Fairchild Channel F Games — The First ROM Cartridge Console
The Fairchild Channel F (Video Entertainment System), released in August 1976, holds a fundamental place in gaming history as the first home game console to use interchangeable ROM cartridges — the format that would define home gaming for the next three decades. Designed by Jerry Lawson at Fairchild Semiconductor, the Channel F used an F8 processor and could display 102×58 pixels with 8 colours, primitive by later standards but remarkable for 1976. Its ”Videocarts” established the template for game cartridges that Atari, Mattel, Coleco, Nintendo, and Sega would all follow.
In Europe, the Channel F was sold under the Saba and Luxor brand names — Saba in Germany and Luxor in Scandinavia, where the Finnish television manufacturer Luxor distributed the console under its own brand. This Scandinavian connection gives the Fairchild Channel F a particular resonance in the Computer Museum Ata collection, representing one of the earliest game consoles sold in Finland. The Videocart library is small — around 26 official releases — but each represents a historically significant piece of the technology that created the home gaming industry.
Tietokonemuseo Ata’s games:
C
cart 1 Tic-Tac-Toe, Shooting Gallery, Doodle, Quadro-Doodle
cart 1 Lerduveskytte, Luffarschack, Kaleidoskop, Rita Siälv L
cart 2 Desert Fox CIB
cart 2 Wustenfuchs CIB
cart 2 Lerduveskytte, Ökenkrig L
cart 3 Video Blackjack CIB
cart 3 ”21” 1 Eller 2 Spelare L
cart 4 Spitfire
cart 4 Lufthamp CIB
cart 5 Kampf Im Weltraum CIB
cart 5 Space War CIB
card 5 Rymdkrig L
cart 7 Autorennen L
cart 8 Master Mind (Magiska Tal) L
cart 9 Backgammon L
cart 10 Baseball L
cart 12 Baseball CIB
cart 13 Robot War, Torpedo Alley
cart 18 Bowling L