Fairchild Channel F
Encyclopedia
The Fairchild Channel F is a game console released by Fairchild Semiconductor
in August 1976 at the retail price of $169.95. It has the distinction of being the first programmable ROM cartridge
-based video game console
. It was launched as the Video Entertainment System, or VES, but when Atari
released their VCS
the next year, Fairchild renamed its machine.
using the Fairchild F8
CPU
, the first public outing of this processor. Jerry worked with Nick Talesfore who was responsible for the Industrial Design of the hand controllers, console and video game cartridges as the manager of Industrial Design; and, Ron Smith who was responsible for the mechanical engineering of the video cartridges and the 8 degrees of freedom hand controllers. All worked for Fairchild Semiconductor headed by Wilf Corigan a division of Fairchild Camera & Instrument. Notably, Robert Noyce
worked on the F8 design team before he left Fairchild to start his own company, Intel. The F8 is very complex compared to the typical integrated circuits of the day, and had more inputs and outputs than other contemporary chips. Because chip packaging was not available with enough pins, the F8 is instead fabricated as a pair of chips that had to be used together to form a complete CPU.
The graphics are quite basic by modern standards. The Channel F was only able to use one plane of graphics and one of four background colors per line, only three plot colors to choose from (red, green and blue) that turned into white if the background was set to black. A resolution of 128 × 64 with approximately 102 × 58 pixels visible and help from only 64 bytes of system RAM, half the amount of the Atari 2600
. The F8 processor at the heart of the console was able to produce enough AI to allow for player versus computer matches, a first in console history. All previous machines required a human opponent.
One unique feature to this console is the 'hold' button, which allows the player to freeze the game, change the time or change the speed of the game during the course of the game. In the original unit, sound is played through an internal speaker, rather than the TV set. However, the System II passes sound to the television through the RF modulator.
The controllers are a joystick without a base; the main body is a large hand grip with a triangular "cap" on top, the top being the portion that actually moved for eight-way directional control. It can be used as both a joystick and paddle (twist), and not only pushed down to operate as a fire button but also pulled up. The model 1 unit contains a small compartment for storing the controllers when moving it. The System II featured detachable controllers. Zircon later offered a special control which featured an action button on the front of the joystick. It was marketed by Zircon as "Channel F Jet-Stick" in a letter sent out to registered owners before Christmas 1982. They also released it as an Atari-compatible controller called "Video Command" it was also first released without the extra fire button, before that only the downwards plunge motion was connected and acted as the fire button, the pull-up and twist actions weren't used.
. The earlier artwork was created by nationally known artist Tom Kamifuji and art directed by Nick Talesfore. The console contains two built-in games, Tennis and Hockey, which were both advanced Pong
clones. The reflecting bar could be changed to diagonals by twisting the controller, and could move forward and backward.
A sales brochure from 1978 lists 'Keyboard Videocarts' for sale. The three shown were K-1 Casino Poker, K-2 Space Odyssey, and K-3 Pro-Football. These are to use the Keyboard accessory which is a 16 button keypad. All further brochures, released after Zircon took over Fairchild, never listed this accessory nor anything called a Keyboard Videocart.
There is one additional cartridge released numbered Videocart-51 and simply titled 'Demo 1'. This Videocart is shown in a single sales brochure released shortly after Zircon acquired the company. It was never listed for sale after this single brochure which was used for winter of 1979.
Ken Uston
reviewed 32 games in his book Ken Uston's Guide to Buying and Beating the Home Video Games
in 1982, and rated some of the Channel F's titles highly; of these, Alien Invasion and Video Whizball were considered by Uston to be "the finest adult cartridges currently available for the Fairchild Channel F System." The games on the whole, however, rated last on his survey of over 200 games for the Atari, Intellivision, Astrocade and Odyssey consoles, and contemporary games were rated "Average" with future Channel F games rated "below average". Uston rated almost one half of the Channel F games as "high in interest" and called that "an impressive proportion" and further noted that "Some of the Channel F cartridges are timeless; no matter what technological developments occur, they will continue to be of interest." His overall conclusion was that the games "serve a limited, but useful, purpose" and that the "strength of the Channel F offering is in its excellent educational line for children."
