Polybius Posted July 19, 2009 Share Posted July 19, 2009 The First Video game system EVER with removable Cartidges. has anyone here ever played one, had one, or is a fan of it? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wickeycolumbus Posted July 19, 2009 Share Posted July 19, 2009 Bought one for $5 last year, I need to get some cartridges though. The controllers are pretty weird, but other than that it's a cool system. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mcjakeqcool Posted July 19, 2009 Share Posted July 19, 2009 I love that system, I'm doing some wikipedia articles about it... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Contr...ons/Mcjakeqcool cool huh? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Video Posted July 19, 2009 Share Posted July 19, 2009 The controllers were deffinately funky, I seem to remember they twisted (like a paddle) went up down left right like a stick, and to fire you pushed the whole stick in (hit all four directions at once I ghess) I kinda liked the system, got a few carts kicking around, but only uber rarely play it. Atari killed it for a reason, it's not a very good systeem, it's better in some ways I'm sure (like it could do 3 color backgrounds I believe) but in most ways it was far more limited.(atari could project all it's colors at once, due to running by scanline instead of by screen, etc) Of course, I hear another aspect of what killed it, is when it released, apparently Odyssey owned the right to the "idea" of carts, and got paid for them for about 5 years, IIRC, Atari could have released earlier, but released later to avoid paying the royalty fees. Now I don't know if there's any truth to that or not, but eh, it was kinda an interesting story, none the less. I vaguely liked baseball, and there was some primative aint program that I liked on it too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Poopopyo Posted July 19, 2009 Share Posted July 19, 2009 I really really want one. Wasn't the Odyssey 1 the first game system to use removable cartridges??? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wickeycolumbus Posted July 19, 2009 Share Posted July 19, 2009 I really really want one. Wasn't the Odyssey 1 the first game system to use removable cartridges??? Yes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
STICH666 Posted July 19, 2009 Share Posted July 19, 2009 No it wasn't. The Odyssey used jumpers to select built in games. No data was stored on the cartridges. The Fairchild F was the first console to use programmable cartridges. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wickeycolumbus Posted July 19, 2009 Share Posted July 19, 2009 No it wasn't. The Odyssey used jumpers to select built in games. No data was stored on the cartridges. The Fairchild F was the first console to use programmable cartridges. Thats not true, there were no games 'built in' to the odyssey. The odyssey cartridges select different circuitry that generate different objects/do different things. There could very well be extra circuitry on the cartridges (in fact, a prototype exists with a speaker). Whatever way you look at it, they are still physical cartridges, and you can't play games on it with out them Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
STICH666 Posted July 19, 2009 Share Posted July 19, 2009 (edited) No it wasn't. The Odyssey used jumpers to select built in games. No data was stored on the cartridges. The Fairchild F was the first console to use programmable cartridges. Thats not true, there were no games 'built in' to the odyssey. The odyssey cartridges select different circuitry that generate different objects/do different things. There could very well be extra circuitry on the cartridges (in fact, a prototype exists with a speaker). Whatever way you look at it, they are still physical cartridges, and you can't play games on it with out them I have heard of that prototype. I'm taking about released games though. There are no chips on the "carts". Just metal jumpers that would connect in a certain pattern to select a game. They were on these carts so the console always had something new to play and also so that they can make extra money off the board games and overlays that they sold separately. Edited July 19, 2009 by STICH666 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jess Ragan Posted July 20, 2009 Share Posted July 20, 2009 I really really want one. Wasn't the Odyssey 1 the first game system to use removable cartridges??? Yes. Sure, but they were just circuit jumpers... the actual software (such as it was) was built into the system itself. The Fairchild Channel F was a real pioneer in this industry, but I had one briefly and didn't think much of it as a game system. I read about the guy who designed it and wished that his system had been as exciting as his life! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Polybius Posted July 20, 2009 Author Share Posted July 20, 2009 Atari was actually the first to work on such a system, but Fairchild was working on one at the sme time and finished theirs first. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lord Thag Posted July 20, 2009 Share Posted July 20, 2009 I have one (the second model) with a stack of carts. It's neat for collecting purposes, but not much fun to play. Very primitive, and nowhere near as playable as even Atari's first run games. Still, it is interesting. The Space Invaders clone is kinda playable. The system was basically tanked by the choice of processor, at least according to the speech I heard Joe Decuir give. The F8 just wasn't a good choice for a gaming console, and really limited what you could do with it. It's no accident that the 6502 family of processors is in every successful retro game system of the era. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
robotwo Posted July 21, 2009 Share Posted July 21, 2009 Odyssey 1 used jumpers to connect simple built in game logic in order to create a certain behaviour. But Magnavox also had in mind to make what they called "active cartridges" which is the modern vision of a cart (PCB creating game data for the console using ROM chip, Logic components and/or Passive components), but before they could put them on the market Fairchild created the Channel F Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Polybius Posted July 21, 2009 Author Share Posted July 21, 2009 I have one (the second model) with a stack of carts. It's neat for collecting purposes, but not much fun to play. Very primitive, and nowhere near as playable as even Atari's first run games. Still, it is interesting. The Space Invaders clone is kinda playable. The system was basically tanked by the choice of processor, at least according to the speech I heard Joe Decuir give. The F8 just wasn't a good choice for a gaming console, and really limited what you could do with it. It's no accident that the 6502 family of processors is in every successful retro game system of the era. You have one of the Zircon models? cool! