Back in 1951, television was still fairly new and mysterious. Whether they could afford a set at home or just settled for watching one in a radio shop window or other public place, most people were perfectly content to do nothing more than stare passively at the small, flickering, black-and-white screen, later inspiring some wags to dub television the "boob tube." But it wasn't enough for Ralph Baer, a creative young engineer working for the New York electronics company Loral.

Loral wasn't known for building TV sets but, recognizing a hot new market when they saw it, had tasked Baer with designing and building the best television set in the world. "To set up a television set after it came off the production line," he recalls, "you used test equipment that allowed you to put patterns like crosshatch, horizontal and vertical lines on the screen. In playing with this piece of equipment, you're doing something to the screen, basically making things happen."

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