TOOTING MY OWN HORN

I can’t help tooting my own horn but I just found a hard copy of an email sent to me on January 10, 2000 from Crispin Boyer, my editor at Electronic Gaming Monthly, which at the time was the world’s number one videogame magazine. Crispin stated that they received “loads of positive feedback“ regarding my article about Ralph Baer. This one from Chad Harris was one of them:

Subject: The Baer Essentials

In the twelve years that I’ve been reading your publication (including its first year as Electronic Game Player), I haven’t read anything as entertaining, informative, or important as “The Baer Essentials” in EGM #126. Leonard Herman’s article is more than just a “story” about the origin of the video game – it is the exemplification of the pioneering spirit and boundless imagination possessed by Mr. Baer and those who supported him. No one else (that I’ve read) has been able to accomplish this in the eighteen years that I’ve read video game publications (obviously the result of expert knowledge and exhaustive research on Mr. Herman’s part!).

The accompanying interview is also invaluable to one’s understanding of gaming’s past. One comment in particular by Mr. Baer – “For every guy who has imagination, there are always 15 who don’t.” – is an unfortunate truth applicable to all generations of video games. It could be argued that the overabundance of too many derivative games helped lead to the “crash” of the industry some sixteen years ago. Thankfully, even with conservatism and license-driven development running rampant, there are enough true innovators to ensure a healthy future for our favorite pasttime.

Thank you EGM, Mr. Herman, and Mr. Baer for such a wonderful piece of journalism, and for reminding me why I became involved in video games a quarter-century ago.

Chad Harris
Venice, FL

Thank you Mr. Harris for these kind words. And thank you to Crispin for forwarding this to me so many years ago.

Unfortunately, I don’t toot my own horn enough but Ralph Baer always told me that this was one of the best articles ever written about him and he believed that it was the catalyst that led him to receive the National Medal of Technology from President George W. Bush at the White House some six years later.

The article itself can be downloaded from this thegamescholar.com site here.

Copyright © 2021 Leonard Herman

2 thoughts on “TOOTING MY OWN HORN

  1. Wow ohhhhhhhhh wow. I thank and Honor the God of love I most personally know….for creating each one of us a he shows me to believe. In him IS light. Light in this case refers to “ability to focus perceive of what’s most important.” This is only about love for God right here to start out-not about “being religious” or different for that sake, et cetera. Still, I need to seriously point out that IF, if it were not for God’s love…….then there’d be no hope for better for you and me! Surely Im still caring that most of you want to just read about what I love about Mr. Herman. So, as God’s saved child I want to use my freedom to HONOR his love before I do. This helps each person to personally understand why God’s so important in life. It surely takes making many choices and much time before this can occur. Naturally, we are all born selfish but God has the only antedote to it. Naturally, we all do as we feel which is troublesome. We deny our issues, not even realizing we have them!!! But God’s Active to fix this. WE ALL reach a moment when we have a Choice………………when you or I are ready to decide to let God “save” us from our selfishness. Heaven and hell are real! God cares!!!! Do we??

    Now I trust is the right time to praise Mr. Herman. I appreciate you Mr. Herman, as a person first. But really now that i think of it, I just want you be honored for that. But as for accepting God as the new guide of our lives, replacing ourselves? I will be KIND and tell you that this is very hard as it is for being human! But, God has indeed showed me his love for me as a person!!!!! In clearer pictures, He shows me that simply, He is literally all of the things that I need for good living: love, forgiveness and kindness, etc. What about family, ,jobs, and say……..money? Surely God has something wonderful to do with those. He loves the good unity of family, grants many good jobs, and supplies us money. You say, how? I.e., he uses his own supernatural ability to ensure we have money. Though this leads me to responsibly say even more about what he does when there’s relationship issues and issues with there being No money and job issues, I care that “enough” has been provided for viewers of this page to receive. I just am content to do and type where and what what God wants me to do and type. Ah. This means that He works in mysterious ways that will Appear foolish at times to us since we’re “only” human compared with God.

    You know, God was involved indeed with dying and rising from the Cross to Pay for everyone’s sins including……….(any name here.) Yes, it’s the touchiest subject. But/though, God cares!! I’m happy to share this to you depending on God to help each of us in what He wants to do (in) us in our character. He never forces himself, though. He’s perfect…………….and in his love he is perfect! Not everyone lies about all things. If so, then all of us modern P.C. people wouldn’t know how to use a computer!!! Who can we trust? I’ll help you: you cannot trust me every time. I fail. Now, meditating won’t fix that. The proof? Proof? Though it’s helpful when not tied to humanly made religions (without offending the followers right-on) concentrating will always not go beyond that very act. God shows it! I’m excited not mad to tell you about God. Do most of your friends or neighbors know that there is not only a start but also a finish to life? Surely. There’s also a time when God will judge all who he made. So here’s the most profound part: to accept in this life God’s Son as Savior (not talking human creations but the Second person of the Trinity of God) means that you recognize your absolute need for his goodness,
    that it cannot be earned and that there’s really, clearly only One book about God that He started: Holy Bible. This very book does Not hint at future Bibles of any title or future prophets despite people saying so!! God uncovers actual deceit though we may choose one day to hate that! He hates deceit!!! He knows, while we are helpless without him.

    Shall I be one to point us to proof? Proof does not save the soul. I will tell you that I am one who has discussed God’s truth of his love with many Catholic, God believing people and many Mormons who claim to love God. Christians get their name Christians from following Christ’s love letter the HOLY Bible. It goes beyond this life into the rest of forever!! See, put into the the right perspective, God’s love never once at all runs down anyone or anything. But without God’s timing to let us see this light………………..he holds us and our perception that that isn’t so with perfect love. No one can soundly……..instruct God. We all are found……………………..to sin and sin’s nature corrupts us so badly that we begin life seeing whatever God will NOT have us to see! Blinded is what you’d call that. So should we ignore the loving………………………………………words of this God? The good truth: no!