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trooper Posted July 21, 2009 Share Posted July 21, 2009 I've got a couple of different models of Channel F clones, I think it's a nice machine with some fun games. And if you do get one I would suggest you buy a copy of the Pac-Man homebrew, it's a great version of Pac-Man, one of the best I've played! http://www.atariage.com/forums/index.php?a...t&id=134479 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Christopher T Leach Posted July 22, 2009 Share Posted July 22, 2009 (edited) I recently picked up a Fairchild Channel F series II model and could use an extra controller if anyone has one for trade or sale.. either way it came with 8 games and is in working order, but this system really is unplayable. The controllers in the series II models and some clones are removable which is nice because if one breaks down on you you can always get a replacement alot easier than a hard wired one. Yes the space invaders clone (galactic attack) is a nice game, but space invaders came in and picked up the fame... Hands down one of the worst systems (next to the xbox) i own, but a nice collectable..so as for it being the first cartridge based game....what about the RCA Studio 2 which I also have with a nice almost complete boxed set of the games? It used cartridge based games... Edited July 22, 2009 by neonesmaster Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vintagegamecrazy Posted July 23, 2009 Share Posted July 23, 2009 I have a Model II and a complete boxed US set of games, I don't have Schach or the Democarts but really like the system, it has some great controllers and a handful of good games. Try Alien Invasion, Video Whizzball, Casino Poker and Dodge It to start. Their guarateed to be some good fun. Now where do I get a copy of that Pac-Man game at? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Video Posted July 23, 2009 Share Posted July 23, 2009 Heck yeah, I'd like to see a screenshot of that game (awesome pic btw) Interestingly, with it's 3 color BG, I think the Fairchild may actually do a better pac-man than Atari could have Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jess Ragan Posted July 24, 2009 Share Posted July 24, 2009 Sad thing is, that conversion of Pac-Man actually IS better than the 2600 version. By a wide margin, actually. It's as ugly as sin but it has most of the elements from the arcade game, including the monster introductions. Very nicely done, especially considering the hardware. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Atari2008 Posted July 24, 2009 Share Posted July 24, 2009 I'm expecting my first-ever Channel F system 1 to come in by next week. After following the progress of the Pac-Man homebrew I thought it was too cool to miss out on. Once I saw the box and instruction manual, I was sold. It did inspire me to dig into the Channel F library on an emulator and while I didn't find too many games that held my attention, the Pac-Man one certainly did, and I'm looking forward to experiencing the games on the actual hardware with the actual controllers. While the games may not seem much to write home about, I find the history of the system and its creator - Jerry Lawson - to be very fascinating. I'll post my initial thoughts on the system when it comes in. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arbitern1 Posted July 24, 2009 Share Posted July 24, 2009 I have one in my closet that i bought at a flee market with like 3 games for 5 dollars,tested, and then stored away Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Video Posted July 24, 2009 Share Posted July 24, 2009 Sad thing is, that conversion of Pac-Man actually IS better than the 2600 version. By a wide margin, actually. It's as ugly as sin but it has most of the elements from the arcade game, including the monster introductions. Very nicely done, especially considering the hardware. Awesome, there probably aren't any more, but I'd like to get one. But I was refering to the ability to do blue walls, black background and white dots all at once, rather than only having two colors like Atari did. I'd still like to get one, just cause I got homebrew's for most everything that has them. 9and the proer looking, the better ) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
e5frog Posted July 25, 2009 Share Posted July 25, 2009 (edited) I have one complete Fairchild Video Entertainment System (box with rainbow), four Luxor Video Entertainment Computer (none boxed), three Luxor Video Entertainment System (one boxed), one ITT Tele-match Processor (soon two, one with box) and one SABA VideoPlay 2... Three units are hooked up to tv:s... I'm also responsible for most of the code of Channel F Pac-Man (Tim Ryan wrote the man parts of the game engine), the box, labels, and instruction booklet (Kai Darius Kohl wrote most of the text for it)... I have a complete set of the SABA carts, almost all Fairchild/Zircon (missing Democart 2, Testcart (ever released?) and instructions and box for #25), a set of all known Luxor carts, some ITT and some Nordmende carts as well... and a manually switched Multi-Cart that I previously also used to test new programs on a real machine. Still missing some label and instruction variations... There's some information on the Pac-Man cart here: http://www.atariage.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=137442 Screenshots: YouTube video of outdated version (recorded from a real unit): They're still for sale BTW but a little longer delivery time now over summer. You might say I'm a fan. Edited July 25, 2009 by e5frog Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FlightSuit Posted July 26, 2009 Share Posted July 26, 2009 I've got a couple of different models of Channel F clones... There are clones? Of such an obscure system? That's surprising. Please tell us more! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Video Posted July 26, 2009 Share Posted July 26, 2009 (edited) Wow, that's beautiful man, and exactly what I had envisioned. Thanks for the screens, I'll have to pick a copy up now Yeah, I was kinda saying the same thing (clones? WTF?!) Anyhow, an interesting system, I guess you can clone anything, but there's just some stuff that never seems to get the clone treatment, or isn't as blatantly obvious (or is officially unofficial like Intv) {edit} Wow, after looking at the video, I'm really shocked, the system actually pulled the game off a lot better than I had expected it to. I don't know the specs of the system as well as the 2600, but it looks like it may be more capable than i had originally thought Edited July 26, 2009 by Video Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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