ideas for the game were seriously considered until Bushnell had seen a demonstration of the RCA Studio in action. As soon as he returned to Syzygy, he had a task for Alcorn: Make a better version of RCA's table tennis game. And thus, Pong was brought into the world in November 1972. Little did they know what they were getting themselves into...
     
  • Index

    • Nivek

    StomperYoshi said:
    After spending a few years under development, the RCA Studio Enhancer was released in August 1972. For an initial price of $35, RCA Studio owners were able to place this into the cartridge slot of the home arcade, granting it the ability to play twice as many games with twice as much controllers and play sound through its speakers. RCA would also attract new customers by releasing the RCA Studio Pro three months later, which had the features of the Studio and the Enhancer all in one device. Combined, the Studio and Studio Pro would sell 1,220,000 units, solidifying RCA's position in the industry.
    This, of course, was good news to Ralph Baer, as well as Robert Sarnoff, who held a company party the day he found out one million Studios were sold. However, he'd make up for it the next day by directing most of RCA's engineers to start dedicating RCA's resources to what he had in mind for the company's next product, the Capacitance Electronic Disc.
    That same year, Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney had established Syzygy, Inc. after finding success with their arcade game, Computer Space. The first engineer they hired, Al Alcorn, was given the task of designing the first game to be released under the newly founded Syzygy Games label. However, no ideas for the game were seriously considered until Bushnell had seen a demonstration of the RCA Studio in action. As soon as he returned to Syzygy, he had a task for Alcorn: Make a better version of RCA's table tennis game. And thus, Pong was brought into the world in November 1972. Little did they know what they were getting themselves into...
    Click to expand...
    Good luck to the CED, they're going to need it and we're getting pong with Atari under his old name,not bad,
     
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