Fairchild Channel F

Note: some information are taken from VES wiki, Wikipedia and MESS wiki.

Fairchild Channel F

Fairchild Channel F, also known as VES (Video Entertainment System) is a first programmable console in the world. It was released in August, 1976 by Fairchild Semiconductors. I will not write much information about this console, you may read it in the Wikipedia, but I will write basic technical info.

Technical Info

• CPU: Fairchild F8 at 1.79 MHz (NTSC) or 2.00 MHz (PAL)
• RAM: 64 bytes (registers), 2 Kb VRAM (2x128x64 bits)
• Screen resolution: 102x58 visible (128x64 in a whole)
• Colors: 8 (max 4 per line)
• Audio: 500 Hz, 1 kHz and 1,5 kHz tones
• Input: two game controllers

The console have 26 cartridges with 1-4 games on each cartridge.

You can find original manual of this console here (It is plain text).

What do you need to program VES

• Development kit it contains DASM, improved MESS emulator, some homebrew games and guides
• You may download DASM from it's official site. You may be sure that you have the latest version.
• F8 Programming Guide to learn about F8 instruction set.

Later I will tell about programming itself, now you can see devkit and guide.