The Covid-19 pandemic cancelled the Ralph Baer Day 2021 celebrations so I thought I would look back on RBD2020 (a.k.a. RBD2.0) which took place exactly on the same week that Covid-19 officially shut everything down when it first started to spread like wildfire.
Ralph Baer Day is a celebration of the man who has become known as “The Grandfather of Video Games”, Ralph Baer. A few years ago a small group of us geeks, nerds and game fans, led by Kelly Muir, wanted to celebrate Ralph’s legacy, so we started Ralph Baer Day.
The first RBD was in 2019, a week long celebration featuring an art exhibit, interactive games and celebrated at Jupiter Hall in Manchester as well as the participation of local downtown Manchester establishments and businesses. The Mayor of Manchester declared March 8th to be “Ralph Baer Day” in the city. March 8th is Ralph’s birthday. Ralph lived a majority of his life in Manchester.
RBD2020 featured another art exhibition featuring video-game themed works and creations. If featured t-shirts and an interactive PONG game and it was to be a glorious week of celebration and games and all things Ralph related.
However, Covid-19 was spreading, a State of Emergency was declared in New Hampshire, and non-essential establishments were required to close to the public to try to stop the spread of the disease.
Ralph Bear Day too a big hit, and effectively things were shut down.
Here are a few images taken during the opening reception of RBD2.0, a few days prior to everything being shut down.
Ralph Baer Day 2021 was cancelled because of Covid-19, but I’m hoping that we’ll all be able to gather in 2022 to celebrate Ralph’s 100th birthday and celebrate the man who started it all!
For more information about Ralph Baer Day, visit our website.