Throwback Wednsday: Fairchild Channel F

I've been wanting to showcase old video game consoles and games that have been long forgotten and I think I will start doing this on Wednesdays from time to time. Today I would like to bring back the Fairchild Channel F console (also known as the VES).

The year was 1976 and Fairchild Semiconductor just released the Fairchild Channel F console to rival Atari. At the time Atari's major console was the Pong console. What set the Channel F apart? It was the first gaming console to use cartridges that were interchangeable! It also allowed users to pause the games which was not a feature so common back then. This feature was called hold instead. And it introduced player vs. computer AI to consoles!

Graphics were quite basic and it only had the ability to create 8 different colors in its palette. It ran on a whopping 64 bytes of RAM which is about half of what the Atari 2600 would end up using. Sound was all heard from an internal speaker until the second revision which allowed sound to escape from the TV through an RF switch. The controllers had a unique design. They were just grips with a triangular cap that operated for movement and a fire button.

Officially only 26 games were released for the console. They each were released as cartridges that were about the size of an 8track tape.

Sadly the Atari VCS was released and it brought a halt to the Channel F and its production. The Channel F was released to try and bring Atari to release it's newest console and when it did it brought the guns blazing and won. By 1979 the last console was made and sold and cleared the path for Atari's boom. Channel F, here's to you!