Channel F
More info
- Creator
- Jerry Lawson (Fairchild)
- Released
- 1976
- Type
- Game console
- CPU
- Fairchild F8
Fairchild's Channel F beat Atari to the swappable game cartridge in 1976 — a year before the idea became the industry norm.
Launched in November 1976 as the Video Entertainment System, the Fairchild Channel F was the first home console to use interchangeable ROM cartridges rather than games wired into the hardware. Its lead engineer, Jerry Lawson — one of very few Black engineers in early gaming — built it around Fairchild's own F8 microprocessor.
The head start didn't last. When the Atari 2600 arrived in 1977, Fairchild renamed the machine "Channel F" to avoid confusion with Atari's "VCS", but lost ground quickly and discontinued it in 1978. The cartridge model Lawson helped establish, however, became the industry standard for decades.