It's time to go all the way back to the start... The Fairchild Channel F is the first videogame console as we know them today. It was the first games console that was programmable with ROM-based cartridges as opposed to circuit cards that merely selected a game already built into the console. It was also the first microprocessor-based console, with a CPU that was capable of providing an AI-based competitor for the player. It was capable of a resolution of 128 x 64, a limited palette of eight colours, and rudimentary beeps and boops for audio. Has the Fairchild Channel F left any kind of aesthetic or single-player gameplay legacy that will stand up to the scrutiny of the 2023 player? Let's find out.

Videocart-1 (Fairchild Channel F) - Like most of the cartridges for the Fairchild Channel 1, Videocart-1 is a compilation featuring a few different game experiences.

Tic-Tac-Toe - Beat the AI. This is a game of tic-tac-toe against a computer opponent. A number of early computers were able to play a perfect game of tic-tac-toe vs a human opponent. This version has an appreciably rudimentary AI that appears to be programmed with pre-fixed strategies. Once you become aware of these strategies, you have essentially broken the AI and will always win the game. If you lose against the computer, the message YOU LOSE TURKEY appears on the screen. This was considered hilarious back in 1976 and was apparently a selling point of the console for people who saw it on display in stores, as it showed it was a device with personality. Unfortunately, it only takes a few minutes to exhaust the possibilities of this game.



Shooting gallery - Maxed out the counter on all speed settings. This appears to be an attempt to create a single-player variant of Pong (Breakout was released shortly before this cart, perhaps too late to influence it). A clay pigeon repeatedly flies across the screen. You are a static Pong paddle and shooting fires a bullet that will hopefully hit the target. This is a game of timing. Once you destroy the target, you are moved to a different location at a different angle (the locations/angles are pre-fixed and you cycle through them in turn). While this is very basic, it is actually more entertaining than it sounds. I like videogames that seem like a fictional videogame seen on a movie or TV show - this has a minimalist elegance to it and if you manage to string a few successful shots together in a row it has that kind of vibe of watching a character proficient in games showing their stuff off in a 1980s movie. It's unfortunate that there isn't anything in this to make it more experiential or longer-lasting. You just kinda hammer away at it until you get bored of it and that's that - there's not much to it.



Doodle - This is a screen-drawing tool. I feel like it's easy to be snobby about early drawing tools these days but this seems reasonable enough. I don't like that 'turning off' the pen effectively changes it to white, which will leave eraser/white all over your drawing if, for example, you wanted to move from the inside of a drawing to the outside. There's also no clear indication of where the cursor is. I feel like there is reasonable 'hours of fun' potential for a child of 1976 here, although as an adult of 2023 it is not that interesting.



Quadra-Doodle - This transforms Doodle into a trippy, computer-driven cross between a Spirograph and a kaleidoscope. As with Tic-Tac-Toe, I guess this is an attempt at showcasing the possibilities of the microprocessor. This is really not that bad, the results are vaguely interesting even in 2023, although perhaps not as trippy as the manual had led me to believe. You can switch back to Doodle to manually tweak the results to your liking and then return to Quadra-Doodle for more AI-based antics if you want. According to a Channel F podcast I've been listening to, this kind of light drawing/post-1960s trippy-ness was very much tapping into the pop culture zeitgeist at the time and would have been of interest to kids in that era. It's a mildly interesting curio.



Overall, you can see what they were trying to do with this in terms of offering a bit of a smorgasbord of single-player experiences but they lack longevity even by the standards of the era. The best games of that console generation you could play for hours. You might not choose to in 2023 due to competition from other stuff, but you happily could. This would very badly lose its lustre after a single afternoon (this is particularly disappointing when you consider that Fairchild had issues with manufacturing capacity and struggled to manufacture cartridges other than this one during the launch window). It doesn't even seem like Channel F fans remember it that fondly. This cart was $19.95 at the time, which adjusted for inflation and currency apparently comes out at £84.17 in today's British money. Perhaps, being generous, it equates to the £70 full price releases of today. For full price, you would really want something that offers hours of fun. This doesn't really provide that. The harsh spotlight of 2023 casts it in an even more unflattering light. [3]

FFXVI can wait. You’re doing god’s work.

Rev wrote:

Bloodborne.  Finding a lot of modern games to simply be ok or reskins of games that I've played to death before. Slunk back into this one two weeks ago and have been slowly chipping away through the levels, and it's still a glorious example of gaming when it is done right. Micolash is still a pain in the arse but I've been wrecking blood starved beast and Vicar Amelia like they were nothing. I don't want a sequel to this game ever.

That's the platinum done as well. Think this is now my favourite of the souls games. Absolutely wonderful gaming experience.

Nice one!  I keep meaning to go back to get mine.  I stopped partway through the Chailce dungeons so yet to beat Pthumerian Queen.

Also only need a couple on Sekiro - fudged the all bosses trophy so need to play through again, plus grind out XP for all skills (hate those type of trophies).

Yeah he’s a dick
My main memory is the swampy forest area being annoying as fuck

It's the second videogame cartridge in history. But things have already gone off the rails...

