Have you ever wondered how cartridges came to be?

[J T]

Well, here's an interesting story on it:

http://www.fastcompany.com/3040889/the- ... -cartridge

[KalessinDB]

Man... I gotta put my head into the time frame of the 70s because when I had that Channel F... wow, those games were basically unplayable.

Interesting read though, I knew a fair bit of it but by no means all of it. Thanks for the link.

[marurun]

Yes! I read this article yesterday. Fascinating! But also, probably inevitable. The article notes that around the time the Channel F was being developed, RCA was also working on their own solution.

[fastbilly1]

Tapes!

[Hobie-wan]

Good stuff. Save on cart storage by using your 8-track holder like SMS/GEN carts fit in a cassette holder if you have a lot of loose ones.

[Tanooki]

My mom had a Channel F2 system as did her friend. I played quite a bit of it off and on at her friends house in the earlier NES period but later discovered my mom had one too still all boxed up with like 1/2 the library in the same way so I jacked it into a TV in the garage and would play it. It sure was ugly but some of the games were surprisingly fun and it also played a mean game of blackjack.

[CRTGAMER]

Nice article Thanks! I saved the entire HTML file for a repeat read reference. I have one of those Fairchild Controllers, well a reproduction version of it for the 2600. No paddle built in like the original, but a unique "Joystik".

[ExedExes]

Great article.

Also check out the 2009 interview with Fairchild's Jerry Lawson (he passed away in 2011)