Fairchild Channel F
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| Fairchild Channel F | |
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| Manufacturer | Fairchild Semiconductor |
| Type | Video game console |
| Generation | Second generation |
| First available |  August, 1976 |
| CPU | Fairchild F8 |
| Media | Cartridge |
The Fairchild Channel F is the world's second cartridge-based video game console, after the Magnavox Odyssey (although it was the first programmable cartridge system as the Odyssey cartridges only contained jumpers and not ROM information). It was released by Fairchild Semiconductor (though ostensibly by their parent company) in August 1976 at a retail price of $169.95. At this point it was known as the Video Entertainment System, or VES, but when Atari released their VCS the next year, Fairchild quickly renamed it.
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[edit] The Channel F console
The Channel F was based on the Fairchild F8 CPU, invented by Robert Noyce before he left Fairchild to start his own company, Intel. The F8 was 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 was instead fabricated as a pair of chips that had to be used together to form a complete CPU. The video was quite basic, although it was in color which was a large step forward from the contemporary PONG machines. Sound was played through an internal speaker, rather than the TV set.
The controllers were a kind of joystick without a base; the main body was a large hand grip with a triangular "cap" on top, the top being the portion that actually moved. It could 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 unit contained a small compartment for storing the controllers when moving it: this was useful because the wiring was notoriously flimsy and even normal movement could break it.
- Channel F Games
Only 26 cartridges were released for the system (though some cartridges contained more than one game) (typically at $19.95), despite its initial popularity. However, the games are often detested. One reviewer described the racing game (every system seemed to have one at the time) as something like "losing a toe in an industrial accident." Cartridges for the system were big and banana-yellow, and usually featured label artwork reminiscent of the artist Peter Max.
Ken Uston, conversely, reviewed 32 games in his book Ken Uston's Guide to Buying and Beating the Home Video Games in 1982, and rated some games 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."[1] 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".[2] 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."[3]
- Market Impact
The biggest effect of the Channel F in the market was to spur Atari into releasing their next-generation console that was then in design. Then named "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 in order to gain the capital they needed. Naming their system as a takeoff of the VES, when the Atari VCS was released a year later it had considerably better graphics.
[edit] The Channel F System II
Fairchild decided to compete with the VCS, and started a re-design as the Channel F System II. The major changes were in design, the controllers were 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 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 exited the market.
Some time in 1979 Zircon International bought the rights to the Channel F and released the Channel F System II. Only six new games were released after the release of the second system before its death, several of which were developed at Fairchild before they sold it off.
A number of licensed versions were released in Europe, including the Luxor Video Entertainment System in Sweden, Adman Grandstand in the UK, and the Saba Videoplay, Nordmende Teleplay and ITT Tele-Match Processor, from Germany.
[edit] Playing Channel F over the phone
By the use of some special circuitry, it is possible to turn voice into simple digital signals. In the 1970s, it seems someone did just this to the Channel F. The voice input could be connected to a phone line, and thus someone on a phone at the other end could make loud noises to trigger the button on a Channel F.
It appears this was employed in a TV show which aired as a locally produced show in many markets in the US (some say a human merely listened to the pows and pressed a controller button instead of a circuit doing it). There were also reports of the same kind of show airing in Australia (listings have confirmed this show airing on the RVN-AMV network in northern Victoria and southern New South Wales; there are also reports of a similar-formatted program carried by TVW7 in Perth). This show was usually called "TV Pow". It was organized as a call-in game show. A person would send a letter to say they wanted to be on the show, and the organizers would select contestants and arrange to call them during the show. The host would small talk with the contestant a while and prep them to play the game. When the host said "go", the output of a Channel F playing shooting gallery would be aired on the station. The voice of the contestant could be heard over the game, and the contestant could only activate the "fire" functionality of the game by saying a word loudly into the phone (the word "pow" was suggested and usually used).
Shooting Gallery was comprised of a target which would move down the far right-hand side of the screen at an even rate. Somewhere left of that target (it varied) would be the player's "gun". The gun looked exactly like the "bat" in Pong, although sometimes it would be turned at a 45 degree angle. When the player fired the "bullet" would come out perpendicular to the gun in the middle of the long sides.
To play TV Pow, the player would have to watch the target move down the screen on the TV station and say "pow" into the phone when he wanted to fire at the target. The system would then fire at the target. Once the target passed by the spot the gun was aimed at, the player could only wait until the target went off the bottom and came out at the top again for a fresh run.
Even in the days of all-analog production, there was significant lag in producing and transmitting a TV signal. The player would experience all this lag and it must have made playing the game somewhat more difficult.
[edit] Strategies
Perhaps due to this lag or perhaps just because most of the contestants were somewhat young and impatient, very often the player would throw any kind of ideas of timing out the window and just bark "pow pow pow pow pow" into the phone to fire as fast and as often as possible. It at times seemed like a kind of a speed contest, with the words from the fastest contestants running together.
[edit] Technical specifications
- CPU chip: Fairchild F8 operating at 1.79 MHz
- RAM: 64 bytes, 2 KiB VRAM (2×128×64 bits)
- Resolution: 128 × 64 pixels, 102 × 58 pixels visible
- 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
- Output: RF modulated composite video signal, cord hardwired to console
[edit] References
[edit] External links
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| First generation |
| Magnavox Odyssey • Pong • Coleco Telstar |
| Early second generation |
| Channel F • Atari 2600 • Odyssey² • Intellivision |
| Later second generation |
| Atari 5200 • ColecoVision • Vectrex • SG-1000 |
| Third generation (compare) |
| NES • Master System • Atari 7800 |
| Fourth generation (compare) |
| TurboGrafx-16 • Mega Drive/Genesis • Neo Geo • SNES |
| Fifth generation (compare) |
| 3DO • Jaguar • Saturn • PlayStation • N64 |
| Sixth generation (compare) |
| Dreamcast • PlayStation 2 • GameCube • Xbox |
| Seventh generation (compare) |
| Xbox 360 • PlayStation 3 • Wii |
- Fairchild Channel F at
OLD-COMPUTERS.COM - Channel F FAQ from rec.games.video.classic
- History of the companies behind the Channel F @ Link Cable of Time
- The MESS Project (with Channel F emulation)
- The Dot Eaters article with a history of the Channel F and games
- VESwiki make your own software for the Channel F