Carts listed (as mentioned above) but never released:
Official carts that also exist:
German SABA also released a few compatible carts different from the original carts, translation in Videocart 1 Tic-Tac-Toe to German words, Videocart 3 released with different abbreviations (German), Videocart 18 changed graphics and German word list and the SABA 20 that's a Chess game released only by SABA.
into releasing and improving their next-generation console which was then in development. Then codenamed "Stella," the machine was also going to use cartridges, and after seeing the Channel F they realized they needed to release it before the market was flooded with cartridge based-machines. With cash flow dwindling as sales of their existing Pong-based systems dried up, they were forced to sell to Warner Communications
to gain the capital they needed. When the Atari VCS
gaming system (whose name was coined as a takeoff of the VES) was released a year later, it had considerably better graphics and sound.
Some time in 1979, Zircon International bought the rights to the Channel F and released the re-designed console as the Channel F System II to compete with the Atari's VCS. This re-designed System II was done by Nick Talesfore at Fairchild. He was the same industrial designer who designed the original game console. Only six new games were released after the debut of the second system before its death, several of which were developed at Fairchild before they sold it off.
The major changes were in design, with the controllers removable from the base unit instead of being wired directly into it, the storage compartment was moved to the rear of the unit, and the sound was now mixed into the TV signal so the unit no longer needed a speaker. This version also featured a simpler and more modern-looking case design. However, by this time the market was in the midst of the first video game crash, and Fairchild eventually threw in the towel and left the market.
A number of licensed versions were released in Europe, including the Luxor Video Entertainment System in Scandinavia (Sweden), Adman Grandstand in the UK, and the Saba Videoplay, Nordmende Teleplay and ITT Tele-Match Processor, from Germany and also Dumont Videoplay and Barco Challenger from the Barco/Dumont company in Italy and Belgium.
. For example, a 2009 version of Pac-Man
was developed and distributed for the Channel F.
Fairchild Semiconductor
Fairchild Semiconductor International, Inc. is an American semiconductor company based in San Jose, California. Founded in 1957, it was a pioneer in transistor and integrated circuit manufacturing...
in August 1976 at the retail price of $169.95. It has the distinction of being the first programmable ROM cartridge
ROM cartridge
A ROM cartridge, sometimes referred to as a cart, is a removable enclosure containing read-only memory devices designed to be connected to a computer or games console....
-based video game console
Video game console
A video game console is an interactive entertainment computer or customized computer system that produces a video display signal which can be used with a display device to display a video game...
. It was launched as the Video Entertainment System, or VES, but when Atari
Atari
Atari is a corporate and brand name owned by several entities since its inception in 1972. It is currently owned by Atari Interactive, a wholly owned subsidiary of the French publisher Atari, SA . The original Atari, Inc. was founded in 1972 by Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney. It was a pioneer in...
released their VCS
Atari 2600
The Atari 2600 is a video game console released in October 1977 by Atari, Inc. It is credited with popularizing the use of microprocessor-based hardware and cartridges containing game code, instead of having non-microprocessor dedicated hardware with all games built in...
the next year, Fairchild renamed its machine.
The console
The Channel F electronics were designed by Jerry LawsonJerry Lawson (engineer)
Gerald Anderson "Jerry" Lawson was an American electronic engineer known for his work in designing the Fairchild Channel F video game console....
using the Fairchild F8
Fairchild F8
The Fairchild F8 was an 8-bit microprocessor created by Fairchild Semiconductor. It was introduced in 1975 and was "the world´s leading microprocessor in terms of CPU sales" in 1977.-Features:...
CPU
Central processing unit
The central processing unit is the portion of a computer system that carries out the instructions of a computer program, to perform the basic arithmetical, logical, and input/output operations of the system. The CPU plays a role somewhat analogous to the brain in the computer. The term has been in...
, the first public outing of this processor. Jerry worked with Nick Talesfore who was responsible for the Industrial Design of the hand controllers, console and video game cartridges as the manager of Industrial Design; and, Ron Smith who was responsible for the mechanical engineering of the video cartridges and the 8 degrees of freedom hand controllers. All worked for Fairchild Semiconductor headed by Wilf Corigan a division of Fairchild Camera & Instrument. Notably, Robert Noyce
Robert Noyce
Robert Norton Noyce , nicknamed "the Mayor of Silicon Valley", co-founded Fairchild Semiconductor in 1957 and Intel in 1968...
worked on the F8 design team before he left Fairchild to start his own company, Intel. The F8 is very complex compared to the typical integrated circuits of the day, and had more inputs and outputs than other contemporary chips. Because chip packaging was not available with enough pins, the F8 is instead fabricated as a pair of chips that had to be used together to form a complete CPU.
