Videocart-3: Video Blackjack looks simple, but its importance isn’t.

It’s the 3rd ROM cartridge ever released, hitting the market in 1976 for the Fairchild Channel F—the most innovative home console of its era. Among its other innovations is the ability to pause, it’s incredible forward-thinking joystick which had a twist function—something even modern gamepads don’t have—and 2KB VRAM which allowed for 8 distinct colours (4 per scanline).

One engineer built both the hardware and the software: Jerry Lawson. A Black inventor who was almost entirely self-taught. At 13, he built a working radio station in his own house from parts he scavenged out of a local electronics shop.

Lawson didn’t merely design a console. He created the entire model of removable digital media that every system still follows. That’s a legacy that stands on its own.