A special thank you to @play_history for his research and writing on this episode, and to Patrons for voting for this topic! It's an important story in video game history, and I'm really happy with how everything turned out. Hope you all enjoy!
Hello everybody! Pleased to be back again with a video that I think Norm did so much to elevate! I hope this may become a classic of the Gaming Historian canon and a revalation for you all who may not have known much about this console. Enjoy!
The research is flawless. Very impressive without a doubt. Hopefully over time more and more people will realize there was such a thing as the Fairchild Channel F.
Had no idea Schlumberger had bought them up, too. Had a friend who worked for SLB in Natural Gas. For those who don't know, it's kind of an open secret/urban legend: Schlumberger is a globe-trotting Oil Services company with a 'special' relationship with the CIA. As in: CIA spooks put on a SLB badge and work a global SLB job as their cover.
Do you have any plans on making maybe Playstation or Xbox history vids? I love Nintendo, but would like to hear about some other brands as well. Love the content though!
I got to see Jerry Lawson speak quite a few times at differnet Classic Gaming Expo's over the years and he was an absolutle GEM of a person. I was honeslty devistated when he passed in 2011. Such an "unknwon" name in video game history, but he was freaking amazing. I hope he's resting in peace -- I miss him dearly.
(I'm not a Gamer) so I'd never heard the Jerry Lawson name until watching this video just now. Sounds to me like he was a top dude (who overcame a lot, racial discrimination in the US etc) who I'd have loved to sit down with and share a cuppa with one day. Enjoy your privilege of having heard him speak at some Expos. Sorry I'll never have that chance.
While Lawson didn't invent the concept of a game cartridge, he was utterly instrumental in getting the Channel F to market; had he not done so, the world of video gaming could have been very different.
the channel F boxarts remain some of my favorite in all of gaming, they're SO aggressively mid-70s with their bright neon colors and i love that kind of thing
nothing short of genius, very straightforward. you know immediately what you are looking at and what the game's selling at a glance unlike the artsy trend of 80's games, in which artists were hired to paint a museum gallery piece as the box art and you couldn't tell what the hell were you getting into
The big cartridge breakthrough is massively overstated in importance. Edge connectors had been around a long time at that point in electronics generally. Putting ROMs on these daughterboards was also not unique. The innovation was housing it in a big yellow plastic 8 track looking housing. The channel F system is pretty weak and doesn't even stand up to a 2600. I'm glad Atari didn't follow that path with the design and colors while still retaining a good style.
@@twistedyogert I disagree with that. 70s styling was far more about what they call "earthy" colors than wood grain. I would say it is far more accurate to say "Nothing screams 70s more than colored plastic" Look at the Panasonic Dynamite 8 Track Player for a perfect example of 70s styling. Furthermore, EVERYTHING was wood grain just a couple of decades before. Most furniture. Most appliances. Look at the TVs from the 1960s or radios from the 30s to the 50s. Just about every radio came in a fine furniture look. Almost all of them were veneered with real wood. This was totally gone by the 70s. To the extent wooden decor was available at all, it was cheap and fake. A console TV from the 70s is likely to be made of particle board with plastic simulated wood grain veneer.
There's something so fascinating about the early games industry. So many random companies gave it a shot and what we take for granted nowadays was nonexistent back then (normal controllers with dpads or cartridges for example lol) Nice video!
It is pretty cool these old ones. So many companies make one new thing and fail but that thing they make ends up being used in all consoles etc. So many ppl ahead of their time that failed.
It's wild to see where some companies nowadays famous for one thing previously did something that feels almost totally different, and yet you can see how they got from one to the other, like finding out that Commodore used to make calculators or that Nintendo originally made card games (Nintendo is older than airplanes).
@@GamingHistorian Bro, special shout-out to the folks who are doing your B-roll footage like assembling/reassembling the actual console instead of just using static images. Not to mention finding and showing historical photos and documents like the console advertisements.
Really great segment on the Channel F. My grandfather worked for Fairchild and because he was the best in sales in his department, he won a console and brought it home to my delight. I loved that thing. Definitely was cooler than any of the standard pong systems that were around at the time. Obviously, it didn't last long and I eventually got an Atari and the rest is history. ;-) I still own my system that my grandfather gifted me. I hesitate to ever part with it because of that nostalgic connection.
The Fairchild Channel F can be somewhat expensive compared to an Atari 2600 (depending on the models), so if you sold your Channel F finding another one would be a bit finicky. Also the Channel F is due to turn 50 in 2026. According to my grandmother's friend who is an antiques dealer, an antique according to her is 50 years, though many would say an antique is 100 years. I personally think that considering a Channel F to be an antique would be a badge of honor for such a historic console. It was responsible for a lot of what gamers even now hold dear. The Channel F using an actual microprocessor compared to the Magnavox Odyssey's built-in game circuits that were unchangeable made it so that Fairchild could keep expressing their creativity well after the system released. When Zircon got involved in 1979, they made new games that, while intended for their new model Channel F, would work fine on an original 1976 system. People didn't have to buy a new system to enjoy the latest games like they would have had to do if the Odyssey 2 had come out earlier and had used the same technology as the original Odyssey but with new games. Also, the Channel F having a processor meant that games didn't require a human opponent, and could be dynamic. Also, the Channel F was what pushed Atari to release the 2600 in 1977, which they hadn't originally planned to do. They released it around 3 months prior to Christmas 1977. My mom's Atari was an original 1977 system out of the first 6600 Ataris (number 6591 of the original heavy sixer systems), and despite having been in storage for 40 years, two of them being mild floods (never reached the level that the system was stored in), the system functions just fine. I like to think that said model's heavy amount of RF shielding that was mandatory in 1977 prior to the USA loosening shielding requirements is what saved the system from the worst of the humidity. Also the box it was stored in was a clear plastic box, which hadn't yellowed due to being in storage indoors for a long time and lacking some of the additives to ABS plastic that make it yellow with age easily. Also yes, the Channel F had a lot of shielding due to the same requirements Atari had to follow. Also, it's worth mentioning that the Atari 2600 price in 1977 when adjusted for modern times, like the Fairchild Channel F, would place said price in a really expensive range for a modern console. Microprocessors were not cheap in their heyday. The Atari 2600's 6507 processor was a cut-down (to help save on costs) version of the 6502 from 1975. The Fairchild F8 was also fairly recent when it was used in the Channel F. Also, RAM was extremely expensive in the 1970s. The Atari 2600 only had 128 bytes of it. The Channel F had only 64 bytes of it in the form of scratchpad registers in the F8, but it had 2KiB of write-only video RAM. Some game cartridges added up to 2KiB more RAM to make game logic capable of more things. Chess and Maze used the extra RAM. Also the Channel F having color in 1976 and having a CPU actually makes it precede the Apple 2's reputation for suppsedly being one of the earliest systems to have a microprocessor with color. The system had more limitations on color though. The Fairchild Channel F sound however was about as limited as you can get. The system has a 1-voice beeper capable of only 3 frequencies. Yet, one game (Pro Football by Zircon) got music out of it during the intro. Enthusiasts of the system have gotten 3-voice music out of it complete with drums, and even rudimentary PCM, all via Pulse Frequency Modulation. In essence, while very limited, the Channel F was what paved the way for modern gaming by allowing games to be made for a console after its release, and the Nintendo Switch cartridges are the most modern descendants of the principle of cartridges. You can also argue that various memory cards like SD cards and their competitors were in some regards descendants of the Channel F concept of cartridges. After all, you aren't handling the NAND chip directly. The Channel F was truly amazing.