The graphics are quite basic by modern standards. The Channel F was only able to use one plane of graphics and one of four background colors per line, only three plot colors to choose from (red, green and blue) that turned into white if the background was set to black. A resolution of 128 × 64 with approximately 102 × 58 pixels visible and help from only 64 bytes of system RAM, half the amount of the Atari 2600
Atari 2600
The Atari 2600 is a video game console released in October 1977 by Atari, Inc. It is credited with popularizing the use of microprocessor-based hardware and cartridges containing game code, instead of having non-microprocessor dedicated hardware with all games built in...
. The F8 processor at the heart of the console was able to produce enough AI to allow for player versus computer matches, a first in console history. All previous machines required a human opponent.
One unique feature to this console is the 'hold' button, which allows the player to freeze the game, change the time or change the speed of the game during the course of the game. In the original unit, sound is played through an internal speaker, rather than the TV set. However, the System II passes sound to the television through the RF modulator.
The controllers are a joystick without a base; the main body is a large hand grip with a triangular "cap" on top, the top being the portion that actually moved for eight-way directional control. It can be used as both a joystick and paddle (twist), and not only pushed down to operate as a fire button but also pulled up. The model 1 unit contains a small compartment for storing the controllers when moving it. The System II featured detachable controllers. Zircon later offered a special control which featured an action button on the front of the joystick. It was marketed by Zircon as "Channel F Jet-Stick" in a letter sent out to registered owners before Christmas 1982. They also released it as an Atari-compatible controller called "Video Command" it was also first released without the extra fire button, before that only the downwards plunge motion was connected and acted as the fire button, the pull-up and twist actions weren't used.
Games
There are 26 cartridges, termed 'Videocarts', that were officially released during the ownership of Fairchild and Zircon, the first 21 of which were released by Fairchild. Several of these cartridges are capable of playing more than one game and were typically priced at $19.95. The Videocarts are yellow and approximately the size and overall texture of an 8 track cartridge. They usually feature colorful label artwork reminiscent of the artist Peter MaxPeter Max
Peter Max is a German-born Jewish American artist. At first, works in this style appeared on posters and were seen on the walls of college dorms all across America. Max then became fascinated with new printing techniques that allowed for four-color reproduction on product merchandise...
. The earlier artwork was created by nationally known artist Tom Kamifuji and art directed by Nick Talesfore. The console contains two built-in games, Tennis and Hockey, which were both advanced Pong
Pong
Pong is one of the earliest arcade video games, and is a tennis sports game featuring simple two-dimensional graphics. While other arcade video games such as Computer Space came before it, Pong was one of the first video games to reach mainstream popularity...
clones. The reflecting bar could be changed to diagonals by twisting the controller, and could move forward and backward.
A sales brochure from 1978 lists 'Keyboard Videocarts' for sale. The three shown were K-1 Casino Poker, K-2 Space Odyssey, and K-3 Pro-Football. These are to use the Keyboard accessory which is a 16 button keypad. All further brochures, released after Zircon took over Fairchild, never listed this accessory nor anything called a Keyboard Videocart.
There is one additional cartridge released numbered Videocart-51 and simply titled 'Demo 1'. This Videocart is shown in a single sales brochure released shortly after Zircon acquired the company. It was never listed for sale after this single brochure which was used for winter of 1979.
