Why Hockey for Channel-F is the Pong Permutation to Write Home About

The aggressive sport from the Great White North had its earliest faithful digital incarnation from an unlikely source, Fairchild's Channel F game console.

While it never was able to emulate Atari's success, sales, developers, or graphics, the Channel F did have the most advanced controller of any console in the world until Nintendo introduced the D-pad.

Unlike its contemporaries, 2600 and Odyssey²,Channel F's controller essentially had four action buttons versus the standard one, even though it had no actual "buttons" at all.

The "hand controller," as it was called, can be held in either the left or right hand. The triangular head can be tilted in eight ways for directional control. Sounds pretty typical so far, but that's not all.

The "head" can be wisted either left or right for additional action. That's two buttons. Finally, the top of the hand-controller can be plunged-in or pulled-up to perform separate actions. The third and forth buttons. This system allows for exceptionally intuitive and innovative control; and Hockey, one of the consoles' built in games, was the perfect recipient.

In the game, players have full field movement, as with most hockey-esque games of the era. However, Channel F's advanced control system made the game more like being on the ice than any other home system at the time could dare to dream.

By using the twisting motion of the controller's triangular head, the angle of the character on screen could be altered to 45^o and 60^o. This allowed for the player to have explicit control of the direction that the puck would travel, and would never have to guess. Only the goalie sends the puck flying in wild directions.

In hockey, one important aspect of the game is the power play. In a power play, one team rushes the side of the opposing team. With Hockey for Channel F, the plunge and pull special functions of the hard controller allows for the player to independently control the up and down movement of the goalie regardless of the location of the main character. A perfect power play can be executed without leaving the net unguarded.

While the simplistic three color display and low resolution do nothing to set the Channel F's flagship built-in game apart from its competitors, the forward thinking and unique controller and control scheme would live on in the spirit of innovation that makes the gaming industry great today.

Though hours of fun can be had over thirty years later, the only drawback of the game is that it does not have a single player option. Perhaps some inventive homebrewer can take up the challenge. After all, if the F8 could power the Cray supercomputers used the US military, it should be able to play a game of simple hockey.