Man, I remember learning about Lawson back in my HS Computer Programming class. Mate was a genius, and he and his team were definitely mavericks. Glad to see this video!
I took Computer Network Technologies classes in high school in the late 90's, and that's where I learned about Mr. Lawson, and this video only furthers my admiration for him. 👍
I hardly watch any UA-cam channels regularly. I found your channel recently and have been binge watching. Thanks for the great content and all the amazing history and details you add, I simply love it. :)
Yeah this stuff is really compelling. My childhood was Atari and home computers but there is a lot of history I wasn’t aware of. Some of the content I do remember and it takes me back.
You know , the more there is pure nonsense in UA-cam, the more i appreciate these quality channels. The Gaming historian, AVGN, Fortnine to name a few.
It's always a damn shame to remember how the Fairchild, and by association Lawson and the rest of the team, fell into obscurity considering how important and revolutionary they are. Even more so when people like Nolan Bushnell are remembered so fondly.
I agree, but the Atari VCS was already on its second prototype with game carts in March 1976, 3 months before Fairchild showed theirs off at the show. So they didn't really influence the Atari VCS, and the 2600 was better and that is the console that really took off in the home video game market. There is a reason why Atari is fondly remembered, they might not have gotten there first, but they did a lot for the industry.
@@ghostshock4317 Atari would eventually run into the same situation with the 5200 failure and eventually crashing of the whole American gaming market, that Nintendo revived and would eventually make Atari obsolete.
I actually managed to snag a Fairchild Channel F last year at a video game convention. It was my purchase of the year. There's something really cool about having such an important piece of video game history.
I'm fascinated by stories of teams who had the right idea, were first to market but failed due bad timing, being unlucky, or an overlooked design flaw.
Ugh. Story of my employer for the past decade. Our R&D team was on the cutting edge of a niche software area that's since exploded and implemented all the ideas we had back in 2014. We did what we could with a tiny team of 3 developers, but just as we had gotten to MVP, the company went bankrupt due to poor decision making in a separate division. We were sold off and have been supporting our legacy clients for the past 9 years, but our new owners still have no idea what we actually do and have no interest in growing the team/product.
It feels like the Channel F has been becoming better known lately. I got one a few years ago cause I found a faulty one for cheap, and read up on the extensive homebrewing wiki to try making a game for it. Then there was the google doodle, which seemed to kickstart people looking into it. It's a fascinating system which deserves to be talked about. Thank you for the video!
Likely due to so many games with a large budget (see: Gollum and Forspoken) falling apart at the seams, making us re-evaluate what it means to be fun. Overpriced story-driven games that are nearly impossible to play due to poor quality ain't it. While the Channel F ain't nothing to write home about now, it was certainly revolutionary for it's time (and many of it's games actually worked).
Man what I would give to see Gaming Historian doing something with GTV Japan. These two are in my mind, the preeminent vintage gaming content creators. The perfect combination of research, pacing, writing, editing. You always walk away having learned something and loving the hobby of vintage gaming even more than you already did.
As a bowling machine enthusiast/nerd, it's absolutely wild to learn that the videogame cartridge is loosely related to the Automatic Pinspotter. Awesome video!
Only heard of him a few years ago. Such a forgotten figure. It doesn't really matter of their console fails or not when what they make and showed u could do let to a bunch of others being done as ppl realised they now have new bit of tech to use
Agreed, there are so many people who have made something that others have built off of that it's so important to know who did what first to make sure we give credit where it's due properly.
@@louistournas120 He probably was not. The business people are the ones who made all the money off the engineers in these things because the engineers are happy doing what they love. Also Santa Clara is a pretty expensive place. I had a short-lived side-project band that met in Santa Clara, and we only could afford it cus some building custodian rented out the upper floor of the building he maintained and kept storage up there. the first floor was all businesses.
I scrolled down into the comments before getting even 5 minutes into the video to see if people mentioned Jerry Lawson. Warms my heart to see people talking about him. He was definitely hidden behind the scenes for so long.
Thank you for teaching me the term "Pong Console". I was finally able to find the first console I ever played. It was the Radioshack TV Scoreboard 60-3060. I kept looking for stuff like "70s Sports video game" and all I could find were those early handhelds like "Electronic Quarterback".
This will be a must watch for us interesting in gaming history. Glad to see Jerry Lawson finally getting his due. He's largely has been forgotten in the gaming world.
@@BoredViewer90 No one create a new thing, human being always making a new idea using the thing that already existed. A genius is exceptional intellectual or creative power or other natural ability (from Oxford) Don't spread negativity to others just because you're bored. Learn manners.
Love the Channel F, colour graphics in the home in 1976 was amazing considering cutting edge arcade games were monochrome up to 1979. They were so unlucky that Atari came along with the inspired design for the 2600 hardware that got around the high cost of RAM. We recently released an unofficial videocart-29 featuring four of my homebrews....very exciting when that arrived!
Awesome timing for this episode... I just finished completing my Channel F full set earlier today. I've been living in Connecticut now for about seven years... I had no clue that the roots of the Channel F were here.
JCPenney sold the Fairchild VES. I remember as a 12 year old, riding my bike to spend hours playing it on the display model for hours. I wasn't told to leave because it made it easy for the sales guys to sell it, showing how much a kid liked it.
Hey Norm, it was great meeting you last year at the Milwaukee Video Game Expo! Thanks for coming out to visit us. One request, can you make a documentary on the NES game's spinoff Maniac Mansion TV series which aired from 1990 to 1993?
Still the best in the biz and making these videos, man. I'd looove to see you take a crack at the history of Harvest Moon and how the team broke off to make Story of Seasons while Natsume milks a dead cow using the HM name. Also a cool side note: there's a retro gaming shop I go to, and they have your videos on really often in the NES/SNES section.
awesome episode...i feel sorry for Lawson and the other people that had to deal with dumb consumers, i used to work IT support and the wild crap people do never ceased to amaze me.
@ghost mall those guys who tried to put batteries or music tapes in the console beg to differ. only in America they have stuff like "don't put animals in the microwave" in user manuals.
@ghost mall Sorry to say but they were VERY stupid. Literally taking apart and unscrewing a machine to put batteries into something that very clearly has an output plug? That's not just "stupid about video games" that's "stupid about any technology more advanced than a rock". Same goes for putting a GAME cart into an 8-Track player. That's pure stupid. TV Games didn't play Jimi Hendrix music, and 8-Track tapes don't play tennis games. No, these people were just completely brainless. That's like putting glass in a blender and asking why you're not getting a milkshake out of it.
@@ghost_mallNah, there are some dumb people. I had someone call me saying they couldn't get their computer to turn on. I did the normal Q/A dance, asked them if it was plugged in, blah blah. Decided to head over and check it out myself. I arrive and check all the cables and couldn't find the problem, until I fish through their rat nest of power cables and discover that the power strip the computer was using, was plugged into itself. I facepalmed and the customer was so embarrassed.
I've had several chances at a Channel F over the years. It has always been just out of what I could afford at the time. Hopefully one day I'll be able to add one to my collection. Awesome as always man.
True, true....I had one but sold it way back in the early 80s. The controllers were terrible. Atari pissed on it , games , hardware, periphery....I adored my Atari.
