This.... is pong.
This primitive yet addictive arcade game is one of the earliest to grace home television
sets. It's iconic bleeps and bloops echoed throughout
many households beginning in the early to mid 1970s.
Pong machines varied slightly between manufacturers, but they all shared a similar technology:
The "pong on a chip" Many manufacturers produced their own variants
of this discrete logic chip, but they don't contain any programmable logic, meaning, there
is no microprocessor or memory. These chips can do only one thing: play pong and other
variations of pong! Since there is no microprocessor, that means there is
no AI. You'll either need to play with a friend, or play with
yourself. What do you think he meant? While pong machines remained in production well into the 1980s, the video game industry
was forever changed by the introduction of Fairchild Video Entertainment System in
November of 1976. That's right, It turns 40 this year! If it were a real person it would be buying a sports car and shopping for a new leather jacket! The VES, later rebranded as the Channel F, is the first video game console to use interchangeable ROM cartridges. Channel F's faux wood grain and angular spaceship design just screams 1970s.
This was also the first console to feature a microprocessor, an 8-bit microprocessor,
and I couldn't think of a better person to discuss the technical specifications of the
Channel F than the 8-bit guy! (8-Bit Guy)Hey Guys So David, tell us about what's inside of this thing! Designed by Fairchild engineer Jerry Lawson,the Fairchild Channel F was built around the company's own powerful 8-bit microprocessor, the Fairchild F8, running at 1.79 MHz. To
put that in perspective, the Apple II released approximately 7 months later used a MOS 6502
clocked at just over 1 MHz. The early F8 CPUs were divided into 3 separate 40-pin packages,
as opposed to a single integrated circuit. With a resolution of 128×64, the Channel
F was capable of 4 simultaneous colors per line, out of a pallette of 8 colors including
black and white. The system features 2KB of video RAM and 64
bytes of system RAM. That's enough system RAM to store each typed
character from my previous sentence and nothing else. Talk about optimized code!
The audio in the original version of the Channel F was generated by a beeper speaker built
into the console. The system was capable of generating120 Hz, 500 Hz and 1 kHz beeps that
could be modulated to produce different tones. This console was revolutionary in so many
ways, but what immediately stands out to me are the controllers. Keep in mind there were
no controller standards in 1976, so anything and everything were considered. The triangular
knob provides functions similar to an 8-way joystick, but can be twisted for paddle functionality.
The stick can be raised or pressed to provide additional functions. (David) Okay.... (David)You know I'm gonna say this game (David)Is fairly lacking on objective... (Rob) Well, you know, I'm sure there's a very detailed story.... actually let me get the box... there's got to be a story (Rob) You have been given full control of the fighter space craft. Your mission to seek out, pursue, and fire upon enemy vessels (Rob) Do you have skill and patience... (Rob) Patience, boy you're really going to need patience for this game (David) Well... it's kinda like there's no real.... you just play it. There doesn't appear to be any objective. (Rob) But in 1976, you were sitting back saying "Wow the graphics this is like I'm really flying through space this is amazing!" The cartridges were designed by Nick Talesfore. Before cartridges were developped, changing
program ROMs was a task only performed by skilled computer engineers. This involved
swapping fragile EPROMs into various sockets, a task that can't be performed by the average
consumer. Nick Talesfore drew inspiration from the 8
track cassette, a cartridge-like storage medium primarily used for audio. (Rob) Hmmm... I wonder..... ♪♪ Stayin' Alive ♪♪ The buttons on the front panel are used to
reset the system, and either select one of the several pong variants built-in to the
console or configure one of the cartridge games. 4 of the 5 buttons were programmable
and could be used to select speed, game modes, or different games on multi-game cartridges.
26 cartridges were officially released for the Channel F, not including demo carts and
the system's built-in games. Each cartridge was numbered triggering a Pokemon-like craze
where OCD gamers felt like they had to catch 'em all! (Rob) So, David, what did you think about the Channel F? (David) I never thought I'd hear myself say this, but there's actually a system that has worse graphics than the Atari 2600. (David) It seems like... and it's not even the limitation of the pixels, I know it has a low resolution and low number of colors (David) It's like the game designers tried to figure out "How can we modify Pong so that it looks like something else" (Rob) That's a good point (David) The controller is neat. I find it easier to hold than an Atari 2600 controller, and I Iove that it has integrated paddle controls, so you don't need a separate controller (David) But I don't like the push-in and pull-out of the controller, it's too difficult to do (David) I also can't stand the fact that the controller is wired into the console by a 3-foot cable (Rob) You're married to your TV basically! (David) But the built-in version of Pong is the best version of Pong that I've ever seen (Rob) It is fun! (Rob)Well I appreciate you stopping by! (David)Thanks for having me (Rob)And thank you guys for watching! ♪♪ video game sounds ♪♪ (Rob) Dude, you're still here? (David) Grab a controller ♪♪ shouting and yelling ♪♪ (Distant voice) What the heck is going on in there? (Rob) Oh, that's gonna throw me off, here let's swap (Rob) Alright, so if you twist the controller... (David)Ahhhh (Rob) It's a little different than your standard Pong (Rob) So I can actually chase it over to your side of the screen (David) That's what I'm gonna do, I'm gonna get that sucker over there (Rob) This is chaos.... chaos!! (David) Get back over there! (David) Maybe the most fun level I've played!
