3 ms·

The Fairchild Channel F: First and Finest?

45 points by zdw 5y ago

ChuckMcM 5y ago
It was a wonderfully quirky machine. I had one as a kid because where my Mom worked they hired a former Fairchild engineer who told her it was the best game console you could buy. I did not know about the "command" bus stuff for memory, that was pretty wild. The first Fairchild microprocessor I looked seriously at was the PACE16 which I decided was too complicated and went with a Z80 for my first "computer." That said, one of the things I love about the Vintage Computer Festival/Faire events is that it is really easy to see the dividing line in time between "we're trying all sorts of ideas" and "we're following the leader to grab some market share." Consoles were not much different in this regard. The difference between the 2600, the Coleco, and the Odyssey seems huge compared to looking at the differences between the PS5 and the XBox. There is still room for variation though and the Switch is a good example of that.
- pinewurst 5y ago
  How's the Switch a good example? The hardware (NVIDIA Tegra X1) is generic as can be - also used in NVIDIA Shield/Google Pixel C. If Switch didn't have Nintendo marketing behind it, it'd sink into obscurity as fast as other products on the same hardware platform. Sure it's different, but not in any creative way.
  - mlyle 5y ago
    What-- because it uses hardware you can find in other things, it's not unique? * It's packaged dramatically differently from its primary Sony and Microsoft competitors. It aims squarely between handheld gaming and the console space and finds success there rather than being a watered down version of btoh. * It supports a wide variety of use cases-- single player portable, multiple players around the small screen, TV. * The controllers support a greater degree of motion tracking and are reconfigurable (snap on the sides, use sideways, etc. * It chooses a different microarchitecture from everyone else in the console gaming space. (No, the Shield and Google Pixel don't count).
    - PaulHoule 5y ago
      Nintendo has brand power, IP and software. Sony and Microsoft are giving up on exclusives, but Nintendo always is making strong games in some of the series such as Mario, Metroid, Zelda, Pokemon, Fire Emblem, etc. People frequently play the Switch in the same configuration as the PSP/PS Vita/Steam Deck so I think the trick hardware is overrated, but it is a solid platform that attracts various third party software, for instance almost all the JRPG that came out for PS 4 and the Vita now come out for the Switch.
      - mlyle 5y ago
        > Nintendo has brand power, IP and software. Oh, sure. I'm not saying someone other than one of the biggest gaming companies could have been successful with this. > People frequently play the Switch in the same configuration as the PSP/PS Vita/Steam Deck so I think the trick hardware is overrated We (adults) play it on the TV mostly, but it travels with us on trips. Kids play theirs handheld. Very often play 2 player with a kickstand. I was a big Vita fan; it feels like a better Vita but isn't completely worthless for TV gaming.
        PaulHoule 5y ago
        Sony released a TV version of the Vita but never a version with both a screen and a video output. I looked at the Vita TV but kept buying parts to field-repair my handheld instead.
      - salamandersauce 5y ago
        Nintendo has previously stated that play time is split 50/50 across docked and handheld mode. How that holds up in the years since and with the introduction of the Switch Lite I don't know but it seems a pretty solid indication that it's more than just a trick. https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2018/06/nintendo-docked-and-undocked-play-time-for-switch-is-about-even/ https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2018/06/nintendo-docked-and-u...
  - bri3d 5y ago