    Here we go: you who are approving comments could choose to not publish this. Ok. I trust and know God is using his same non changing love to communicate I.E. by this message to each person reading for any purpose!! His whole message is summed up like this: I made you……….out of my love…….and I choose lovingly to let you decide it’s good to read/make info pages on the Web. All things in a way return to God being responsible for them. Yes, though, in a way some things are never God’s doing though: He hates the enemy of sexual lust so he acts not (for) porn such as Playboy and Playgirl and the message that sounds true and wonderful to many that “loving” porn is in fact the kind called women’s porn. Without his wisdom the wisdom left is understood (including by myself) and is understood to be going after as the above makes obvious, to sexually excite and captivate…………………………………………………………………………………many of us! Love is not sexual at the core. God’s Bible is the source and God just did not send his Son into this world…………….so that we could….get mad at him for (our cause) of that as John 3:17 in the Bible kind of says. Many of us know that many choose…………to get mad. We’re free to go the way that we want. Explaining the truth as the truth? That helps fundamentally. If I obey God I get what he promises: joy, security and guidance to what I should do with myself and all that I will be capable of.

    Let’s address what God says (not me or other followers) happens when any person lives in a selfish way inclusive of seeking sexual enjoyment………..in ways that man alone thought up, but not man’s Creator.
    First, you’ll unfulfilled and only recognize that later if you are not loving God. Lust is visual, love is not. Lust is after the body while love seeks what is the best FOR a person! I’d need to be a real defined fool to not love God back!! A fool rejects whatever is wise and Wisdom is found to be God alone. Fools are not Christians that sin though whereas all people offend God at times. We were not made perfectly by God. Though we may be busy gambling, or too busy with family, ignoring God’s love for us, yes for us, God cares! He does not react with impulsive feelings and acts! What love!! Yet how can most choose to reject God? To agree to plan to fail and reap or get such awful results?

    One can worry about being a virgin, being unmarried. What are our eyes ON? Others, sexual enjoyment, ourself, ………….and what our feelings tell us? Some of these words? If I lie to myself, I will not be able to be useful to myself. Yet, I will not ever, ever stop to exist! Nothing can wipe out the soul, which is what we are. We have bodies though it’s true that they will not last in-finintely. This is to encoruage us all to love God and do that more! If I seek sexual fun as a wrong priority or in any way, then I steal a God made virtue and hope that my lust will fulfill……………………a lie to me. Yes. That an impossible thing will be possible for myself. Some believe strongly that anything sexually enjoyable is ok, no matter what. Do though the last……………words of that belief really mean that anything already true is stupid…….to trust in? Why did God make us? Why would we turn to such questions when the truth demands that we change? The truth is, such questions point at what is so important for us to care about. God knows if we will or won’t, ever. He already is the Unchanging, Father God. He is not about lies of sex like: if I make love whenever I say, I will be thrilled and most happy. Marriage is God’s idea and to make love prior to that is “just like being married.” Understand? I’d love to cover such important things as God is the Cause of them, not me and my way of doing things. God is way beyond us in terms of ways. You and I have ways of thinking as God does too. That’s why I said the term “ways” before. But this does not mean that God is not reliable. Things need clarification based on reliable understanding that a person gained from the Bible. Not all thoughts after reading the Book are good! There’s much to adhere to when first benefitting from the book. Did God make Mormons though, I’m sure that someone at times will ask, when challenged to leave a belief, since God points out that there are some that mention him but are not founded in the Holy Bible which is “about God’s love” to tell you. But, also, if I show off my body for other’s attention, then this will help them to lust at my body, which is not wise. Not wise? You may wonder. God made our bodies so that we could let him see us do good, meaningful things with them for his pleasure. One could be to work at a factory or to be a regular teacher.

    Deception only occurs when either we don’t know God’s love for us or our foundation……………………of his love was not secure after all. I witnessed one of my Christian friends being so taken when actually some Mormons came to the person, thinking that well, they had truth to tell her! But MORMON does not derive from the anything biblical at all whatsoever or the name Christ. Deception is at hand! It prevents even one reading at any time to realize what is of God’s very real love, causing many millons to trust that God is the enemy or other things such as that it’s ok to follow God with most of the heart. Trickery!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Deception also causes sexualized images and words to be used by the devil to only FOOL you and I. But when we are married and care about hte other’s best and loving interests as Galations 5:22 and 1 Corinthians can teach well, then we are sound.

    Without any real love God perhaps could create us. I do not want to think of what I’d be like then! Hypocrite galore to start with. But worse than how I sin now, void of anything good!!!! Surely well, video games are greatly fun to know about. I love that subject as it’s one of my favorites. I keep it in proper balance of interest so that God does not get even Second place in my life. But it’s also true and urgent that there are many traps of lusts of various kinds outside of sexuality such as materialism. Oh but there is also womanizing. The thought that more women will be thrilling. Adam the first man only lived in a population of two people whereas his future wife Eve was the only only until they saw good to have kids. Hmm, no being gay was or is a good idea. With God in mind, only good things come!! God will not ok gay or other sinful actions for anything. Let’s lean why that is so good though. Then we will be glad and not consider God’s Bible as the source of pain in our lives since we may want it not to be talked about which may annoy the person. Would it annoy anyone to wait until marriage to have kids? Then know this: God has all knowledge there is and uses it for the best things. I must go now. God can be asked in faith anything that we want and need to know.

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