The idea of using a TV to play video games first occurred to engineer Ralph Baer while designing a projection TV for the Loral company in 1951. But Baer didn’t begin designing a prototype game system until 1966, and it was another five years before he licensed it to Magnavox. Odyssey could only draw simple images on the TV, so players attached plastic overlays to the screen to provide the game background. Odyssey used just electronics—no microprocessors or software.