With so many "Pong" clones on the market at this time, the Fairchild Channel F was a breath of fresh air. Created by Jerry Lawson, The Channel F was the first programmable cartridge based video game console and prototype to the PlayStation, Wii, and X Box. It was released in November 1976 at the retail price of $169.95 (equivalent to $700 in 2015). It was launched as the Video Entertainment System, or VES, but when Atari released their VCS the next year, Fairchild renamed its machine. By 1977, the Fairchild Channel F had sold 250,000 units.
The Channel F was was also the first videogame console to utilize a pause function, via the "Hold" button on the console that would freeze the game (or even speed it up). Not only did Fairchild Semiconductors produce the first cart based system, they were the first to use a microprocessor for use in a videogame console. Also two of their employees became co-founders of a company called "Intel".
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