I swapped my Atari 2600 with around 50 games for a Sinclair zx81 black n white a portable tape recorder, about 10 games...and a few magazines...but that put me on the path of Sinclair ...and I'd be on until the 90s, despite getting other machines and consoles along the way. My other favourite apart from my spectrum was the Amiga. 1)spectrum 48k 2)Amiga a5oo 3)amstrad CPC 464. (Probably lol,,)
@@hotdogcandy Same, collecting physical media in general, I wish I had started way sooner, because I've wanted to for the longest time now but, I only started buying DVDs/BDs in late 2022. Missed out on a lot of really cool stuff. :/
I have the AVGN BFG blu-ray set so it would be nice to have a set like that for the Gaming Historian to go with it. Maybe at some point down the road he will at least consider it.
@@ghostchaser1631 It would be awesome! I have AVGN X1-4, the movie and Game Sack Volumes 1 & 2 on Blu-Ray, the Gaming Historian Blu-Ray would complete my "UA-camr Blu-Ray collection", unless i'm forgetting about someone else that has released BDs.
Excellent! My father was a successful independent consumer electronics retailer in the 60s and 70s and he sold the Fairchild system. I would rush to his store after school to play the demo for hours, which he would show off to prospective costumers. We eagerly awaited the new cartridges which never materialized. And the Atari system clearly outmatched it. But it was clear even at the time that it played an important part in what was to come. Many thanks and thumbs up for doing a great job telling its story.
I grew up with Jerry coming over to the house. He and my dad who was a VP at Atari back in the day had fun old stories to tell about those days. Later in my career I ended up hiring Nick to design some products for me, a real talent! Fun to see some more details about their history. Thx!
The Channel F was my very first video game console! My parents got bought the one we had at a Montgomery Wards in 78 or 79. It was the 2nd model that had the sound come from the TV speaker. I think they paid $79 for it. It was a lot of fun to mess with as a small child in the early 80s. Sadly both the controllers died well before anything else did so it got tossed sometime in the 80s. I really wished we would have kept it! I also really loved the JC Penny commercial at the end. Most people don't know or remember that at one time JC Penny sold many toys and electronics as well as appliances in their larger stores! Some stores (like the one that's still open near me) even had a free standing auto repair facility! I can still remember going to the one in the nearby mall in 84 or 85 and seeing a big rolling bin full of Atari 2600 games that had been discounted to $.25 each as they were trying desperately to get rid of them after the crash of 83!
Well organized, informative, and never boring. Thanks for all you do. I hope you find time to do the history of Panel de Pon, Tetris Attack, Puzzle League, and Panel Attack (all the same type of game) and what I call the best puzzle game ever made, especially the versus mode.
Good times. I adored this system as a kid. Going to the electronics store every month to see the latest games. I used to play Robot Wars with the Star Wars Soundrack on my stereo in the background for hours.
Wow. What a cool story for Gerald. Making a game in your garage as a secret project then when your work finds out you get drafted for another secret project. Just so cool.
I'm not sure if you can pin the failing of the Fairchild on the FCC exactly. While the stoppage was a huge set back, I also think that Fairchild should have used the stoppage to delay the console even further to iron out some of the design aspects of the Fairchild to make it cheaper to manufacture and see if they could keep that manufacturing promise of more cartridges on launch. In fact Atari enters the console market in 1977, a whole 3 years after 1975, so there's really no reason for the Fairchild to fail like it did.
RCA made a joke of a console. Nothing against the guys who developed it, but it was an absolute half+hearted rush job and an insult to consumers. Worse, they called it the Studio II when there was no Studio I lol. Mattel put forth a valiant console effort, but the recession of 1982 did them in, along with the amazing Colecovision and other factors.
@@CaptainCaveman1170 Pre-Crash from what ive seen of gaming history was just an outright wild west. Everyone wanted in on the game and the market just over-saturated and since you mentioned a recession(I was only 2 at that time so yeah no clue on that) but if you have a flooded market and tighter purse strings/narrower wallets well the luxury activity is the first one to take the hit.
@@filanfyretracker You were only 2, but I was 5 so I am by default the expert. Just kidding! But in truth, I do remember the "weird gap" in gaming quite well, despite being quite small. My older brother had a 2600 so of course I watched him play, during the period it was "cool" (for us I'd estimate 1980-83) None of things you say are false, but they are part of a grossly oversimplified narrative that UA-camrs have unfortunately made into Gospel. The truth is, there were a ton of factors. The most important of all the factors, in my view, was the fact that there was a terrible recession in 82 and EVERY consumer purchase took a big hit that year, especially gadgets like game consoles. Couple that with Atari making the 5200, which was a terrible console in many ways, not the least of which being that it was simply the wrong console at the wrong time, with the wrong price AND the wrong feature set (no backward compatibility was a real gut punch to consumers). The other reason why the UA-camr narrative is at best incomplete, is that there was no crash in anywhere but North America. If the the theory of a flood of crappy games causing the crash was true, why did British, German, Dutch and Japanese parents/kids not participate? The truth is, the game console makers in and around 80-83 were pushing HARD for people to migrate over to home computers instead (much more profitable for them). My theory is that while German and British kids who were trapped indoors for months at a time had all the patience (and brains) to wait ten minutes for a terrible game to load off a cassette, American kids were NOT ready for that slow-paced, intellectual lifestyle, hence the "VIDEO GAME CRASH". To be fair, some brainy American kids did migrate over to home computers right away, notably the Commodore 64, but as I remember it, most dumb kids (myself included) went right back to bike riding and street football after the 2600 waned...until around 86/87 when the NES showed up and blew everybody's minds.
It’s been awhile since I have seen something you have posted, love your stuff. Hopefully all is well and I’m definitely looking forward to your next video!
I feel like looking back at this part of tech history while you still have a chance to talk to some people who were part of it, is super important to keep it as accurate as possible for the record. And recording history is the ultimate way to show respect to the people who helped shape it!
My household was one of those first batch of fifty thousand sold. My Dad got it with his employee discount working at Lazarus (a department store). It was amazing. I have always thought this system should have been huge. The games were better than what Atari was putting out at the time, it had a more functional controller, and it had those built in games (including that amazing hockey game). With a few lucky breaks and more support from Fairchild they could have ruled the market. Thank you for making this video to spread the word about this truly revolutionary but almost unknown system.
Always great to see Norm release another video, i love how thorough he is with his videos, we appreciate the dedication you have Norm and i love the show :)
I just really want to thank you for all the time care and effort you put into each one of these videos. Thank you for contributions to keeping the history of video games fresh current and entertaining to learn.
Enjoying the content so much! The level of research and preparation that goes into these video must be massive! Thank you everyone who was apart of this channel! Awesome job man!
I absolutely love these documentaties. Makes you really appreciate the history of gaming and the awesome people that made it happen. Another brilliant video.
They're not cartridges. Cartridge's rom chips are read directly by the console and the game runs directly from them. The switch's "cartridges" are just storage devices.
Great video as always! You inspired me to share some Channel F homebrew releases on my channel. I also got to hear Jerry Lawson speak in person in 2004.
This was one of the best video game related uploads I have ever seen. Kudos to everyone involved in presenting this very important chapter in video game history. 🤘🕹🤘
I learned about Jerry Lawson in college, who helped pioneer the interchangeable game cartridge before Atari took their idea from Fairchild’s Lawson! Even Chris Bores the Irate Gamer has mentioned Fairchild Channel F never got enough credit for pioneering home consoles with interchangeable software, it put those redundant Pong consoles obsolete!
