Popular games for platform 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.

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!

The object of the game is to knock down as many pins in 10 frames of bowling. The game gives the player an overhead view of a bowling lane. The player's bowling ball starts out moving left and right across the front of the lane. This has the player trying to get the lane position they want the ball to start traveling down. Once the ball starts rolling down the lane, the player can curve the ball left or right. Once the curve has started, it can't be changed further. The game has 18 variations. They involve choosing the combination of number of players (1 or 2), then speed of play (slow, normal, fast, and fastest), and selecting a regular or split game. Regular games start with all pins standing in each frame while the split games have a random number of pins missing and the player has 2 balls to knock down the remaining ones. This preprogrammed cartridge plugs into the console of the Fairchild Video Entertainment System for more TV fun on the Channel F Network.

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.

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.

Pro Football is a 2-player American Football game played on a horizontal football field. Players take control of a 6-player team and play both offense and defense against an opposing player's team with the objective of outscoring their opponent. There are 8 offensive and 8 defensive plays to call. On offense, the player can either pass the ball or run using the quarterback to try to score a touchdown. Also available is the option to kick a field goal to score points. On defense, players can have linebackers blitz or try to defend the pass from being completed. The game can be played at four different speeds.

Video Whizball is a game where players control paddles that have to protect a goal from being entered by whizballs. To protect their goal, the player's paddle can fire missiles which can be aimed straight or angled up or downward. Missiles that hit whizballs can help propel them to start going in an opposite direction. If one of the missiles or whizballs hits the player's or the opponent's paddle, it will temporarily disappear leaving the respective goal undefended. The game is won when either one of the players gets to a previously selected score. The game contains 72 game variations of this basic premise. Variations include having from 1 to 4 whizballs, and 6 different game types: Basic: each whizball is worth only 1 point; Basic Plus: players can guide the missile shots into the whizballs; Bonus: whizballs can be numbered 1 through 4 and are worth that many points each; Bonus Plus: adds guided missiles to the Bonus game type; Super Bonus: whizballs increase in value from 1 to 9 points the longer they stay in play; Super Bonus Plus: adds guided missile shots to the Super Bonus game type. This preprogrammed cartridge plugs into the console of the Fairchild Video Entertainment System for more TV fun on the Channel F Network. Imagine shooting pool with both players going for the balls at the same time. That's just a hint of the slam-bang action you'll find as you try to knock the whizballs into your opponent's goal.

A port of the 1980 Game and Watch game Ball - without the watch.

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.

Memory Match is a game where the player is given the task of flipping over cards two at a time in the hopes of having them match. If the cards match, they disappear from the playfield. If they don't match, the cards are flipped back over face down and the player tries again. The better the player is at memorizing where the overturned cards were, the easier it will be for him to find a match. The game contains 4 variations of its basic premise. The Memory Match 1 variations offer a smaller grid thus making it easier. Memory Match 1: Cipher-24 (6x4 grid with numbers) Symbol-24 (6x4 grid with symbols) Memory Match 2: Super Cipher-40 (10x4 grid with numbers) Super symbol-40 (10x4 grid with symbols) The game offers both 1 and 2-player modes. When playing alone, the player tries to clear the board in the fewest amount of guesses. In the multiplayer, both players try to get more matches than their opponent.

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.

Although the title of the game may lead players to believe it's a pinball game, this is actually a Breakout variant. The basic gameplay features the player bouncing a ball off of a paddle into a wall of bricks, chipping them off one brick at a time. Each brick destroyed earns the player points with the low green bricks being worth 1 point each, the middle blue bricks being worth 4 points each, and the red bricks on top rewarding 7 points each. Once the ball bounces off the wall of bricks, it's up to the player to maneuver the paddle under the falling ball in order to hit it back up into the wall of bricks. The player loses a life if he happens to miss hitting the ball with his paddle and it falls into the abyss. The game ends when 7 balls are lost. To keep up with the pinball motif, the wall of bricks are referred to as different colored skill lanes, the walls on the side that the ball can bounce off of are labeled side rails, and the paddle is referred to as a flipper. The game offers 132 game variations of this basic gameplay idea, some of them for two simultaneous players. Game modes include Pinball Wiz, Crossover, Blok-Shot, Cooperation, Pro Challenge, and Double Blok, with each having variations that can include different sized paddles, ball speeds, invisible bricks, and even a variation where the paddle shrinks each time it hits the ball. This preprogrammed cartridge plugs into the console of the Fairchild Video Entertainment System for more TV fun. Pinball wizards get ready for a real tilt. You'll flip over these 132 game variations for 1 and 2 players.

A deceptively simple puzzle game written for the Fairchild Channel F. The aim of the game is to place a tent adjacent to each tree in such a way that the correct number are in each row and column, as shown by the numbers alongside. When you have the correct number in a particular row or column, the number will turn green. Tents cannot be placed if there is no tree to the left, right, above or below.

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.

Videocart-51: Demo 1

One player takes to the field, the other grabs a bat and steps up to the plate. The pitcher can throw fast, slow, and some wicked curves even at the last moment. Luckily the single-button swing action makes hitting the ball fairly easy, even if getting a single is harder than hitting a double or home-run. This preprogrammed cartridge plugs into the console of the Fairchild Video Entertainment System for more TV fun. Our Baseball game gives you nine (or more) innings to practice your timing, mix-up your pitches, shift your outfield... major league thrills with the comforts of home. (Tinkers to Evers never had such a Chance!)

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.

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.

An unauthorized version of Pac-Man. Pac-Man is a game where the eponymous Pac-Man goes around a maze in the cardinal directions munching pellets as he goes. The goal is to eat all the pellets found on the maze. While trying to do this, Pac-Man is harassed by four ghosts (Blinky, Pinky, Inky, and Clyde) who constantly chase him around the maze. If the ghosts touch Pac-Man, he will lose a life. Pac-Man starts with three lives and if he loses all of them the game will end. Pac-Man is not completely defenseless as on each maze, there are four power pellets, that when Pac-Man consumes them, will cause the tides to turn, as Pac-Man will be able to temporarily chase the ghosts to eat them and temporarily send them back to the middle of the maze from whence they came. Pac-Man can also eat randomly appearing fruit to earn bonus points. This version of Pac-Man retains the intermissions found in the original game.

Sonar Search features the basic gameplay idea of Battleship, but with a unique twist. Instead of trying to randomly guess what grid an opponent's battleship is on, after the player takes a shot, the player will hear a sonar ping noise. The shorter the noise, the closer the player is to hitting a target. In the 1 player game, the player has a limited number of chances to sink the enemy fleet of ships, while in the 2 player game, players take turns trying to sink their opponents ships before having their own ships sunk. This preprogrammed cartridge plugs into the console of the Fairchild Video Entertainment System for more TV fun. This battle on the high seas is sure to score a direct hit with exciting one and two-player games.