10 Amazing Fairchild Channel F Facts

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  • เผยแพร่เมื่อ 16 มิ.ย. 2024
  • In this video I look at 10 fascinating facts and tantalising titbits of trivia surrounding the Fairchild Channel F, the world's first fully-programmable games console.
    Video Links:
    Fairchild Channel F Games Compilation: • Over 40 Fairchild Chan...
    Before Atari: The Story of the First Consoles: • Before Atari: The Stor...
    Support my creative work on Patreon: / lairdslair
    #retrogaming #fairchild #channelf
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ความคิดเห็น • 42

  • @Manusmith
    @Manusmith 7 หลายเดือนก่อน +7

    Great job. Great video. Rest in Peace, Uncle Jerry (I'm his nephew).

    • @TheLairdsLair
      @TheLairdsLair  7 หลายเดือนก่อน +1

      Thanks much for your comment you must be so proud of his achievements.

  • @kenwheeler3637
    @kenwheeler3637 7 หลายเดือนก่อน +4

    I've always had a soft spot for this system. I don't play it a lot but I'm glad that I have one in my collection. It's a very cool part of video game history.

  • @paullee3660
    @paullee3660 7 หลายเดือนก่อน +2

    Oh my god! I just learned that it is THE Fairchild. A legend in music production with their amazing compressor.

  • @RationalistRebel
    @RationalistRebel 7 หลายเดือนก่อน +6

    Thanks for covering the Channel F. It doesn't often get its due in the retro community.
    IMHO, I think the homebrew version of Centipede looks far more impressive than two player Tetris--especially given the many limitations of the system.

    • @TheLairdsLair
      @TheLairdsLair  7 หลายเดือนก่อน

      Yep, the Centipede port is amazing!

  • @GCSoundArtifacts
    @GCSoundArtifacts 7 หลายเดือนก่อน +3

    Brazilians weren't aware of Fairchild Channel F in its heyday, but it's been a mandatory system to be mentioned if you want to really cover the history of videogames. My very first reminiscence of it was a mention in a videogame magazine. And Jerry Lawson's importance and ethnic presence is something that I believe that's the most enduring impact of this system in the world. I can tell that people here that are African or Indigenous descendents feel stimulated to study programming and IT and feel validated by the fact of Lawson's important contribution to the creation of Fairchild Channel F. I think this is the most amazing fact out of the amazing ones mentioned in the video.

  • @thegez73
    @thegez73 7 หลายเดือนก่อน +3

    I want to add that on December 1, 2022, to celebrate what would have been his 82nd birthday, Google dedicated a Doodle to Jerry Lawson, allowing the user to make games, edit existing built-in games, and share games

    • @TheLairdsLair
      @TheLairdsLair  7 หลายเดือนก่อน +1

      Yeah, that was awesome.

  • @mymomsaysimcool9650
    @mymomsaysimcool9650 7 หลายเดือนก่อน +2

    My dad’s boss had a Channel F. And at that age, I thought it ran on 8-tracks. It was the last and only time I saw a Channel F. Late 1970’s.

  • @retrojoe85
    @retrojoe85 7 หลายเดือนก่อน +2

    A true piece of gaming history, at the point that it deserves to be preserved into some museums of electronics.
    But that "...that never gets old" is quite funny to listen to, today. 😅

  • @realmchat6665
    @realmchat6665 7 หลายเดือนก่อน +4

    Awesome, love retro system history, and this is one I don't know much about (yet). Ty and please keep up the good work!

  • @robintst
    @robintst 7 หลายเดือนก่อน +3

    In the realm of Pong and Pong-like games in that era, I think the built-in Pro Hockey game easily stands heads and shoulders above the standard fare with all the movement controls you have to get a grip of in real time, it wouldn't be as unique or cool without those controllers.

  • @reaper378
    @reaper378 7 หลายเดือนก่อน +3

    I remember wanting one of these sooo badly when I was a kid to replace my old Grandstand never did get one but did end up with a 2600 😊 Happy days and great vid !

  • @TheAtariNetwork
    @TheAtariNetwork 7 หลายเดือนก่อน +1

    I know next to nothing about the Fairchild Channel F so this will be good education for me. Thank you!

  • @STR82DVD
    @STR82DVD 7 หลายเดือนก่อน +1

    Sweet! My Saturday just got better. Thanks lad!

  • @Oribaa90
    @Oribaa90 6 หลายเดือนก่อน +1

    As a console collector I needed one for my collection. I don't play it that often but it is an important part of gaming history. As a German I own the SABA Videoplay version. I actually like the Pong Version and the Chess cartridge

  • @timwilcox5158
    @timwilcox5158 7 หลายเดือนก่อน +4

    great video. Jerry Lawson is one of my heroes.

