It wasn't until the trinity of Atari VCS (2600) and Commodore PET, Apple II and TRS-80 computer systems was released in 1977 that the history of video games really became interesting. Before this was the dark age. Video games exist, but they are mainly compiled by college students on huge mainframes in their spare time. Sometimes they appear in whizbang arcade cabinets, or are made by people who dabble in computer engineering in garages or basements.

But the history of video games is as dark as a cesspool. The console actually started in Magnavox Odyssey in 1972, and it largely fits our current definition of a console. You hold a controller, put in a game, and then play on the screen. However, these games are not actually the ROM cassettes we are familiar with in later game consoles. Instead, they are just jumper circuits that activate certain parts of the console.

The first console that actually used cassettes containing programs rather than just inert circuits was the Fairchild Channel F in 1976, one year earlier than the Atari VCS. Finally, a game is packed in a portable box, not just built into the console. This is a world full of opportunities! Except it didn't really go anywhere.

Fairchild is a major participant in the development of monolithic integrated circuits and microprocessors. Although they are largely obscured by the development of Intel and Zilog, Fairchild F8 has its day. To show off, they beat the baby on the console. There is a kit computer, Fairchild CPU-8, but I don't know how to make the kit computer sound interesting. This is also a different topic.

In fact, it is very difficult to make any mixer of this retro mixer sound interesting. These games are so primitive that the modern metrics I used to compare games from the 1980s to the present are not suitable. Do you want ping pong? Obviously, this is called tennis, and it is built directly into the console along with hockey, which is basically a table tennis ball. To be honest, anyway, Pong is closer to air hockey than tennis.

At the time, the system was powerful, supporting F8 8-bit processors and up to 64 bytes of RAM. It has a palette of 8 colors and can output at a resolution of 128×64. The original model also has a built-in speaker, which is probably the worst way to experience sound. Later models would output sound through TV speakers, but in 1976, the rule book was still being written.

The controller is also very special. Although they appear to be a simple joystick on the top of the grip at first, they can actually twist, press and pull out short knobs. This is more ambitious than Atari's simple joystick and buttons, but it will take some time to get used to it because there hasn't been anything like it since then.

The disadvantage is that the controller is hardwired into the system, which was not uncommon at the time, but it is a headache today.

Atari caught everyone's attention, which is a bit sad. VCS is not that advanced. However, when Fairchild cashed out and passed the technology to Zircon in 1979, it only sold 350,000 units, while Atari's small console sold tens of millions during its life cycle.

Some people attribute this to the type of game that landed on it. The startling numbers are gambling and educational titles. A mixture of these types can prepare any child for the real world. Many other games are either primitive sports games or interpretations of board games such as checkers. When the 1980s arrived, the system was explained by Lunar Lander and Space Invaders. Although they are reasonable replicas, by then Atari is already ahead of the league.

It's not that the game is worse than the game. They are primitive, but not more primitive than the products of other companies.

Even so, the main reason why we do not use our Fairchild Channel F mini or launch the Fairchild Channel F Extreme Remix Collection is mainly because of timing. Even in those days, a year was not the time for the console to stretch its legs. When Atari released their console, it flew past, and Channel F had no hope of catching it.

Atari VCS does a better job in many aspects at the hardware level. It has better resolution, does not rely on internal speakers, and the controller can be disconnected and replaced with other control methods. More importantly, Atari was already a big name before there really were any big names in this industry. It can place games with recognizable names on its console. Asteroids, defenders, ping pong; people already know these games and believe that their quality will be similar to what they have already played. Those idiots!

At the same time, Channel F has games like Videocart-13: Robot War, Torpedo Alley. If you got the F channel in 1976, you might still have fun with it. This is new and interesting, not much worse than what Atari will bring next year. But as the years go by and Atari's marketing machine starts to operate, the grass will definitely look greener.

[Header image source: Evan Amos]

Filed in... #Anniversary #console #Destructoid Originals #Feature #features #retro

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