Game basics holding strong as technology advances
Technology in the games world has come a long way but the principles applied by the industry’s pioneers still hold true says Guy Gadney.
We’re running so fast through this all-encompassing digital revolution and sometimes it is healthy to pause and tip our hats to the remarkably small number of people who laid the foundation for where we are headed.
I have a quietly geeky habit of collecting retro game consoles and recently found a rarity that was created by one of these renegade pioneers. The Fairchild Channel F gaming console was the dream of Jerry Lawson.
In a convergence of roles that is still relatively unheard of, Jerry was director of marketing and engineering for manufacturer Fairchild and designed the Channel F, the first console with interchangeable cartridges.
Launched in 1976, the description of Channel F on the box is wonderfully evocative.
“No batteries required – runs on ordinary house current. Works on any size TV – colour or black and white”, but with the caveat “game play in colour only on colour televisions”.
The photographs on the packaging show a multicultural cross-section of America in the 1970s: kids, grannies, men, women, black, white. There’s even a dog and a baby. God knows how they played with the Channel F.
In a 2009 interview, Lawson described the explosion point of innovation in the early 1970s and shared his philosophy of how games work with Benj Edwards of vintagecomputing.com.
“A game should be something like a skill you develop. If you play this game, you walk away with something of value,” he said.
Lawson’s philosophy of how games work is simple and valuable. It shows the difference between games, TV and films, and sets a precedent for how games should be created. And despite serious advances in technology, these tenets still apply today.
Guy Gadney is a director of The Project Factory, an interactive entertainment production company with offices in Sydney and London.
• Read Jerry Lawson’s interview on vinategcomputing.com
This piece first appeared in Encore magazine. Subscribe to the print edition here or download the iPad edition here.
