WIRED Magazine Profiles Our “Raising The Game” Podcast

An Unsung Hero of Gaming History Deserves a Higher Profile

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If you grew up in the ’80s and ’90s, you remember the cartridge era. Without cartridges, games like Super Mario Bros., Mega Man, Metroid, Sonic the Hedgehog, Madden NFL, and Street Fighter II would never have been possible. And without Jerry Lawson, cartridges would not have been possible.

In August, Anthony Frasier, a Black tech and media entrepreneur from Newark, New Jersey, created and narrated Raising the Game, an Audible original podcast. He wonders aloud why few understand Lawson’s impact. Lawson, the true inventor and engineer of the video game cartridge, created an essential component of the multibillion-dollar gaming industry. Why, then, are his accomplishments hidden behind a wall of white?

Frasier says that he discovered Lawson’s story while working in Silicon Valley trying to build his tech startup. He attended a memorial service for Lawson even though he was just some random guy who never knew him. “I left that day inspired, but angry I had been robbed of examples like this to model my career after. I wanted to put an end to that.” Though he started the project back in 2019, when he first got connected with Audible, all of the research and lining up all the interviews couldn’t be completed until this year, the 10th anniversary of Lawson’s death.

Read the full article on WIRED.