Brief look at the Fairchild Channel F

Can you believe it? The Fairchild Channel F was the world’s first programmable cartridge-based video game console! It was released in August 1976 at the retail price of $169.95. The console was first named VES for Video Entertainment System but was quickly renamed when Atari released their VCS.

Only 26 games were released for the system typically priced at $19.95. These cartridges for the console were large and yellow, usually featuring colorful label artwork. Interesting enough the Fairchild Channel F came equipped with two games build in: a Pong clone and a Hockey type game.

Dodge It, Maze, Sonar Search, Battleship and many more games are available for this console. If you see one of these at a garage sale or flee market I’d pick it up. Why? This console is part of video game history as it’s one of the second generation consoles available at the time.