2nd time pong mentioned I seen so far, I didn't look at every comment but I bet my skimming was accurate enough, not a very interesting funfact, sides some old consoles had pong available and remade game alot, I've read about pong ask if curious.
Ahh, I was just reading all about the Fairchild Channel F(love the original name) a few weeks back. What an amazingly brilliant idea to come up with that cartridge slot. Though I can see why it ultimately failed because a lot of it's other qualities weren't exactly mind blowing or anything, and the games themselves were umm, lackluster, is a nice way to put it, but still, that was a forward thinking idea.
@A Bored Viewer uhhhhh, yeah right. I'm sorry but a cartridge slot in a electronic device that didn't cost two thousand dollars at that time was pretty innovative. I absolutely guarantee I know more about tech than you ever will. Don't even try bud. Also, nobody on earth would agree with you. Because the notion is ridiculous.
@@einootspork ehhhhhhhhh the ones that weren't complete shovelware? Yeah, yeah I'd have to say they were immensely superior. Try thinking games as advanced as Pitfall, for example.
All this type of of stuff is ehat got me into AVGN ages ago, always loved the deep dives into obscure media and old age video games. Love that there's more of an appreciation for this history nowadays :)
I saw his response on Reddit about 3 weeks ago big video coming this month said he updates his Patreon but should just do quick update here in community post
This was a fascinating watch, thank you for this. I started gaming on a home Pong clone, and then upgraded to an Intellivision, so I lived this era. But I missed out on the Fairchild.
Remember finding a Luxor Video Entertainment System (we lived in the Swedish home town of the Luxor company) in a plastic bag in my friend's closet sometime late 80's. In my eyes it looked weird but intriguing. Never got to play it, and only in recent years got to know its history. Gotta figure out how it was localized to Sweden.
The ROM game cartridge will always have a place in my heart. I grew up with the NES in the late 1980s and became quickly familiar with the shape of one, and associated a game cartridge with fun with friends. The last system I own that still uses cartridges is my old N64 (I don't own a Switch). As physical games start to disappear entirely from the public, I feel it's a small duty of mine to hold onto my cartridges for future generations to enjoy, and because they are so durable, they probably will still be able to be played decades from now.
My last system was an OG XBox that someone bought me for Christmas and my birthday that year. The greed of MicroShaft in how they operated back then told me that console gaming was garbage and dead to me, even if no one else. Of course the quality of manufacturing means that the console is currently dead and in need of unknown repairs and their copyright protection means I have no means without the console to backup games. So yeah, the NES and Genesis will both always hold a special place in my heart of better times and longer lasting games. I don't own an N64 or SNES, but I'd imagine if I had gotten one or both that they would be in that same place for me.
How do most of you not see you’re bullying someone you like watching? He has taken longer hiatus before. Also, he could be just waiting for the Completionist scandal to blow over. Give Norman some time.
I love listening to these while i am retro gaming. Sometimes i learn of a game and then check to see if i have it in one of my libraries to try it in real time
I love these videos so much. It's so nice and comforting to know that even if I'm the only one I personally know that's into video game history, I'm not the only one ever. Thank you.
I owe you a HUGE thanks! I was browsing through a thrift store in Ft. Lauderdale, and I spotted a boxed Fairchild. It was the first run too, not the later rebranded Channel F. I recognized it from you video, and scooped it up for $200 after some negotiation. I have it displayed with pride in my game room now right next to my CIB Magavox Odyssey. Seemed right to have two historic consoles side by side.
A special thank you to @play_history for his research and writing on this episode, and to Patrons for voting for this topic! It's an important story in video game history, and I'm really happy with how everything turned out. Hope you all enjoy!
Hello everybody! Pleased to be back again with a video that I think Norm did so much to elevate! I hope this may become a classic of the Gaming Historian canon and a revalation for you all who may not have known much about this console.
Enjoy!
Thanks for this born in the 80s this is cool history
The research is flawless. Very impressive without a doubt. Hopefully over time more and more people will realize there was such a thing as the Fairchild Channel F.
Had no idea Schlumberger had bought them up, too.
Had a friend who worked for SLB in Natural Gas. For those who don't know, it's kind of an open secret/urban legend: Schlumberger is a globe-trotting Oil Services company with a 'special' relationship with the CIA. As in: CIA spooks put on a SLB badge and work a global SLB job as their cover.
Do you have any plans on making maybe Playstation or Xbox history vids? I love Nintendo, but would like to hear about some other brands as well. Love the content though!
"Why does my game hum? Because it don't know the words." I laughed for a minute straight.
I got to see Jerry Lawson speak quite a few times at differnet Classic Gaming Expo's over the years and he was an absolutle GEM of a person. I was honeslty devistated when he passed in 2011. Such an "unknwon" name in video game history, but he was freaking amazing. I hope he's resting in peace -- I miss him dearly.
(I'm not a Gamer) so I'd never heard the Jerry Lawson name until watching this video just now. Sounds to me like he was a top dude (who overcame a lot, racial discrimination in the US etc) who I'd have loved to sit down with and share a cuppa with one day. Enjoy your privilege of having heard him speak at some Expos. Sorry I'll never have that chance.
While Lawson didn't invent the concept of a game cartridge, he was utterly instrumental in getting the Channel F to market; had he not done so, the world of video gaming could have been very different.
the channel F boxarts remain some of my favorite in all of gaming, they're SO aggressively mid-70s with their bright neon colors and i love that kind of thing
nothing short of genius, very straightforward. you know immediately what you are looking at and what the game's selling at a glance unlike the artsy trend of 80's games, in which artists were hired to paint a museum gallery piece as the box art and you couldn't tell what the hell were you getting into
And the console itself has woodgrain. Nothing screams 70s like woodgrain.
The big cartridge breakthrough is massively overstated in importance. Edge connectors had been around a long time at that point in electronics generally. Putting ROMs on these daughterboards was also not unique.
The innovation was housing it in a big yellow plastic 8 track looking housing.
The channel F system is pretty weak and doesn't even stand up to a 2600.
I'm glad Atari didn't follow that path with the design and colors while still retaining a good style.
@@twistedyogert I disagree with that. 70s styling was far more about what they call "earthy" colors than wood grain. I would say it is far more accurate to say "Nothing screams 70s more than colored plastic" Look at the Panasonic Dynamite 8 Track Player for a perfect example of 70s styling.
Furthermore, EVERYTHING was wood grain just a couple of decades before. Most furniture. Most appliances. Look at the TVs from the 1960s or radios from the 30s to the 50s. Just about every radio came in a fine furniture look. Almost all of them were veneered with real wood.
This was totally gone by the 70s. To the extent wooden decor was available at all, it was cheap and fake. A console TV from the 70s is likely to be made of particle board with plastic simulated wood grain veneer.
@@tarstarkusz They put woodgrain ON FREAKING CARS
There's something so fascinating about the early games industry. So many random companies gave it a shot and what we take for granted nowadays was nonexistent back then (normal controllers with dpads or cartridges for example lol)
Nice video!
It is pretty cool these old ones. So many companies make one new thing and fail but that thing they make ends up being used in all consoles etc. So many ppl ahead of their time that failed.
