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For 1980s babies, “Punch-Out!!” on the Nintendo Entertainment System was a legendary game. But for Mike Tyson, it turned out to be nothing but a “bad” business deal. In 1983, Nintendo first released “Punch-Out!!” and ultimately obtained the rights to add Tyson’s name to the game in 1987 (which is when it became “Mike Tyson’s Punch-Out!!” and coincided with his rise in the boxing world). And needless to say, the game flew off the shelves the minute Iron Mike replaced Mr. Dream. “It broke all the records,” Tyson said to VladTV (via Atlanta BlackStar). “We anticipate them doing a new one too. They were discussing taking me out of Mike Tyson’s Punch-Out!!, and it was a hailstorm of negative reviews for that, and so we’re contemplating doing it with someone else, and no one can be angry, and then we can go our separate ways happy.” While the game certainly did do numbers, Mike Tyson claims he did not get paid appropriately. Atlanta Black Star reports “According to his Vlad TV...
This county in Iowa just received the ultimate name upgrade! Johnson County, Iowa will still operate as Johnson County but will take its name from another Johnson — the first Black woman to earn a Ph.D. in the state. According to NPR, Lulu Merle Johnson was a professor and historian born in 1907 in a small town by the name of Gravity located in southwestern Iowa. Her father was born into slavery and would go on to work as a barber. Johnson’s mother was the daughter of freed slaves. During the time of her enrollment at the State University of Iowa in 1925, Johnson was one of 14 Black women at the university. She completed her bachelor’s and master’s degrees at the university by 1930 before receiving her Ph.D. in 1941. Johnson was the first Black woman to earn a Ph.D. from the university, now known as the University of Iowa. According to university biography, she was the `tenth Black woman in the country to receive a doctorate from a university within the states. “Through her...
Xbox is continuing to make strides toward a more inclusive gaming community. Research reveals that people who identify as white make up 68 percent of the video game industry. Yet, there’s still 13 percent of that community that is made up of Black, Hispanic/Latinx, Pacific Islander, Indigenous people, and LGBTQ+ communities and Xbox wants to ensure that their content reflects all gamers. In honor of Pride Month, the gaming system is amplifying LGBTQIA+ voices within the industry by championing those who are committed to inclusion and breaking down barriers so that everyone can experience the joys of gaming. One of those voices happens to be Melissa Boone. Boone is a part of the team of behavioral scientists providing user feedback and insights to Xbox’s game development teams. Her role as a research manager on the Xbox Research & Design team allows her and the team to center the user experience around everything that the company develops. For Boone, representation is key in her...
When it comes to the gaming industry, oftentimes Black women are completely left out of the conversation, but not Cierra McDonald. McDonald has worked within the Xbox organization for 13 years and has experience in everything from billing to achievements to documentations. For her, the love of gaming started at a young age when she was first introduced to the world of technology by purchasing a floppy disc of Monkey Island. From there, she learned to navigate DOS through the installation process and the rest is history! Now, as the Principal Program Manager for Xbox at Microsoft, McDonald is on a mission to shift the narrative of Black female characters in the gaming industry. “I think too often folks start with ‘male’ and ‘white’ as the default when envisioning game characters or stories, even if it’s not intentional or done explicitly,” said McDonald in an email interview with AfroTech. “So, that becomes the baseline. When they want to add a female character, she is likely created...
Gaming is a billion-dollar industry (and counting) that often neglects or shuts out Black gamers. Though overlooked, Black developers, engineers, programmers, and gamers have skillfully contributed to the business. High-profile founders like Dennis Matthews and popular streaming gamers like Swagg continue to bring visibility to the Black gaming community, but before them, who laid the foundation? Let’s take a moment to salute the three Black pioneers who helped shape the modern gaming industry. Gerald “Jerry” Lawson As a kid, Queens, New York native Jerry Lawson nurtured his love for electronics. He repaired TVs as a teen and made walkie-talkies. He eventually became an engineer and designer at Fairchild Camera and Instrument Corp’s gaming division in the ’70s. There, Lawson led the team that invented the Fairchild Channel F (“F” is for fun), the first-ever video game console that allowed gamers to play several different games on one system via the first video game cartridge. It...