Name sound familiar? If not, how about the Magnavox Odyssey, the first home video game console? He invented it. He also brought the light gun home and gave us Simon
 


Read Wired's obit here.

I thought I recognized that name, then you mentioned Magnavox and I remembered.

Yup, Ralph Baer, the inventor of the Maganvox Odyssey. Without him, we probably would not have gaming the way it is today. Both him and Nolan Bushnell were basically gaming's founding fathers.

Add in Shigeru Miyamoto and you have a "holy trinity" of gaming.