Popular games for platform Fairchild Channel F
Schach (German for "chess") was released for the Saba Videoplay, a Channel F-compatible system that Fairchild licensed for the European market. In this early chess simulation you can only play against the machine, as there is no multiplayer support. The player can chose either the white (actually green on screen) or black (actually red) pieces, and can select from 4 different AI difficulties. The easiest AI plays its turns in a matter of seconds but, as the difficulty increases, each turn can take several minutes. In the highest difficulty, the AI can take up to 50(!) minutes to decide its move. To allow the player to watch something else on the TV while the system is busy, the game cart has a very special feature: an integrated red led lights up while the machine is "thinking". During the game, the player can ask the computer to help him with his next move. In those situations, the system analyses the board and plays impartially.
The gameplay featured on this cart is a take on the game of Dodgeball. The player is trapped inside a playfield and has to dodge a ball that continuously keeps bouncing of the sides of the playfield. The longer the player is able to dodge the ball, the more points are earned. After a certain amount of points are earned, another ball enters the playfield thus making the player have to dodge two balls. More balls keep getting added at fixed intervals after that until a total of 9 balls are in the playfield. The game ends when the player is finally hit by the ball. In the 2 player game, both players are put into the same playfield and try to outlast the other player in trying not to get hit by the balls being thrown by the computer. The game features random variations in the gameplay, such as having different sized playfields, ball sizes and speeds, and changing the players' size and speed. There's an Amateur and a Pro mode, both playable with either 1 or 2 players. This preprogrammed cartridge plugs into the console of the Fairchild Video Entertainment System for more TV fun. It's like the old playground favorite dodge ball. Only this time the computer's throwing the balls, not your classmates.
Videocart-2: Desert Fox &Shooting Gallery is action/shooter genre video game released in 1976 by Fairchild Semiconductor for the Fairchild Channel F. Stalk a foxy enemy or knock off a few ducks. Let out your hunter instincts with these two exciting games.
A simulation of the five-card draw poker variant. There is a computerized dealer and two more players (human or computer-controlled), and each one is dealt five cards. The players then take turns either calling or raising a bet (of up to $25) or, if they don't like their cards, they can fold. Once that round of betting is done, players can then choose to discard up to three of their cards in exchange for new ones, in an attempt to make a better hand. Another round of betting then takes place and, after that, all the players that didn't fold must show their cards. Whoever has the highest hand wins all the money in the pot.
This is the classic modern-day mobile puzzle game 2048. The aim is to create a block containing the number 2048. When you move the controls in a direction, the blocks will move in that direction until they hit another block or the edge of the grid. When a moving block meets a stationary block of the same value, they combine to create a block with double the value, which clears space on the grid. Every time you make a move a new block is randomly placed on the grid, usually this will be a 2 but sometimes can be a 4. Should the grid fill up and there are no adjacent blocks of the same value to combine, the game is over and you will need to press the reset button. Game Modes: 2048 - the game finishes when you achieve a block with a value of 2048. Try and achieve this in the quickest time possible! Long - the game continues until you create the largest block possible of 131,072 or there are no more moves available. Time - you have three minutes to achieve the highest score you can.
Poor little mice, doomed to run around in a maze and escape as quickly as they can. As if that's not enough, the owners of this maze pit you against a friend to see who will escape first. And then the diabolical owners take it one step further and add a cat to the maze mix - forcing you not only to escape first, but escape alive! In this Videocart Maze: A straight maze run. Jailbreak: The maze is a grid with hidden passages. Blind-man's-bluff: The maze is invisible and no walls can ever be seen. Trailblazer: The maze is invisible but the rats leave a trail on their path. There are also a few game modes: Regular Maze: Two players race each other out of the maze. Cat and Mouse: The computer controls a cat that chases the mice. There are 4 different speeds for the cat. Paranoia: Neither mouse can leave the maze until the other one is caught by the cat. Double Paranoia: There's no cat and neither mouse can leave the maze, allowing the players to practice or experiment play modes. This preprogrammed cartridge plugs into the console of the Fairchild Video Entertainment System for 52 variations of our TV Maze games. Regular Maze. Every mouse for himself. Cat & Mouse: Mice vs. hungry cat. Paranoia: Nobody out till the cat has lunch. Or Double Paranoia: Nobody out. Ever.
Videocart-6: Math Quiz (Addition & Subtraction) is a Triva/Game Show video game released by Fairchild Semiconductor for the Fairchild Channel F in 1977. This preprogrammed cartridge plugs into the console of the Fairchild Video Entertainment System for more TV fun. Get one problem right and a new one appears. Take turns with a buddy for added competition... Plus or minus some fast-paced fun.
A port of the 1975 PC-50X Game Submarine, similar type games were also in the arcade and are ports themselves from Electromechanical games. Choose either the Submarine (Blue) or Destroyer (Green) and attempt to shoot each other with missiles. Submarine can also hit the Escort (Red) ship that is protected by the Destroyer. Plunging down the controller fires, Push Left / Right for Left and Right movement on screen respectively. Game ends when one side reaches 15 points.