Ken Uston
Ken Uston
Ken Uston was a famous blackjack player, strategist, and author, credited with popularizing the concept of team play at blackjack...
reviewed 32 games in his book Ken Uston's Guide to Buying and Beating the Home Video Games
Ken Uston's Guide to Buying and Beating the Home Video Games
Ken Uston's Guide to Buying and Beating the Home Video Games was published in May 1982. The book, published by Signet in New York, was a brief guide to strategy for console video games in existence at the time. The book was divided into chapters by console type or manufacturer, and each chapter...
in 1982, and rated some of the Channel F's titles highly; of these, Alien Invasion and Video Whizball were considered by Uston to be "the finest adult cartridges currently available for the Fairchild Channel F System." The games on the whole, however, rated last on his survey of over 200 games for the Atari, Intellivision, Astrocade and Odyssey consoles, and contemporary games were rated "Average" with future Channel F games rated "below average". Uston rated almost one half of the Channel F games as "high in interest" and called that "an impressive proportion" and further noted that "Some of the Channel F cartridges are timeless; no matter what technological developments occur, they will continue to be of interest." His overall conclusion was that the games "serve a limited, but useful, purpose" and that the "strength of the Channel F offering is in its excellent educational line for children."
List of games
- Integrated with console: Hockey, Tennis
- Videocart-1: Tic-Tac-Toe, Shooting Gallery, Doodle, Quadra-Doodle
- Videocart-2: Desert Fox, Shooting Gallery
- Videocart-3: Video BlackjackVideocart-3: Video BlackjackVideocart 3: Video Blackjack is a Casino videogame released by Fairchild for the Fairchild Channel F in 1976 ....
- Videocart-4: SpitfireVideocart-4: SpitfireVideocart-4: Spitfire is a Shoot 'em up released by Fairchild for the Fairchild Channel F in 1977 ....
- Videocart-5: Space WarVideocart-5: Space WarVideocart-5: Space War is a Shoot 'em up released by Fairchild for the Fairchild Channel F in 1977 ....
- Videocart-6: Math Quiz (Addition & Subtraction)Videocart-6: Math Quiz (Addition & Subtraction)Videocart-6: Math Quiz is a Triva/Game Show videogame released by Fairchild for the Fairchild Channel F in 1977 ....
- Videocart-7: Math Quiz (Multiplication & Division)Videocart-7: Math Quiz (Multiplication & Division)Videocart-7: Math Quiz is a Triva/Game/Quiz Show videogame released by Fairchild for the Fairchild Channel F in 1977 ....
- Videocart-8: Mind Reader, Nim (also referred to as Magic Numbers)Videocart-8: Mind Reader, Nim (also referred to as Magic Numbers)Videocart-8: Mind Reader, Nim is a Triva/Game Show videogame released by Fairchild for the Fairchild Channel F in 1977 ....
- Videocart-9: Drag StripVideocart-9: Drag StripVideocart 9: Drag Strip is a Drag Racing videogame released for the Fairchild Channel F by Fairchild in 1976 ....
- Videocart-10: Maze, Cat and Mouse
- Videocart-11: Backgammon, Acey-Deucey
- Videocart-12: BaseballVideocart-12: BaseballVideocart-12: Baseball is a Baseball videogame released by Fairchild for the Fairchild Channel F in 1977 ....
- Videocart 13: Robot War/Torpedo AlleyVideocart 13: Robot War/Torpedo AlleyVideocart 13: Robot War/Torpedo Alley is a 2d platformer released by Fairchild for the Fairchild Channel F in 1977 ....
- Videocart-14: Sonar Search
- Videocart-15: Memory Match
- Videocart 16: Dodge-ItVideocart 16: Dodge-ItVideocart 16: Dodge-It is a unique game Fairchild for the Fairchild Channel F in 1978. The game is similar to dodge ball. One or two players controls a character represented by a square in a room on the screen. A ball controlled by the computer is then introduced into the room. Overtime more balls...
- Videocart-17: Pinball Challenge
- Videocart-18: Hangman
- Videocart-19: Checkers
- Videocart-20: Video Whizball
- Videocart-21: Bowling
- Videocart-22: Slot Machine
- Videocart-23: Galactic Space Wars
- Videocart-24: Pro-Football
- Videocart-25: Casino Poker
- Videocart-26: Alien Invasion
- Videocart-27: Pac-Man (Homebrew)
Carts listed (as mentioned above) but never released:
- Keyboard Videocart-1: Casino Poker
- Keyboard Videocart-2: Space Odyssey
- Keyboard Videocart-3: Pro-Football
Official carts that also exist:
- Democart
- Democart 2
German SABA also released a few compatible carts different from the original carts, translation in Videocart 1 Tic-Tac-Toe to German words, Videocart 3 released with different abbreviations (German), Videocart 18 changed graphics and German word list and the SABA 20 that's a Chess game released only by SABA.