Halt and catch fire tv show has vibes of this kinda stuff
It's wild to see where some companies nowadays famous for one thing previously did something that feels almost totally different, and yet you can see how they got from one to the other, like finding out that Commodore used to make calculators or that Nintendo originally made card games (Nintendo is older than airplanes).
Something about a new Gaming Historian video always makes the day better. Thank you
You're welcome, hope you enjoy it!
Same
@@GamingHistorian Bro, special shout-out to the folks who are doing your B-roll footage like assembling/reassembling the actual console instead of just using static images. Not to mention finding and showing historical photos and documents like the console advertisements.
@Gaming Historian I'm going through health issues right now, feeling down, you video was a great comfort.
Facts
Really great segment on the Channel F. My grandfather worked for Fairchild and because he was the best in sales in his department, he won a console and brought it home to my delight. I loved that thing. Definitely was cooler than any of the standard pong systems that were around at the time. Obviously, it didn't last long and I eventually got an Atari and the rest is history. ;-) I still own my system that my grandfather gifted me. I hesitate to ever part with it because of that nostalgic connection.
The Fairchild Channel F can be somewhat expensive compared to an Atari 2600 (depending on the models), so if you sold your Channel F finding another one would be a bit finicky. Also the Channel F is due to turn 50 in 2026. According to my grandmother's friend who is an antiques dealer, an antique according to her is 50 years, though many would say an antique is 100 years. I personally think that considering a Channel F to be an antique would be a badge of honor for such a historic console. It was responsible for a lot of what gamers even now hold dear. The Channel F using an actual microprocessor compared to the Magnavox Odyssey's built-in game circuits that were unchangeable made it so that Fairchild could keep expressing their creativity well after the system released. When Zircon got involved in 1979, they made new games that, while intended for their new model Channel F, would work fine on an original 1976 system. People didn't have to buy a new system to enjoy the latest games like they would have had to do if the Odyssey 2 had come out earlier and had used the same technology as the original Odyssey but with new games. Also, the Channel F having a processor meant that games didn't require a human opponent, and could be dynamic. Also, the Channel F was what pushed Atari to release the 2600 in 1977, which they hadn't originally planned to do. They released it around 3 months prior to Christmas 1977. My mom's Atari was an original 1977 system out of the first 6600 Ataris (number 6591 of the original heavy sixer systems), and despite having been in storage for 40 years, two of them being mild floods (never reached the level that the system was stored in), the system functions just fine. I like to think that said model's heavy amount of RF shielding that was mandatory in 1977 prior to the USA loosening shielding requirements is what saved the system from the worst of the humidity. Also the box it was stored in was a clear plastic box, which hadn't yellowed due to being in storage indoors for a long time and lacking some of the additives to ABS plastic that make it yellow with age easily. Also yes, the Channel F had a lot of shielding due to the same requirements Atari had to follow. Also, it's worth mentioning that the Atari 2600 price in 1977 when adjusted for modern times, like the Fairchild Channel F, would place said price in a really expensive range for a modern console. Microprocessors were not cheap in their heyday. The Atari 2600's 6507 processor was a cut-down (to help save on costs) version of the 6502 from 1975. The Fairchild F8 was also fairly recent when it was used in the Channel F. Also, RAM was extremely expensive in the 1970s. The Atari 2600 only had 128 bytes of it. The Channel F had only 64 bytes of it in the form of scratchpad registers in the F8, but it had 2KiB of write-only video RAM. Some game cartridges added up to 2KiB more RAM to make game logic capable of more things. Chess and Maze used the extra RAM. Also the Channel F having color in 1976 and having a CPU actually makes it precede the Apple 2's reputation for suppsedly being one of the earliest systems to have a microprocessor with color. The system had more limitations on color though. The Fairchild Channel F sound however was about as limited as you can get. The system has a 1-voice beeper capable of only 3 frequencies. Yet, one game (Pro Football by Zircon) got music out of it during the intro. Enthusiasts of the system have gotten 3-voice music out of it complete with drums, and even rudimentary PCM, all via Pulse Frequency Modulation.
In essence, while very limited, the Channel F was what paved the way for modern gaming by allowing games to be made for a console after its release, and the Nintendo Switch cartridges are the most modern descendants of the principle of cartridges. You can also argue that various memory cards like SD cards and their competitors were in some regards descendants of the Channel F concept of cartridges. After all, you aren't handling the NAND chip directly. The Channel F was truly amazing.
Never ever sell that thing. Hold on to it for life. The moment you part with it, you'll regret it. It came from your grandpa, it's special.
Man, I remember learning about Lawson back in my HS Computer Programming class. Mate was a genius, and he and his team were definitely mavericks. Glad to see this video!
I loved his quote about being mavericks, they definitely were with the Channel F project!
@@GamingHistorian I have a request for you
💜
I took Computer Network Technologies classes in high school in the late 90's, and that's where I learned about Mr. Lawson, and this video only furthers my admiration for him. 👍
Bro your comment just opened a floodgate of memories.
I hardly watch any UA-cam channels regularly. I found your channel recently and have been binge watching. Thanks for the great content and all the amazing history and details you add, I simply love it. :)
8÷2(2+2)
Yeah this stuff is really compelling. My childhood was Atari and home computers but there is a lot of history I wasn’t aware of. Some of the content I do remember and it takes me back.
You know , the more there is pure nonsense in UA-cam, the more i appreciate these quality channels. The Gaming historian, AVGN, Fortnine to name a few.
@@charlesxavier1904 1.
That's a good first try.
It's always a damn shame to remember how the Fairchild, and by association Lawson and the rest of the team, fell into obscurity considering how important and revolutionary they are. Even more so when people like Nolan Bushnell are remembered so fondly.
Success has a thousand fathers, failure is an orphan...
@@theotherohlourdespadua1131this is the only r/im14andthisisdeep style quote that is actually decent
I agree, but the Atari VCS was already on its second prototype with game carts in March 1976, 3 months before Fairchild showed theirs off at the show. So they didn't really influence the Atari VCS, and the 2600 was better and that is the console that really took off in the home video game market. There is a reason why Atari is fondly remembered, they might not have gotten there first, but they did a lot for the industry.
It's because this product was a failure. Nobody bought this thing. haha
@@ghostshock4317 Atari would eventually run into the same situation with the 5200 failure and eventually crashing of the whole American gaming market, that Nintendo revived and would eventually make Atari obsolete.
I actually managed to snag a Fairchild Channel F last year at a video game convention. It was my purchase of the year. There's something really cool about having such an important piece of video game history.
I'm fascinated by stories of teams who had the right idea, were first to market but failed due bad timing, being unlucky, or an overlooked design flaw.
Ugh. Story of my employer for the past decade. Our R&D team was on the cutting edge of a niche software area that's since exploded and implemented all the ideas we had back in 2014. We did what we could with a tiny team of 3 developers, but just as we had gotten to MVP, the company went bankrupt due to poor decision making in a separate division. We were sold off and have been supporting our legacy clients for the past 9 years, but our new owners still have no idea what we actually do and have no interest in growing the team/product.
biggest reason was bad software, they didn't make enough interesting games, Atari did better with their 2600
It feels like the Channel F has been becoming better known lately. I got one a few years ago cause I found a faulty one for cheap, and read up on the extensive homebrewing wiki to try making a game for it. Then there was the google doodle, which seemed to kickstart people looking into it. It's a fascinating system which deserves to be talked about. Thank you for the video!