Videocart-2 (Fairchild Channel F) - Like Videocart-1, this is a compilation of multiple games. But whereas Videocart-1 contained four games, Videocart-2 only contains two... and one of them is a repeat from Videocart-1! In this cartridge, we get Desert Fox, a multiplayer tank game. But Shooting Gallery is also repeated from the previous cartridge. Just as a reminder, these carts were essentially the same £70 price as modern games and many launch owners of the Channel F would have had Videocart-1 as the availability of Videocart-2 and Videocart-3 were limited by manufacturing issues for a while. It's an odd decision that one that Fairchild never repeated.

So why did they do this? One theory I've heard on a podcast (based on pure speculation not documentary evidence) is that Videocart-1 was perhaps developed with an eye to being a demonstration cart to be used in stores, whereas Videocart-2 was intended to be the first retail cartridge, with Shooting Gallery considered suitable for retail. At some point Videocart-1 became a retail release and Videocart-2 was left with a repeated game. My theory is that perhaps Videocart-2 was considered to be a multiplayer-oriented alternative to Videocart-1. Videocart-1 is very single-player-centric - Shooting Gallery can moonlight as a multiplayer game but otherwise it's an entirely single-player focused cartridge. Videocart-2, meanwhile contains two experiences that can be enjoyed in multiplayer - the entirely multi-player Desert Fox and Shooting Gallery, which using the timer function can be played competitively with players taking turns to vie for the highest score within the time limit.

It was a dubious decision to repeat a game from the previous cartridge in 1976 - it seems almost outrageous today given how much the perceived value of 1970s games has fallen.

Desert Fox - This is a simple multiplayer tank game, likely intended as a simplified clone of Tank by Kee Games, released in arcades two years early in 1974. You can move your tank, rotate your tank turret and fire your tank. There is a minefield in the middle of the play area and your opponent scores a point if you run into a mine. You start behind a small wall in the corner that can be used as cover. There is a glitch that allows Player 1 to fire curved shots. I accidentally invoked this during my brief playing around with the game. I'm rating this cartridge strictly by its single-player value so there is nothing for me here. For what it's worth, it was probably quite a fun multiplayer game back in 1976, although it's unfortunate it has a relatively major bug in it. 



Shooting Gallery - It's just Shooting Gallery from Videocart-1.

I ummed and ahhed about what to rate this but since my score for Videocart-1 was primarily a score for Shooting Gallery as the only substantive gameplay experience on it, I feel my score for this should be the same. Overall, from the perspective of 1976, a better choice if you want multiplayer but for a single player simply worthless compared to Videocart-1. It's a shame the repeated content made this and Videocart-1 an either-or situation for consumers of the day. [3]

It's improved a whole point over its predecessor, so by the time we get to Videocart-9, it'll be as good as Halo 3. Right? It's basic maths.

Tempy wrote:

Cocoon It's good fun, impeccably polished, but rarely actually taxes your brain. You can tell it's from the gameplay designer behind Limbo and Inside because it's all about interacting with an interesting world in limited ways, but gosh are those interactions fun and tactile. Lots of artistry and detailing, but it's very much a pop-up book where the tabs are very evident, you just need to pull them the right way to make the enjoyable stuff happen.  There is one specific event you repeat a few times that I wasn't a huge fan of, which is in stark contrast to the bosses who are very enjoyable to fight - I especially liked how the beat you, which is a lovely non-violent and fitting way to get punted back to the start of each fight. Art direction and general inventiveness of each biome you travel through definitely keep it interesting, and there are a few sets of puzzles right before the end that each make use of a unique idea without properly exploring it, but the gist of that idea made me feel a little giddy. I think there was scope to make something really knotty and involved, but I respect the decision to making a game that empowers you to enjoy this alien technology. I missed three of the optional secrets, so not sure if there is anything slightly more special right at the end as due to the nature of the game you can't go backwards to find them. Overall it's a Strong 7/weak 8.

Thanks, was considering it but it's not really my kind of thing (limbo and inside were "all right" imo) - this has persuaded me to avoid

50% through, that'll do for today. Not overly keep on secrets that are found by accidentally not taking the critical path (does it count as exploration if you just stumble into them after a wrong turn?) but I'm not too fussed as I don't mind missing them. Great idea for a puzzle game and it works. Lovely sound design too.

You deserve this.

"But I thought Phil Spencer dropped Cocoon into the ocean in the end"
Well ERE, I went down and got it for you.

My take on various related and unrelated things: Limbo was good at the time but wouldn't be much cop as a new release. Cocoon is very good but not quite great (finished this morning). Inside is a masterpiece that almost feels like it's improved with age - played through it for a second time last year which pushed it into 10 territory for me. Gris was solid and punched above its weight mainly due to being astonishingly attractive. Somerville was an abomination.

Inside and MO: Astray are the best in class.

Can't believe my Britney post got no traction

I just Googled it. The late 90s were weird.

I saw it but I was wrangling three kids, two of which were having a fight and tantrum so didn't respond.
But I enjoyed the Britney reference