Fairchild Channel F
Release: August 1976
aka: Fairchild VES (video entertainment system)
Fairchild Camera and Instrument came out with the first programmable cartridge-based game system. Non-programmable systems, such as the Magnavox Odyssey and Atari Pong became a thing of the past. Games for the Fairchild Channel F came on 'videocart' cartridges that were inserted into the console.
The system was originally released as the Fairchild VES (Video Entertainment System) but the company changed it when Atari released its 2600 under the name VCS the following year.
The first cartridge, or videocart as they were called, contained 4 games: containing Shooting Gallery, Doodle, Quadra-Doodle and Tic-Tac-Toe. The Channel F also had two built-in games: Hockey and Tennis.
The systems 2 attatched controllers were sticks, with rotating tops that could be pressed. The Channel F was also the first system to feature a 'pause' option.
The CPU for the system was the Fairchild 1.79MHz F8, which was designed by Robert Noyce, who later eft Fairchild to found Intel.
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