Born in Brooklyn, New York in 1940, Lawson grew up with parents who encouraged him to experiment. His father Blanton, a longshoreman who devoured science books, gave his son a four-wheeled, Irish mail handcar toy like this one to ride on and explore his Queens neighborhood. Lawson first encountered computers while working at Federal Electric ITT and PDR Electronics in New York. After honing his programming and electronics skills, he moved west to California’s Silicon Valley where he eventually settled at Fairchild Semiconductor in the early 1970s. In 1975, Fairchild tapped Lawson to lead the team responsible for transforming an Alpex Computer Corporation prototype into the first cartridge-based home video game system. With few opportunities for advancement, Lawson left the firm in 1979 and created his very own video game company, Video Soft—the first Black-owned video game development company—in 1982 to capitalize on the growing game market! And the rest is history! Lawson died in...