136 replies to this topic

[~llama]

is there any documentation available about the Channel F, for homebrewing purposes? I'm sick, I know, but... perhaps there is some homebrew potential in the Channel F

[NovaXpress]

Sean Riddle's Homepage
At the bottom he discusses the Channel F homebrewing community, which apparently consists of two people.

[~llama]

Looks... painful.

[NovaXpress]

I'm wondering if it's even harder to work with than the 2600.

You know, with all the Infogrames fuss going on we might be looking at the future of homebrewing. To bring back the Channel F would be the height of insanity and I support that.

[~llama]

NovaXpress said:

I'm wondering if it's even harder to work with than the 2600.

You know, with all the Infogrames fuss going on we might be looking at the future of homebrewing. To bring back the Channel F would be the height of insanity and I support that.

Me too, but... looking at the sample source for Lights Out i would say that it's pretty insane (unsane?) to even consider it... plus, think about the toolset (or the lack thereof)

Even more insane of an idea: an Atari 3200 emulator and homebrew development suite... how much do we know about the 3200?

I'm not really considering programming either of these (yet) but... perhaps its possible?

[~llama]

anyone? surely someone here has access to documents about the 3200 from somewhere?

[Bryan]

~llama said:

Me too, but... looking at the sample source for Lights Out i would say that it's pretty insane (unsane?) to even consider it... plus, think about the toolset (or the lack thereof)

It wouldn't be too hard to get a basic development system together for such a simple system.

Quote

Even more insane of an idea: an Atari 3200 emulator and homebrew development suite... how much do we know about the 3200?

I've wondered this myself. How much of the project survived?

-Bry

[~llama]

Bryan said:

It wouldn't be too hard to get a basic development system together for such a simple system.

Well... would you like to start working on it? together, i mean, not you singularly... we could start working on an Assembler and maybe a Disassembler, an SDK for the Channel F...

Al, got any bright yellow Channel F cartridge shells?

Bryan said:

I've wondered this myself. How much of the project survived?

I'm sure there have to be stacks of programmers documents somewhere because they had demos or two games or something programmed for it and then decided it was too hard... so there must be something in somebody's Atari papers about the 3200... this would probably be right up Curt Vendel's alley.

[Bryan]

"~llama" said:

Bryan said:

It wouldn't be too hard to get a basic development system together for such a simple system.

Well... would you like to start working on it? together, i mean, not you singularly... we could start working on an Assembler and maybe a Disassembler, an SDK for the Channel F...

Al, got any bright yellow Channel F cartridge shells?

Bryan said:

I've wondered this myself. How much of the project survived?

I'm sure there have to be stacks of programmers documents somewhere because they had demos or two games or something programmed for it and then decided it was too hard... so there must be something in somebody's Atari papers about the 3200... this would probably be right up Curt Vendel's alley.

Yeah, I would really like to know more about how it worked and what it could do.

-Bry

[Bryan]

Whoops! I screwed up those quotes!

-Bry

[NovaXpress]

How many people own a Channel F for that matter? I don't even see one on Ebay. It might have to live on in emulation for the REAL hardcore classic gamers. It is the first programmable system ever made, after all, and it's a sure bet that we'll never see a Jakks Fairchild stick sold at WalMart.

[~llama]

NovaXpress said:

How many people own a Channel F for that matter? I don't even see one on Ebay. It might have to live on in emulation for the REAL hardcore classic gamers. It is the first programmable system ever made, after all, and it's a sure bet that we'll never see a Jakks Fairchild stick sold at WalMart.

Well... with the lack of documentation currently available about the Channel F, is it even worth considering?

And where is all the bloody 3200 documentation!

I think it'd be cool to start a mailing list for one of these systems, whichever one is the better of the two to homebrew for, and embark on a Voyage of Discovery writing new games for them... anybody with me?

[NovaXpress]

If we get a development system, I'll finally give homebrewing a go. Being an Atari 2600 homebrewer in the 21st century is eccentric, but working on a Channel F is downright crazy. I like it!

[Tom]

what about writing an opcode table for tasm (the telemark cross assembler, not borland's tasm) instead of writing a new assembler ?

http://home.comcast.net/~tasm

[Big Player]

NovaXpress said:

How many people own a Channel F for that matter? I don't even see one on Ebay. It might have to live on in emulation for the REAL hardcore classic gamers. It is the first programmable system ever made, after all, and it's a sure bet that we'll never see a Jakks Fairchild stick sold at WalMart.

It's more like, how many people have even seen an Channel F. I saw one at PC4 and that's it. It was too expensive for me to even consider it, given its condition.

[Cybergoth]

Hi there!

Big Player said:

It's more like, how many people have even seen an Channel F.  I saw one at PC4 and that's it.  It was too expensive for me to even consider it, given its condition.

Hm... is it the same as the "SABA" videogame that was sold in Europe? I've seen one on a flea market recently then...

Greetings,
Manuel

[Happy_Dude]

Big Player said:

It's more like, how many people have even seen an Channel F.

A Channel what ?

[Tempest]

Quote

Hm... is it the same as the "SABA" videogame that was sold in Europe? I've seen one on a flea market recently then...

Yes in Europe it was released as the SABA Videoplay

Tempest

[Numan]

I have one. I love the Poker game on it because the dealer bluffs all the time.

The Baseball game isn't too bad either. I'm trying to get the Chess, Football, Bowling and Space Invader games.

[MrRetroGamer]

I have a complete collection, carts 1 thru 26, plus SABA 20 (chess) and Democart 1.

I have always liked Dodge-it and Video Wizball for decent play value. I also liked playing Maze with the different variations, Sonar Search, and believe it or not, Drag Race as well since it requires some pretty nifty stick-shifting to get a good score!

Granted the graphics are very basic, but since this was my first system, it holds sentimental value to me.

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[Bryan]

NovaXpress said:

If we get a development system, I'll finally give homebrewing a go.

Here's a place to start that has info on the F8 processor:

http://www.nyx.net/~lturner/public_html/Fa...irchild_F8.html

Since MESS supports the Channel F, the MESS souce is probably a good place to look for system details. I haven't located an F8 assembler, though.

-Bry

[Bryan]

Oh yeah, there's also the Videobrain computer that's based on the F8.

http://www.obsoletec...m.org/vidbrain/

Unlike the Channel F, I've actually played with one of these.

-Bry

[Tempest]

Quote

Oh yeah, there's also the Videobrain computer that's based on the F8.  

http://www.obsoletec...m.org/vidbrain/  

Unlike the Channel F, I've actually played with one of these.  

I wrote up a section for the VideoBrain for a guide that was never used (cartirdge and hardware listing). I could post it if people were interested.

Tempest

[ubersaurus]

Numan said:

I have one.  I love the Poker game on it because the dealer bluffs all the time.

The Baseball game isn't too bad either.  I'm trying to get the Chess, Football, Bowling and Space Invader games.

That's ironic, because I have the chess game, but can't find a channel f to play it on

[BassGuitari]

NovaXpress said:

You know, with all the Infogrames fuss going on we might be looking at the future of homebrewing. To bring back the Channel F would be the height of insanity and I support that.

Ditto!