Market impact
The biggest effect of the Channel F in the market was to spur AtariAtari
Atari is a corporate and brand name owned by several entities since its inception in 1972. It is currently owned by Atari Interactive, a wholly owned subsidiary of the French publisher Atari, SA . The original Atari, Inc. was founded in 1972 by Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney. It was a pioneer in...
into releasing and improving their next-generation console which was then in development. Then codenamed "Stella," the machine was also going to use cartridges, and after seeing the Channel F they realized they needed to release it before the market was flooded with cartridge based-machines. With cash flow dwindling as sales of their existing Pong-based systems dried up, they were forced to sell to Warner Communications
Warner Communications
Warner Communications or Warner Communications, Inc. was established in 1971 when Kinney National Company spun off its non-entertainment assets, due to a financial scandal over its parking operations and changed its name....
to gain the capital they needed. When the Atari VCS
Atari 2600
The Atari 2600 is a video game console released in October 1977 by Atari, Inc. It is credited with popularizing the use of microprocessor-based hardware and cartridges containing game code, instead of having non-microprocessor dedicated hardware with all games built in...
gaming system (whose name was coined as a takeoff of the VES) was released a year later, it had considerably better graphics and sound.
The Channel F System II
The major changes were in design, with the controllers removable from the base unit instead of being wired directly into it, the storage compartment was moved to the rear of the unit, and the sound was now mixed into the TV signal so the unit no longer needed a speaker. This version also featured a simpler and more modern-looking case design. However, by this time the market was in the midst of the first video game crash, and Fairchild eventually threw in the towel and left the market.
A number of licensed versions were released in Europe, including the Luxor Video Entertainment System in Scandinavia (Sweden), Adman Grandstand in the UK, and the Saba Videoplay, Nordmende Teleplay and ITT Tele-Match Processor, from Germany and also Dumont Videoplay and Barco Challenger from the Barco/Dumont company in Italy and Belgium.
Homebrew
Like many other classic consoles, the Channel F lives on through homebrewHomebrew (video games)
Homebrew is a term frequently applied to video games or other software produced by consumers to target proprietary hardware platforms not typically user-programmable or that use proprietary storage methods...
. For example, a 2009 version of Pac-Man
Pac-Man
is an arcade game developed by Namco and licensed for distribution in the United States by Midway, first released in Japan on May 22, 1980. Immensely popular from its original release to the present day, Pac-Man is considered one of the classics of the medium, virtually synonymous with video games,...
was developed and distributed for the Channel F.
Technical specifications [Original Channel F]
- CPU chip: Fairchild F8Fairchild F8The Fairchild F8 was an 8-bit microprocessor created by Fairchild Semiconductor. It was introduced in 1975 and was "the world´s leading microprocessor in terms of CPU sales" in 1977.-Features:...
operating at 1.79 MHz (PAL gen. 1: 2.00 MHz, PAL gen.2: 1.77 MHz) - RAM: 64 bytes, 2 kBKilobyteThe kilobyte is a multiple of the unit byte for digital information. Although the prefix kilo- means 1000, the term kilobyte and symbol KB have historically been used to refer to either 1024 bytes or 1000 bytes, dependent upon context, in the fields of computer science and information...
VRAM (2×128×64 bits) - Resolution: 128 × 64 pixelPixelIn digital imaging, a pixel, or pel, is a single point in a raster image, or the smallest addressable screen element in a display device; it is the smallest unit of picture that can be represented or controlled....
s, approximately 102 × 58 pixels visible depending on TV - Colors: eight colors (either black/white or four color max. per line)
- Audio: 500 Hz, 1 kHz, and 1.5 kHz tones (can be modulated quickly to produce different tones)
- Input: two custom game controllers, hardwired to the console (original release) or removable (Channel F System II)
- Output: RF modulatedRF modulatorAn RF modulator is a device that takes a baseband input signal and outputs a radio frequency-modulated signal....
composite video signal, cord hardwired to console
External links
- The Dot Eaters article with a history of the Channel F and games
- Interview with designer Jerry Lawson