Fairchild Channel F

Introduced in 1976, the Channel F by Fairchild was the first programmable (through ROM cartridges) home videogame system. It produces color, which was lost in these black-and-white screen shots of Tic-Tac-Toe and Doodle. A small library of games was produced for the Channel F, along with the built-in games Hockey and Tennis. The cartridges are big and yellow [scan of box fronts] [scan of box backs]. The Channel F originally sold for $169.95; game cartridges, $19.95. It was later re-released by Zircon as the Channel F System II (pictured at left).

Related Information

• Channel F FAQ
• Channel F Cartridge List

Pictures

• Channel F System II
• Tic-Tac-Toe screenshot
• Doodle screenshot
• Front and back of a ChannelF cartridge
• Front of boxes for Videocarts 4 and 5
• Back of boxes for Videocarts 4 and 5
• Some pictures provided by Bill Rollins (see his Channel F FAQ here):
  • Channel F (original)
  • Channel F (System II)
  • Channel F brochure cover
  • Channel F brochure page 1[big]
  • Channel F brochure page 2[big]

Dennis Brown, dgbrown (at) pixesthesia (dot) com, creator and maintainer. E-Mail me with corrections and additions. All contents copyright 2006, Dennis Brown. All trademarks are properties of their respective companies.