    The default controllers, hardware problems aside, certainly represent a departure from the usual controllers of the PS/Xbox family. The Shield is actually a perfect example - it failed in the market as a weird gimmicky "normal console" controller with a screen glued to the top of it. On the flip side, with the Switch: * One handed motion controls are viable and used frequently. * Two-stick FPS games are possible but don't need to be the default, encouraging more innovative/interesting UIs. * IR camera enables Labo/Cardboard which is a very cool gimmick. * Easy docking, undocking, storage, and portability of the controllers. * The console includes two players by default. Most Switch games have a thought out, fun two-or-more players, in-person mode. Many have co-op. Split-screen games are an afterthought and don't even run correctly on most other modern consoles.
    - bitwize 5y ago
      This is called "lateral thinking with withered technology" -- Nintendo's core principle of taking mature, generic technologies and combining them in innovative ways to create something new and interesting.
egypturnash 5y ago
First yes, finest no; I had one as a kid and I sure do not recall any games that looked even remotely as nice as her example at the top of demaking one of her own games at its resolution. It was an amusing toy to play with when my engineer father got it for me but I was covering my friend’s VCS by the time next Christmas rolled around. A quick search for a list of all its games shows how visually underwhelming it was: https://voxodyssey.com/fairchild-channel-f https://voxodyssey.com/fairchild-channel-f (and confirms my feeling that Nicole’s demake of her game looks tons better than any actual Fairchild games) The controllers were interesting, but quirky as hell: a shaft held in one hand with a triangular head poking out, to be held by the other hand. Push up/down/left/right to function as a digital joystick, rotate l/r as well, push it down into the shaft to act as a button.
- nicole_express 5y ago
  I suspect my demake, while theoretically possible, wouldn't have been doable within the ROM limits of the time (at least when also needing to use that ROM space for gameplay, etc) As an NES game it's tiny, but 24kiB would be unfathomable for a Channel F game.
  - RodgerTheGreat 5y ago
    Unsurprisingly, modern homebrew appears a bit more sophisticated than the offical releases: http://www.consolecity.com/games/action-game_info/game_id-29406.html http://www.consolecity.com/games/action-game_info/game_id-29... edit: some neat tech demos on Archive.org, too: https://archive.org/details/International_Karate_Demo https://archive.org/details/International_Karate_Demo
sbuttgereit 5y ago
My very first game console which I look back on with fond memories, though that is mostly the nostalgia of an old man. To be honest, when I received it as some sort of present (Christmas or Birthday) from my parents.... I was very disappointed. As mentioned in other comments here: it wasn't the console to have... that was the Atari 2600. And using it only compounded that disappointment... the controllers which were part joystick, part paddle and wanted you to pump the joystick for a button press was just odd and a bit clumsy. The best game I had for it was the one that came with it (as I remember): you were a block of some size and other blocks would move across the screen an you had to dodge those and not run into the sides of the screen... no characters, no theming: just square blocks. There were other games, but no cool factor at all. In the end it wasn't terrible, just OK. It was entertaining enough that we chose to play it when could have just left it turned off. I wish I still had it. But eventually I did get the 2600, and not too long after having gotten it I traded it in for a deal on my first computer: the Commodore VIC-20.... I wish I still had it, but I eventually traded that in for a deal on a Commodore 64... I wish I still had that... but...
dole 5y ago
My dad built one of the large Heathkit 27”(?) console TVs, I remember being 3 or 4 and watching my cat chase the airplanes around the TV in Spitfire, noting how weird it was, an animal chasing electronic dots around the screen that they’d never catch.
joedevon 5y ago
My brother and I had the Fairchild and we preferred it to the Atari, though we enjoyed both. We were sad when the games stopped coming out for Fairchild and Atari started getting all the attention. Thanks @nicole for bringing back memories.

