The long-defunct company Fairchild Semiconductor, International Inc has several distinctions in the annals of home video game history. Upon its release in 1976, their Fairchild Channel F home video game console:
- Was the world’s first cartridge-based home video game system.
- Became the first home video game system with a microprocessor.
- Predated the Atari VCS/2600 by about 1 year.
- Included controllers that were generally regarded as being the most memorable part of the system due to their interesting functionality.
The original retail price was $169 which is about $778 in today’s dollars so a fairly high price for the time. Especially considering home video games weren’t a “thing” yet and kids probably would have had to convince their parents to buy them one with some difficulty. As I experienced personally.
Videocarts
The Fairchild F (the F stood for Fun) pioneered the use of cartridges to play each game. They used a front loading cartridge system so that the cartridge fit in parallel to the bottom of the console on the front right side. Their cartridges resembled an 8-track music tape which interestingly were only several years away from being completely replaced by the cassette tape by 1982. For the video game industry however, this was the start of the use of cartridges for unique game play.
The video game industry and associated technology was so new that Fairchild referred to their cartridges as videocarts. Several videocarts had multiple games on them which was is fairly unique for the era. Intellivision created their game Triple Action in 1981 that featured three games (racing, tank combat and a flying game) on one cartridge but this was the exception rather than the rule for this era and today in fact. In all, 27 videocarts were created for the Fairchild Channel F.
Games
The 27 videocarts that were introduced from 1976 – 1981 included sports, trivia, action, educational, racing, puzzles, gambling and strategy games. The majority of games were released from 1976-78 with no new games introduced in 1979. This was an unfortunate mistake since by 1979, Mattel had introduced Intellivision and Atari was already steaming ahead so while these two companies were busy releasing new games and widely advertising them, the Channel F was largely invisible by comparison.
While I can remember numerous print ads and tv commercials for both Atari and Intellivision (including the famous George Plimpton ads discussing the clear superiority of Intellivision) Channel F was nowhere to be found. And George Plimpton only talked about Atari as being a competitor, not Channel F.
Console
The Fairchild Channel F console is interesting for several reasons. First, the naming and subsequent renaming of the unit. The console was originally called the Fairchild Video Entertainment System but when Atari released their Video Computer System (VCS and later renamed Atari 2600) one year later, Fairchild changed the name to Channel F. Giving up the name and going with something else after a competitor enters the market with a similar name is rather odd.
In 1979 and under new ownership, the console was modernized and renamed again as the Channel F System II Fairchild Video Entertainment Computer.
At the time, the tv you were playing a home video console on needed to be set to channel 3 or 4 to access the games which I imagine is why the word “channel” was part of the product name. It was a timely reference that would only mean something to anyone who has played an early generation game like Channel F, Atari 2600, Intellivision, Colecovision, etc.
A second interesting feature were the buttons on the console. The console featured five push buttons on the front left side of the unit: A Reset button and then four numeric buttons that served several purposes each:
Button 1: Time button, 2 minute button and Hockey game button
Button 2: Mode button, 5 minutes button and Tennis game button
Button 3: Hold button, 10 minutes button and Game 3 button
Button 4: Start button, 20 minutes button and Game 4 button
On the far right of the console was the videocart (cartridge) slot and a Press to Eject videocart button.
The Channel F came with two pre-loaded games (Hockey and Tennis) which are interesting choices being both sports games and neither being the most popular sport in the US at the time. It’s also an odd quirk that designers would preload two specific games on the console and then leave two empty spots for “other” games.
Having said that, the hockey and tennis games they included were similar to Pong which was a basic and very popular game at the time with every video game company seemingly trying to copy it. The game play for hockey and tennis were made relatively simple compared to other sports they could have made a game for, that probably would have required more programming.
One useful feature on the Channel F is the Hold button which let the player(s) pause a game or change the time as the console also came with 2, 5, 10 and 20 minute timers. This timer feature is something that was generally not emulated on future home video game consoles although individual games do certainly come with an automatic time aspect built into many games.
Controllers
The Fairchild Channel F console came with 2 controllers with an 8-way directional joystick at the top. By comparison 1979’s Intellivision had a 16-direction control disc. The Channel F controllers are probably the most memorable part of the console as they managed to pack a number of features in given their overall lack of buttons certainly as compared to Intellivision. Channel F controllers could be used for the following:
- Pushed in 8 directions for directional movement.
- Pressed down for use as a fire button.
- Pulled up vertically.
- Twisted left and right like a paddle for sports action like the hockey game.
So there was a lot going on with the controller in terms of functionality that it has.
Final Thoughts
Often being first to market works out well for those coming first and those who come later are at a disadvantage that they can never recover from. The Fairchild Channel F is an example of how it isn’t always a guarantee that being first matters if you don’t do the other things correctly too. Even for many old gamers, the Channel F is largely a forgotten console. The Atari 2600 lapped it pretty quickly as did Intellivision and Colecovision several years later.
All in the Channel F was produced until 1983 and then disappeared from the market. It is reported that they achieved console sales of about 250,000 units in 1977 although longer term figures until 1983 aren’t widely published.
If you’re looking for a longer history of the Channel F, Fast Company wrote a very detailed story beginning with the initial design including the people behind the console’s creation.