In this slot machine simulation, the player can choose the starting purse (from 1-99 USD) and then bet on each spin of the slot reels. The game offers two modes: Random play lets the wheel spin and then stop randomly, and select play lets the player choose when to stop each wheel at a time.
Videocart 3: Video Blackjack is a Casino video game released by Fairchild Semiconductor for the Fairchild Channel F in 1976. Think your system's unbeatable? Wait'll you see ours! Deal yourself into Video Blackjack for some fast action before you hit the big time.
A playable version of the board game of Checkers. The player controls the 12 checkers at the bottom of the screen and attempts to remove the 12 checkers at the top of the screen, controlled by the computer. A player can only move his checkers diagonally toward his opponent's side of the board. A checker can be jumped when two opposing checkers are adjacent to each other and there is an empty space directly across the checker being jumped. If there's a checker in the board that a player can jump, he is forced to do so. If a checker reaches the other side of the board, that checker is kinged and is allowed to move and jump both back and forth in diagonal movements. The game is won by the player who removes all of his opponent's checkers from the board. This preprogrammed cartridge plugs into the console of the Fairchild Video Entertainment System for more TV fun on the Channel F Network. The classic game of checkers is played against the computer. Here is your chance to sharpen your skills without your opponent dumping the checkerboard on your head. Check it out.
The original game of backgammon for the first 2nd-generation console of 1977. Players take turn rolling dice and then moving their pieces around the game board. Blue & Red each have to move all their pieces off the board to win, and are competing against each other and against lady luck herself. Acey-Deucey is another way to play Backgammon where the starting position is different. Instead of starting the game with numerous pieces arranged at places around the board, you start with all your pieces at the starting line. It makes for a longer game, although just as strategic and challenging. This preprogrammed cartridge plugs into the console of the Fairchild Video Entertainment System for more TV fun. This time, play the world's newest and most modern game of backgammon. The pieces are on the tube, rather than a board. Like the regular game, but better... You've got nothing to lose!
Videocart-1: Tic Tac Toe, Shooting Gallery, Doodle, Quadradoodle is a board game genre video game released in 1976 by Fairchild Semiconductor for the Fairchild Channel F. This preprogrammed cartridge plugs into the console of the Fairchild Video Entertainment System for more TV fun with these exciting solo games.
This drag racing simulator makes use of the Channel F's special controllers. While twisting the joystick's head to the left or right controls the engine throttle, the stick movement itself is used to shift gears in a realistic H-pattern. Depending on the chosen skill level, the car available is a family sedan, a modified sedan, a funny car, or a real dragster, although they all look the same on screen. One player can try to beat the predefined par time of 7.7 seconds, or compete against a friend to see who reaches the finish line first. The game manual mentions that a player only wins the game when he brings his victory counter to 99. This preprogrammed cartridge plugs into the console of the Fairchild Video Entertainment System for more TV fun. Know when to shift and you'll go the distance with these 2 racy games. But careful... Redline your engine, an dyou wind up shiftless! (You've blown it!)
A one- or two player puzzle game published and developed in 2004. This is an unofficial homebrew of Tetris for the Fairchild Channel F.
I couldn't allow the port old Fairchild Channel F, the first games console to use ROM cartridges, to be left out of the Wordle craze. This ground-breaking machine, offering colour graphics in the home in 1976 when state-of-the-art arcade games were mostly monochrome until 1979, was unfortunately made obsolete with the arrival of the 2600 less than a year later. This version features 1,175 built-in words (max ROM size is 8K). Obviously as a result it cannot check the answers you enter are valid words, so it's up to you whether you play an honest game or not...! Hint: None of the words in the list have the same letter more than once.
Videocart-5: Space War is a Shoot 'em up released by Fairchild Semiconductor for the Fairchild Channel F in 1977. This preprogrammed cartridge plugs into the console of the Fairchild Video Entertainment System for more TV fun. Teleport yourself and a friend to an interstellar battleground with this "faster - than - the - speed - of - light" game.
Videocart-4: Spitfire is a 1 on 1 aerial dogfighting Shooter game released by Fairchild Semiconductor for the Fairchild Channel F in 1977. In addition to a 2 player mode the game allowed for 1 player to combat the CPU, which for the time was unique for a home console thanks to the Channel F being the first home console with a CPU. This preprogrammed cartridge plugs into the console of the Fairchild Video Entertainment System for more TV fun. Join up and get ready for the toughest dogfights since the Great Air War in 1 and 2- player versions of Spitfire.
In this Space Invaders variant, the player controls a gun turret at the bottom of the screen and fires missiles at incoming alien ships. The turret can move both left and right and hide behind three protective barriers. The alien invaders move left and right, fire missiles at the player, and slowly approach the planet surface - if they land, the player loses the game. Every once in a while, an alien mothership will fly across the top of the screen and shooting it will give the player extra points. The goal of the game is to destroy all alien ships in each attacking wave and score as many points as possible. The game ends when players lose their three lives.
Mind Reader is a one-player game, you against the computer. The object is to guess the number the computer is thinking of. The number can be 2 to 5 digits long. You have 20 guesses or a time limit. Also in Nim you play against the computer. You have a choice of 3, 6, or 9 piles. The objects in the piles are numbers, 1 to 15. The player who takes the last number off the screen wins.