This is an attempt to compile a list of all games for the Fairchild Channel F and related systems. I used a table for that purpose to show which game was available on which system. Most of the data has been taken from Digital Press Collector’s Guide Seventh Edition.
If you should find any errors or if you should know about games that are not listed here, please contact us via the forum.
Many thanks to Jens from www.telespielomat.de, Chris Hind, and all the others, for the corrections and supplementation!
The systems
Six companies released compatible consoles: Fairchild (later Zircon) in the USA, the rest in Europe. As far as I know, any cartridge can be played on any system. Grandstand in the UK released their own console, but used the carts from Fairchild, so I put those two systems in one section – we end up with five systems:
Group 1: Fairchild Channel F (USA) and Grandstand Video Entertainment Computer (UK)
Group 2: Saba Videoplay (Germany)
Group 3: Luxor Video Entertainment System (Sweden)
Group 4: Nordmende Teleplay (Germany)
Group 5: ITT Telematch Processor (Germany) and Ingelen Telematch Processor (Austria)
There is also rumour about a compatible console by Ingelen, an Austrian company founded in 1907 in Vienna ****. In 1966 the German company ITT Schaub-Lorentz took over Ingelen. A possible scenario that I can think of would be that the German ITT Tele-Match Processor was sold under the Ingelen brand in Austria, but that is just a guess – I don’t know of any Ingelen console that would have been found here in Austria so far.
The games
All in all 27 cartridges exist (plus probably two demo carts, where one is confirmed by UK based collector Chris Hind). This makes the system very collectible, as you have good chances to get a complete collection.
Fairchild (later Zircon) released 26 cartridges (the only game that was not released by Fairchild in Chess which is unique to the Saba system). Note that not all Fairchild games have been sold in the UK for the Grandstand console.
Second is Saba with 20 cartridges, then Luxor with at least 19 (probably 21), Nordmende with 14 and ITT with at least 10. An interesting fact is that all of the manufacturers used Fairchild’s numbering system, except for the Sabs and ITT systems where some games are numbered different. Also, the ITT instructions are in German and English, so it seems that those games were also exported outside Germany – or at least it was planned so.
A word to the players out there: If you collect classic video games only to play them, then this is not really the system of your choice. Almost all of the games are really very simple and don’t bring much fun.
[table=7]
* „If we’re going to be picky there is more than 27 cartridges for the system since Saba (and ITT) carts #1 and #16 differ from the originals. They both have German text and #16 has also altered graphics.“ (Thanks to Fredric Blaholtz)
** „That said there are also different ROM images in two of the games – there have apparently been updates in the code in carts #10 and #17 – there may be even more, but it’s probably not detectable unless you dump the memory and check it.“ (Thanks to Fredric Blaholtz)
*** „There’s also a special German version of the #3 cart with different text messages (abbreviations in German). Both are mentioned in the instruction booklet and the SABA #3 exists in both the original American version and the translated German version – with the same labels. Same screen on both versions:
American version (and SABA):
German version (SABA):
(Thanks to Fredric Blaholtz)
Three other Fairchild relabeled versions have surfaced: Barco Challenger, Dumont and Emerson. As far as I know they didn’t make their own cart labels but I’ve seen Barco instruction booklets (Thanks to Fredric Blaholtz)
**** This is no longer rumour, the Ingelen console exists! An Austrian collector sent us a photo. It seems to be a relabeled ITT Tele-Match.
***** This is also no longer a rumour, but the game is not called „Barriere“ but „Flipper“. Czech collector Michal has one in his collection. (Thanks to Michal, June 30th, 2022).