    • @The_Real_DCT
      @The_Real_DCT 7 หลายเดือนก่อน

      I love how he once interviewed Jobs and Wozniak and was "they didn't leave a impression" 😂.

    • @ShadowAngel18606
      @ShadowAngel18606 7 หลายเดือนก่อน

      Because of what? All he did was look at a prototype and tell Fairchild that it might sell. The actual heroes were Wallace Kirschner and Lawrence Haskel from Alpex Computer Corporation, who created the prototype. Lawson is hilariously overrated for his comparable tiny role in all of this, but he's black, so of course he's god, lol.

    • @TheLairdsLair
      @TheLairdsLair  7 หลายเดือนก่อน

      @timwilcox - his nephew just commented, see the pinned reply!

  • @Sarcophagus74
    @Sarcophagus74 7 หลายเดือนก่อน +2

    The homebrew games are impressive!

  • @neilthomas6042
    @neilthomas6042 7 หลายเดือนก่อน +1

    Interesting video, never heard of it till I read about it in Retro Gamer, it looked like a funky machine.

  • @pixelsncreatures
    @pixelsncreatures 7 หลายเดือนก่อน +1

    I still have mine in its box, the plastic is getting brittle though the last time I checked on it, I think it needs to stay in its little coffin. These facts are great

  • @johneygd
    @johneygd 7 หลายเดือนก่อน +3

    Homebrew tetris and pacman are indeed mind blowing for the channel f😁

    • @danielespeziari5545
      @danielespeziari5545 7 หลายเดือนก่อน +1

      Yeah, considering the system didn't even have enough colors for each of the four ghosts (two of them have to share the same color) 😂

  • @retropalooza
    @retropalooza 7 หลายเดือนก่อน +2

    Lawson reminds me of griff from married with children

  • @3vi1J
    @3vi1J 7 หลายเดือนก่อน +1

    @11:19 You know, I spent uncountable hours playing the biplane game on Intellivision's Triple Action cart 40 years ago... but I never knew it was a blatant rip-off until this part of the video. Amazing. Thank you for sharing!

    • @TheLairdsLair
      @TheLairdsLair  7 หลายเดือนก่อน

      The bi-plane game is actually a clone of the Allied Leisure arcade game Ace, so both are rip-offs!

  • @joesshows6793
    @joesshows6793 7 หลายเดือนก่อน +1

    That Powwww show is crazy

  • @retropalooza
    @retropalooza 7 หลายเดือนก่อน +1

    Just remember who said the F stands for FUN first lol....

  • @oldschoolcompsci
    @oldschoolcompsci 7 หลายเดือนก่อน +2

    welcome rum runner!

    • @TheLairdsLair
      @TheLairdsLair  7 หลายเดือนก่อน +2

      *STUN Runner

    • @oldschoolcompsci
      @oldschoolcompsci 7 หลายเดือนก่อน

      @@TheLairdsLair i always hear 'rum runner' 😄

  • @datassetteuser356
    @datassetteuser356 7 หลายเดือนก่อน +2

    Nice video! Nordmende was a German company however, not French.

    • @TheLairdsLair
      @TheLairdsLair  7 หลายเดือนก่อน +1

      Yes, but that model was distributed in France apparently.

    • @datassetteuser356
      @datassetteuser356 7 หลายเดือนก่อน

      @@TheLairdsLair Strange, but fascinating. Thanks!

  • @EdGreenTO
    @EdGreenTO 7 หลายเดือนก่อน +2

    Great video, as always, but I cringe when someone diminishes the original Odyssey's "programming." Perhaps only jumpers but the card's bits were a program really, controlling a block on the screen, also known as a pixel. Sounds like a video game system with cartridges to me.

    • @TheLairdsLair
      @TheLairdsLair  7 หลายเดือนก่อน +2

      The games were engineered not programmed. I never dismissed the Odyssey as a cartridge based console, I merely made the point that it couldn't be programmed, unlike the Channel F. It's a very very important distinction in my opinion.

    • @EdGreenTO
      @EdGreenTO 6 หลายเดือนก่อน

      lol I was not trying to start a debate but it does seem you missed my point: programming is just a series of bits to change an outcome. And a bank of switches is also programming, primitive but still "code" that changed an "outcome" .. that's the very definition of programming if you ask me. Keep up the great work, I enjoy the content ! thanks

    • @medes5597
      @medes5597 3 หลายเดือนก่อน

      ​@@EdGreenTOby this logic when I'm recapping my boards or adding a different video output I'm "programming" them to do that.

  • @retropalooza
    @retropalooza 7 หลายเดือนก่อน +1

    Don't do it, don't do it yes u did you hit upload.....the F is for FUN.....woohoo