Fairchild Channel F Reviews A-Z

Every classic system worth its salt needs a Space Invaders knockoff, and Alien Invasion serves that purpose for the Channel F. The game follows the standard formula with rows of pixelated aliens, three shields, and a mother ship that occasionally crawls across the top. Each row of aliens is unique in design, but their extreme blockiness and solid orange color fails to bring out their winning personalities. I like the green and blue checkered landscape below, which vaguely resembles the platforms of Sonic the Hedgehog (Genesis, 1991). You can hold down the fire button to shoot continuously, but you only fire one missile at a time and it moves slowly. Due to my super low expectations I was impressed that a brief explosion effect occurs when you hit something. The large aliens are easier to hit than miss, and the low difficulty makes the game feel tiresome after a few waves. The mother ship is shaped more like an arrow than a saucer, and if the screen is almost clear you'll get several clean shots at it. After each wave your bonus is tallied, and this time-consuming operation makes it appear that the CPU is struggling to perform simple addition! The audio is limited to a bunch of clicks and blips, making this sound more like a ping-pong tournament than an invasion. During one game I noticed an extra pixel on the screen, which had my mind racing, thinking it could be a secret easter egg on par with the dot in Adventure. Sadly, my bullets just wiped it away so I guess it was just a graphical glitch (*sad face*). The two-player simultaneous mode works well. It's fun to trade shots at the mother ship, especially since each player has their own color-coded missiles. Alien Invasion isn't the best Space Invaders, but just being able to play a decent version of the game on the Channel F feels like a small victory. © Copyright 2013 The Video Game Critic.

I can't remember the last time I enjoyed playing such a pathetic game! Baseball is one of those rare titles that succeeds in spite of itself. All nine fielders are present, but aside from the bases there's not much of a diamond. The screen's white background makes it look like they're playing in the snow. The pitching controls are pretty slick. You have full control of the ball in flight, so you can curve, speed up, or slow down the ball as you please. You swing the bat by pressing the button, and your timing does seem to affect where the ball is hit. Then there's the fielding. These fielding controls are so insane, you'll swear up and down that the game is broken. Your outfielders and shortstop move in unison - but only side to side. The good news is that you can pre-position your fielders. The bad news is there's a hole in left field where no fielder can reach, and sure enough the ball is hit there quite often. The ball is "caught" when it touches a fielder, and it usually comes to a stop in the foot or crotch region. When a hit gets through, you'll need to watch the runners on base to see if it's a single, double, triple, or home run. The bottom right of the screen displays two numbers: the outs and the number of runs scored this half inning. That's right, you can't view the actual score until the inning is over. At that point both players must hit their buttons at the same time in order to proceed. Despite its awkward design, Baseball is fun and competitive, mainly because it moves along so incredibly fast. I swear I once retired three batters in less than ten seconds! My friend Scott noted "If real baseball was this fast it would be a lot more enjoyable. Oh who am I kidding - it would still suck." © Copyright 2013 The Video Game Critic.

This cartridge is so primitive, it's difficult to imagine anybody shelling out real money for it. Then again, in 1976 any degree of interaction with your TV screen (apart from flipping channels) was considered a small miracle. This cartridge contains several tiny games. Tic-Tac-Toe is up first, and there are no fancy variations or gimmicks to spice things up. Heck, at least Atari's 3D Tic-Tac-Toe (Atari 2600, 1980) incorporated some semblance of originality. As if plain Tic-Tac-Toe wasn't lame enough, it's saddled with a really awkward control scheme. Instead of freely navigating the 3x3 board, you can only move the joystick sideways, letting the cursor travel row by row. As the final insult, you don't push the button to make your move - you pull up on the joystick. When the Video Game Critic has to consult instructions to play freakin' Tic-Tac-Toe, something is very, very wrong. Up next is Shooting Gallery, and believe it or not, it's not terrible! The game positions a paddle on the left side of the screen at random positions and angles. You need to time your shots to hit targets moving down the right side, and it's often necessary to ricochet your shots. If you set the game to quick (2 minutes) and fast (speed 4) you'll have yourself a mildly amusing little shooter. The next game, Doodle, is a simple drawing exercise where you "paint" by moving around a box. It's pointless in 2013, but during the bicentennial I'm sure it was considered a novel way to pass the time. You can turn the knob on the controller to change colors, or pull up on the knob to increase the size of your painting block. Quadra Doodle takes the concept to the next level by having the computer first draw random geometric patterns on the screen - which you can draw over. This four-in-one cartridge is a true relic, but not the kind that Indiana Jones would risk life and limb for. You shouldn't either. Note: Shooting Gallery is also included on the Desert Fox cartridge. © Copyright 2013 The Video Game Critic.