Likely due to so many games with a large budget (see: Gollum and Forspoken) falling apart at the seams, making us re-evaluate what it means to be fun. Overpriced story-driven games that are nearly impossible to play due to poor quality ain't it. While the Channel F ain't nothing to write home about now, it was certainly revolutionary for it's time (and many of it's games actually worked).
Man what I would give to see Gaming Historian doing something with GTV Japan. These two are in my mind, the preeminent vintage gaming content creators. The perfect combination of research, pacing, writing, editing. You always walk away having learned something and loving the hobby of vintage gaming even more than you already did.
Yeah! They have a similar professional vibe
As a bowling machine enthusiast/nerd, it's absolutely wild to learn that the videogame cartridge is loosely related to the Automatic Pinspotter.
Awesome video!
No one cares.
@@LUCKO2022 I care 😁
@@norkshit
The world doesn't. No one cares you even exist.
@@LUCKO2022 username checks out
@@TruckPuzzles
Yes. I am Darth Grumpy. May the Grump be With You.
At least, Lawson got the recognition he deserves for his contribution in the gaming industry before his passing
Only heard of him a few years ago. Such a forgotten figure. It doesn't really matter of their console fails or not when what they make and showed u could do let to a bunch of others being done as ppl realised they now have new bit of tech to use
Agreed, there are so many people who have made something that others have built off of that it's so important to know who did what first to make sure we give credit where it's due properly.
I hope he was rich. Sounds like he made core contributions to the F1 console.
@@louistournas120 He probably was not. The business people are the ones who made all the money off the engineers in these things because the engineers are happy doing what they love. Also Santa Clara is a pretty expensive place. I had a short-lived side-project band that met in Santa Clara, and we only could afford it cus some building custodian rented out the upper floor of the building he maintained and kept storage up there. the first floor was all businesses.
I scrolled down into the comments before getting even 5 minutes into the video to see if people mentioned Jerry Lawson. Warms my heart to see people talking about him. He was definitely hidden behind the scenes for so long.
Thank you for teaching me the term "Pong Console". I was finally able to find the first console I ever played. It was the Radioshack TV Scoreboard 60-3060. I kept looking for stuff like "70s Sports video game" and all I could find were those early handhelds like "Electronic Quarterback".
This guy mentions pong and a funfact 1st 1 so far I spotted.
I did a paper on Jerry Lawson in high school, I'm so glad you covered the underappreciated Channel F!
This will be a must watch for us interesting in gaming history.
Glad to see Jerry Lawson finally getting his due. He's largely has been forgotten in the gaming world.
I wish I knew about this unsung legend before today & the legacy that Fairchild managed to carve out
Jerry Lawson was featured in an interactive Google Doodle not too terribly long ago.
@@JoshStOnge-gh1zq that Doodle had an amazing OST
@@Gage_Brumley OST?
@@nitrosherbert888Original Sound Track.
I actually have one these. I got it at a thrift store back in the early 2000s. Still had the sales receipt from 1976.
Thank you for this knowledge, Norm! Without you, people of my generation might not know about these legends. Jerry Lawson is a genius! Rest In Power
Yeah I could swear I heard his name before... but I had no idea this was very informative
@A Bored Viewer sure but is it worth losing your job over? black people invented everything (except you know what ;)) and that's that.
@@BoredViewer90 “a black”
I see where you lie on the political spectrum
@@BoredViewer90 No one create a new thing, human being always making a new idea using the thing that already existed.
A genius is exceptional intellectual or creative power or other natural ability (from Oxford)
Don't spread negativity to others just because you're bored. Learn manners.
@A Bored Viewer a racist will condemn a black person for just about anything and make an ass out of themselves in the process
Love the Channel F, colour graphics in the home in 1976 was amazing considering cutting edge arcade games were monochrome up to 1979. They were so unlucky that Atari came along with the inspired design for the 2600 hardware that got around the high cost of RAM.
We recently released an unofficial videocart-29 featuring four of my homebrews....very exciting when that arrived!
my man hit a million subs! let's go! gold play button on the way
Never knew that you were into the Gaming Historian Shane
Stellar video as NORMal. And those sure are some handsome Channel F consoles featured in the video!
Where did you go man? We miss you!!
he is still working on new things, the new video is supposed to be released either this month or next month, hopefully his next work of art is great
Awesome timing for this episode... I just finished completing my Channel F full set earlier today. I've been living in Connecticut now for about seven years... I had no clue that the roots of the Channel F were here.
Congrats!
This channel is everything that NPR and PBS used to be at their prime.
Thank you for being a torch bearer.
JCPenney sold the Fairchild VES. I remember as a 12 year old, riding my bike to spend hours playing it on the display model for hours. I wasn't told to leave because it made it easy for the sales guys to sell it, showing how much a kid liked it.
Hey Norm, it was great meeting you last year at the Milwaukee Video Game Expo! Thanks for coming out to visit us. One request, can you make a documentary on the NES game's spinoff Maniac Mansion TV series which aired from 1990 to 1993?
Still the best in the biz and making these videos, man. I'd looove to see you take a crack at the history of Harvest Moon and how the team broke off to make Story of Seasons while Natsume milks a dead cow using the HM name.
Also a cool side note: there's a retro gaming shop I go to, and they have your videos on really often in the NES/SNES section.
awesome episode...i feel sorry for Lawson and the other people that had to deal with dumb consumers, i used to work IT support and the wild crap people do never ceased to amaze me.
@ghost mall those guys who tried to put batteries or music tapes in the console beg to differ. only in America they have stuff like "don't put animals in the microwave" in user manuals.
I have to agree, I used to work for a Unix helpline number during the 90s and some of the questions were just jaw dropping.
@@stuporman sadly the same people who don't know what their doing tend to also refuse to read manuals
@ghost mall Sorry to say but they were VERY stupid. Literally taking apart and unscrewing a machine to put batteries into something that very clearly has an output plug? That's not just "stupid about video games" that's "stupid about any technology more advanced than a rock". Same goes for putting a GAME cart into an 8-Track player. That's pure stupid. TV Games didn't play Jimi Hendrix music, and 8-Track tapes don't play tennis games. No, these people were just completely brainless. That's like putting glass in a blender and asking why you're not getting a milkshake out of it.
@@ghost_mallNah, there are some dumb people. I had someone call me saying they couldn't get their computer to turn on. I did the normal Q/A dance, asked them if it was plugged in, blah blah. Decided to head over and check it out myself. I arrive and check all the cables and couldn't find the problem, until I fish through their rat nest of power cables and discover that the power strip the computer was using, was plugged into itself. I facepalmed and the customer was so embarrassed.
I've had several chances at a Channel F over the years. It has always been just out of what I could afford at the time. Hopefully one day I'll be able to add one to my collection. Awesome as always man.
True, true....I had one but sold it way back in the early 80s. The controllers were terrible. Atari pissed on it , games , hardware, periphery....I adored my Atari.
I swapped my Atari 2600 with around 50 games for a Sinclair zx81 black n white a portable tape recorder, about 10 games...and a few magazines...but that put me on the path of Sinclair ...and I'd be on until the 90s, despite getting other machines and consoles along the way. My other favourite apart from my spectrum was the Amiga.
1)spectrum 48k
2)Amiga a5oo
3)amstrad CPC 464. (Probably lol,,)
Where art thou Gaming Historian? We miss ya.
Yeah!
Collecting that patreon money that's what
@@willnox1 Oh!