45 points by zdw 5y ago

It was a wonderfully quirky machine. I had one as a kid because where my Mom worked they hired a former Fairchild engineer who told her it was the best game console you could buy. I did not know about the "command" bus stuff for memory, that was pretty wild. The first Fairchild microprocessor I looked seriously at was the PACE16 which I decided was too complicated and went with a Z80 for my first "computer." That said, one of the things I love about the Vintage Computer Festival/Faire events is that it is really easy to see the dividing line in time between "we're trying all sorts of ideas" and "we're following the leader to grab some market share." Consoles were not much different in this regard. The difference between the 2600, the Coleco, and the Odyssey seems huge compared to looking at the differences between the PS5 and the XBox. There is still room for variation though and the Switch is a good example of that.

pinewurst 5y ago
How's the Switch a good example? The hardware (NVIDIA Tegra X1) is generic as can be - also used in NVIDIA Shield/Google Pixel C. If Switch didn't have Nintendo marketing behind it, it'd sink into obscurity as fast as other products on the same hardware platform. Sure it's different, but not in any creative way.
- mlyle 5y ago
  What-- because it uses hardware you can find in other things, it's not unique? * It's packaged dramatically differently from its primary Sony and Microsoft competitors. It aims squarely between handheld gaming and the console space and finds success there rather than being a watered down version of btoh. * It supports a wide variety of use cases-- single player portable, multiple players around the small screen, TV. * The controllers support a greater degree of motion tracking and are reconfigurable (snap on the sides, use sideways, etc. * It chooses a different microarchitecture from everyone else in the console gaming space. (No, the Shield and Google Pixel don't count).
  - PaulHoule 5y ago
    Nintendo has brand power, IP and software. Sony and Microsoft are giving up on exclusives, but Nintendo always is making strong games in some of the series such as Mario, Metroid, Zelda, Pokemon, Fire Emblem, etc. People frequently play the Switch in the same configuration as the PSP/PS Vita/Steam Deck so I think the trick hardware is overrated, but it is a solid platform that attracts various third party software, for instance almost all the JRPG that came out for PS 4 and the Vita now come out for the Switch.
    - mlyle 5y ago
      > Nintendo has brand power, IP and software. Oh, sure. I'm not saying someone other than one of the biggest gaming companies could have been successful with this. > People frequently play the Switch in the same configuration as the PSP/PS Vita/Steam Deck so I think the trick hardware is overrated We (adults) play it on the TV mostly, but it travels with us on trips. Kids play theirs handheld. Very often play 2 player with a kickstand. I was a big Vita fan; it feels like a better Vita but isn't completely worthless for TV gaming.
      - PaulHoule 5y ago
        Sony released a TV version of the Vita but never a version with both a screen and a video output. I looked at the Vita TV but kept buying parts to field-repair my handheld instead.
    - salamandersauce 5y ago
      Nintendo has previously stated that play time is split 50/50 across docked and handheld mode. How that holds up in the years since and with the introduction of the Switch Lite I don't know but it seems a pretty solid indication that it's more than just a trick. https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2018/06/nintendo-docked-and-undocked-play-time-for-switch-is-about-even/ https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2018/06/nintendo-docked-and-u...
- bri3d 5y ago
  The default controllers, hardware problems aside, certainly represent a departure from the usual controllers of the PS/Xbox family. The Shield is actually a perfect example - it failed in the market as a weird gimmicky "normal console" controller with a screen glued to the top of it. On the flip side, with the Switch: * One handed motion controls are viable and used frequently. * Two-stick FPS games are possible but don't need to be the default, encouraging more innovative/interesting UIs. * IR camera enables Labo/Cardboard which is a very cool gimmick. * Easy docking, undocking, storage, and portability of the controllers. * The console includes two players by default. Most Switch games have a thought out, fun two-or-more players, in-person mode. Many have co-op. Split-screen games are an afterthought and don't even run correctly on most other modern consoles.
  - bitwize 5y ago
    This is called "lateral thinking with withered technology" -- Nintendo's core principle of taking mature, generic technologies and combining them in innovative ways to create something new and interesting.

egypturnash 5y ago

First yes, finest no; I had one as a kid and I sure do not recall any games that looked even remotely as nice as her example at the top of demaking one of her own games at its resolution. It was an amusing toy to play with when my engineer father got it for me but I was covering my friend’s VCS by the time next Christmas rolled around. A quick search for a list of all its games shows how visually underwhelming it was: https://voxodyssey.com/fairchild-channel-f https://voxodyssey.com/fairchild-channel-f (and confirms my feeling that Nicole’s demake of her game looks tons better than any actual Fairchild games) The controllers were interesting, but quirky as hell: a shaft held in one hand with a triangular head poking out, to be held by the other hand. Push up/down/left/right to function as a digital joystick, rotate l/r as well, push it down into the shaft to act as a button.

nicole_express 5y ago
I suspect my demake, while theoretically possible, wouldn't have been doable within the ROM limits of the time (at least when also needing to use that ROM space for gameplay, etc) As an NES game it's tiny, but 24kiB would be unfathomable for a Channel F game.
- RodgerTheGreat 5y ago
  Unsurprisingly, modern homebrew appears a bit more sophisticated than the offical releases: http://www.consolecity.com/games/action-game_info/game_id-29406.html http://www.consolecity.com/games/action-game_info/game_id-29... edit: some neat tech demos on Archive.org, too: https://archive.org/details/International_Karate_Demo https://archive.org/details/International_Karate_Demo

sbuttgereit 5y ago

My very first game console which I look back on with fond memories, though that is mostly the nostalgia of an old man. To be honest, when I received it as some sort of present (Christmas or Birthday) from my parents.... I was very disappointed. As mentioned in other comments here: it wasn't the console to have... that was the Atari 2600. And using it only compounded that disappointment... the controllers which were part joystick, part paddle and wanted you to pump the joystick for a button press was just odd and a bit clumsy. The best game I had for it was the one that came with it (as I remember): you were a block of some size and other blocks would move across the screen an you had to dodge those and not run into the sides of the screen... no characters, no theming: just square blocks. There were other games, but no cool factor at all. In the end it wasn't terrible, just OK. It was entertaining enough that we chose to play it when could have just left it turned off. I wish I still had it. But eventually I did get the 2600, and not too long after having gotten it I traded it in for a deal on my first computer: the Commodore VIC-20.... I wish I still had it, but I eventually traded that in for a deal on a Commodore 64... I wish I still had that... but...

dole 5y ago

My dad built one of the large Heathkit 27”(?) console TVs, I remember being 3 or 4 and watching my cat chase the airplanes around the TV in Spitfire, noting how weird it was, an animal chasing electronic dots around the screen that they’d never catch.

joedevon 5y ago

My brother and I had the Fairchild and we preferred it to the Atari, though we enjoyed both. We were sad when the games stopped coming out for Fairchild and Atari started getting all the attention. Thanks @nicole for bringing back memories.