@@willnox1 technically he said where not what 👀 lol
Will the Gaming Historian Blu-Ray ever be avaible for purchase again?
I should have bought it when I had the chance :(
@@hotdogcandy Same, collecting physical media in general, I wish I had started way sooner, because I've wanted to for the longest time now but, I only started buying DVDs/BDs in late 2022. Missed out on a lot of really cool stuff. :/
I have the AVGN BFG blu-ray set so it would be nice to have a set like that for the Gaming Historian to go with it. Maybe at some point down the road he will at least consider it.
@@ghostchaser1631 It would be awesome! I have AVGN X1-4, the movie and Game Sack Volumes 1 & 2 on Blu-Ray, the Gaming Historian Blu-Ray would complete my "UA-camr Blu-Ray collection", unless i'm forgetting about someone else that has released BDs.
"It doesn't know the words." What a great quote.
Excellent! My father was a successful independent consumer electronics retailer in the 60s and 70s and he sold the Fairchild system. I would rush to his store after school to play the demo for hours, which he would show off to prospective costumers. We eagerly awaited the new cartridges which never materialized. And the Atari system clearly outmatched it. But it was clear even at the time that it played an important part in what was to come. Many thanks and thumbs up for doing a great job telling its story.
I grew up with Jerry coming over to the house. He and my dad who was a VP at Atari back in the day had fun old stories to tell about those days. Later in my career I ended up hiring Nick to design some products for me, a real talent! Fun to see some more details about their history. Thx!
Who was your father?
The Channel F was my very first video game console! My parents got bought the one we had at a Montgomery Wards in 78 or 79. It was the 2nd model that had the sound come from the TV speaker. I think they paid $79 for it. It was a lot of fun to mess with as a small child in the early 80s. Sadly both the controllers died well before anything else did so it got tossed sometime in the 80s. I really wished we would have kept it!
I also really loved the JC Penny commercial at the end. Most people don't know or remember that at one time JC Penny sold many toys and electronics as well as appliances in their larger stores! Some stores (like the one that's still open near me) even had a free standing auto repair facility! I can still remember going to the one in the nearby mall in 84 or 85 and seeing a big rolling bin full of Atari 2600 games that had been discounted to $.25 each as they were trying desperately to get rid of them after the crash of 83!
Well organized, informative, and never boring. Thanks for all you do. I hope you find time to do the history of Panel de Pon, Tetris Attack, Puzzle League, and Panel Attack (all the same type of game) and what I call the best puzzle game ever made, especially the versus mode.
Good times. I adored this system as a kid. Going to the electronics store every month to see the latest games. I used to play Robot Wars with the Star Wars Soundrack on my stereo in the background for hours.
I have nothing intelligent to add, but man, I do love that 70s graphic and industrial design. That was a very nice looking piece of hardware!
Wow. What a cool story for Gerald. Making a game in your garage as a secret project then when your work finds out you get drafted for another secret project. Just so cool.
It's always a treat to see one of your videos! It's like an early Christmas.
It doesn’t get better than Gaming Historian. Each new video is an absolute treasure.
I'm not sure if you can pin the failing of the Fairchild on the FCC exactly. While the stoppage was a huge set back, I also think that Fairchild should have used the stoppage to delay the console even further to iron out some of the design aspects of the Fairchild to make it cheaper to manufacture and see if they could keep that manufacturing promise of more cartridges on launch. In fact Atari enters the console market in 1977, a whole 3 years after 1975, so there's really no reason for the Fairchild to fail like it did.
i agree
fairchilds pong beats the 2600 entry hand down
Simply put, this channel features some of the finest, most well produced, mini-docs ever.
Cheers GH.
RCA and Mattel made consoles!? So much content still to be made with lots of interesting topics to cover.
RCA made a joke of a console. Nothing against the guys who developed it, but it was an absolute half+hearted rush job and an insult to consumers. Worse, they called it the Studio II when there was no Studio I lol. Mattel put forth a valiant console effort, but the recession of 1982 did them in, along with the amazing Colecovision and other factors.
@@CaptainCaveman1170 Pre-Crash from what ive seen of gaming history was just an outright wild west. Everyone wanted in on the game and the market just over-saturated and since you mentioned a recession(I was only 2 at that time so yeah no clue on that) but if you have a flooded market and tighter purse strings/narrower wallets well the luxury activity is the first one to take the hit.
@@filanfyretracker You were only 2, but I was 5 so I am by default the expert. Just kidding! But in truth, I do remember the "weird gap" in gaming quite well, despite being quite small. My older brother had a 2600 so of course I watched him play, during the period it was "cool" (for us I'd estimate 1980-83) None of things you say are false, but they are part of a grossly oversimplified narrative that UA-camrs have unfortunately made into Gospel. The truth is, there were a ton of factors. The most important of all the factors, in my view, was the fact that there was a terrible recession in 82 and EVERY consumer purchase took a big hit that year, especially gadgets like game consoles. Couple that with Atari making the 5200, which was a terrible console in many ways, not the least of which being that it was simply the wrong console at the wrong time, with the wrong price AND the wrong feature set (no backward compatibility was a real gut punch to consumers). The other reason why the UA-camr narrative is at best incomplete, is that there was no crash in anywhere but North America. If the the theory of a flood of crappy games causing the crash was true, why did British, German, Dutch and Japanese parents/kids not participate? The truth is, the game console makers in and around 80-83 were pushing HARD for people to migrate over to home computers instead (much more profitable for them). My theory is that while German and British kids who were trapped indoors for months at a time had all the patience (and brains) to wait ten minutes for a terrible game to load off a cassette, American kids were NOT ready for that slow-paced, intellectual lifestyle, hence the "VIDEO GAME CRASH". To be fair, some brainy American kids did migrate over to home computers right away, notably the Commodore 64, but as I remember it, most dumb kids (myself included) went right back to bike riding and street football after the 2600 waned...until around 86/87 when the NES showed up and blew everybody's minds.
@@CaptainCaveman1170they did try again (Mattel) in the 2000s with the Hyperscan, I own 1
they are both here on UA-cam, you need more original content ?
It’s been awhile since I have seen something you have posted, love your stuff. Hopefully all is well and I’m definitely looking forward to your next video!
I’m glad you made a video on this console. It’s always been an anomaly to me and it’s nice to have a cohesive story about it.
I feel like looking back at this part of tech history while you still have a chance to talk to some people who were part of it, is super important to keep it as accurate as possible for the record.
And recording history is the ultimate way to show respect to the people who helped shape it!
My household was one of those first batch of fifty thousand sold. My Dad got it with his employee discount working at Lazarus (a department store). It was amazing. I have always thought this system should have been huge. The games were better than what Atari was putting out at the time, it had a more functional controller, and it had those built in games (including that amazing hockey game). With a few lucky breaks and more support from Fairchild they could have ruled the market. Thank you for making this video to spread the word about this truly revolutionary but almost unknown system.
Is it weird that watching stories about the pioneers of the electronic entertainment industry tugs at my heart strings? 😅
Both the Fairchild and its cartridges are so gloriously 1970s looking. They look like 8-track tapes.
these documentaries are better than ANYTHING i have ever seen before. please continue what you are doing, you are making youtube a better place.
Always great to see Norm release another video, i love how thorough he is with his videos, we appreciate the dedication you have Norm and i love the show :)
Finally someone makes a a DETAILED history of the Fairchild Channel F! Thanks. 😁😁
I just really want to thank you for all the time care and effort you put into each one of these videos. Thank you for contributions to keeping the history of video games fresh current and entertaining to learn.
Enjoying the content so much! The level of research and preparation that goes into these video must be massive! Thank you everyone who was apart of this channel! Awesome job man!
7 months later and I am experiencing physical withdrawal
I absolutely love these documentaties. Makes you really appreciate the history of gaming and the awesome people that made it happen. Another brilliant video.
The fact that cartridges are still used today on the Nintendo Switch is mind blowing. Great Video!!
i mean those arent technically cartidges. they're just sd cards tbh
They're not cartridges. Cartridge's rom chips are read directly by the console and the game runs directly from them. The switch's "cartridges" are just storage devices.
@@Cimone90ah. Makes sense. But I still like to call them cartridges
I haven’t owned a video game system since Super Nintendo, and yet I love this channel. Thanks for the upload, it’s great!
The background music in this video is ON POINT! Your narration over the top of the music was so emotionally engaging!!! ✨🎉
Seriously! The intro/credits song is amazing. Know where I can find it?
Great video as always! You inspired me to share some Channel F homebrew releases on my channel. I also got to hear Jerry Lawson speak in person in 2004.
Man, it's been 9 months since we got a new video.
I am a simple man. Gaming Historian uploads a video = I am happy
This may be one of the most important docs you've released. Nice work.
Cartridges were literally a game changer!
No, the person who changed the cartridges was the game changer, the cartridges were the games you changed.
@@sirdogs8766 What about multicarts?
@@BallyTheDog you are roght
*slow clap*
I remember seeing Jerry Lawson in a google doodle not too long ago. Really cool to learn more of his story in documentary form. Thanks Norm.
Same! Yes! It was interesting
Yeah, I think it was part of their black history month this year. I saw it too.
Fun Fact: The shooting game featured on the Fairchild game system was featured on The Ray Rayner Show on WGN-TV in Chicago as a contest for viewers.
This was one of the best video game related uploads I have ever seen. Kudos to everyone involved in presenting this very important chapter in video game history. 🤘🕹🤘
*Honestly, I can't have enough of this channel. So educative, entertaining, historical facts, and so much needed for us, gaming nerds. :)*
another wonderfully produced and executed segment. Well done!
Awesome to see u tackle this bit of history. Very cool 👍🏾
Jerry was the man. Do not let this man be forgotten
This is one aspect of gaming history I never even considered and I’m excited to learn about it
I learned about Jerry Lawson in college, who helped pioneer the interchangeable game cartridge before Atari took their idea from Fairchild’s Lawson! Even Chris Bores the Irate Gamer has mentioned Fairchild Channel F never got enough credit for pioneering home consoles with interchangeable software, it put those redundant Pong consoles obsolete!
2nd time pong mentioned I seen so far, I didn't look at every comment but I bet my skimming was accurate enough, not a very interesting funfact, sides some old consoles had pong available and remade game alot, I've read about pong ask if curious.
@@MrGarthboy Pong was such a big trend in the mid 1970s, when too many companies were making them it became a glut of consoles!
Ahh, I was just reading all about the Fairchild Channel F(love the original name) a few weeks back. What an amazingly brilliant idea to come up with that cartridge slot. Though I can see why it ultimately failed because a lot of it's other qualities weren't exactly mind blowing or anything, and the games themselves were umm, lackluster, is a nice way to put it, but still, that was a forward thinking idea.
I mean, were most of the Atari games really that much more amazing than these games were?
@A Bored Viewer uhhhhh, yeah right. I'm sorry but a cartridge slot in a electronic device that didn't cost two thousand dollars at that time was pretty innovative. I absolutely guarantee I know more about tech than you ever will. Don't even try bud. Also, nobody on earth would agree with you. Because the notion is ridiculous.
@@einootspork ehhhhhhhhh the ones that weren't complete shovelware? Yeah, yeah I'd have to say they were immensely superior. Try thinking games as advanced as Pitfall, for example.
All this type of of stuff is ehat got me into AVGN ages ago, always loved the deep dives into obscure media and old age video games. Love that there's more of an appreciation for this history nowadays :)
I saw his response on Reddit about 3 weeks ago big video coming this month said he updates his Patreon but should just do quick update here in community post
Your videos make me feel like it the 90s again. I revert back to being young. I love it.
Does anyone know what happened with Norman?
He transitioned into a woman
It's Norma now.
@@bigdaddy0614Norwoman
He realized he can just collect patreon money every month, and upload once a year or so.
Your videos have to be the most professional ones i have seen.
You might release a video once every decade but man they are very well researched. Quality over quantity any time. The zelda of you tube vids 😊
This was a fascinating watch, thank you for this. I started gaming on a home Pong clone, and then upgraded to an Intellivision, so I lived this era. But I missed out on the Fairchild.
Come back king
Nothing on UA-cam brings me more joy than a new Gaming Historian!
I would LOVE to get one of these babies someday! The games may be primitive, but the simplicity is what makes it so addictive!
Remember finding a Luxor Video Entertainment System (we lived in the Swedish home town of the Luxor company) in a plastic bag in my friend's closet sometime late 80's. In my eyes it looked weird but intriguing. Never got to play it, and only in recent years got to know its history. Gotta figure out how it was localized to Sweden.
The Channel F controller was awesome and incredibly-intuitive compared to most other controllers from the time.
fragile :(
fun fact = there is a 2600 version of the same paddle
The ROM game cartridge will always have a place in my heart. I grew up with the NES in the late 1980s and became quickly familiar with the shape of one, and associated a game cartridge with fun with friends. The last system I own that still uses cartridges is my old N64 (I don't own a Switch). As physical games start to disappear entirely from the public, I feel it's a small duty of mine to hold onto my cartridges for future generations to enjoy, and because they are so durable, they probably will still be able to be played decades from now.
My last system was an OG XBox that someone bought me for Christmas and my birthday that year. The greed of MicroShaft in how they operated back then told me that console gaming was garbage and dead to me, even if no one else. Of course the quality of manufacturing means that the console is currently dead and in need of unknown repairs and their copyright protection means I have no means without the console to backup games. So yeah, the NES and Genesis will both always hold a special place in my heart of better times and longer lasting games. I don't own an N64 or SNES, but I'd imagine if I had gotten one or both that they would be in that same place for me.
Please post more videos often
This always feels like these videos would be on PBS and I mean that in the most positive way.
How do most of you not see you’re bullying someone you like watching? He has taken longer hiatus before. Also, he could be just waiting for the Completionist scandal to blow over. Give Norman some time.
Lot of gamers are pretty dumb. Basically that's it.
I love listening to these while i am retro gaming. Sometimes i learn of a game and then check to see if i have it in one of my libraries to try it in real time
Great episode as always. Do the Neo Geo AES/MVS next please!
I love these videos so much. It's so nice and comforting to know that even if I'm the only one I personally know that's into video game history, I'm not the only one ever. Thank you.
Where the heck is Norman?
I owe you a HUGE thanks! I was browsing through a thrift store in Ft. Lauderdale, and I spotted a boxed Fairchild. It was the first run too, not the later rebranded Channel F. I recognized it from you video, and scooped it up for $200 after some negotiation. I have it displayed with pride in my game room now right next to my CIB Magavox Odyssey. Seemed right to have two historic consoles side by side.
What happened to Norm?