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About Octane
Expertise
I can Answer Video Game Compatability Problems (PAL, NTSC, JAP) for Atari 2600, 5200, NES, Super Nintendo/SFC, N64, Gamecube, Wii, Gameboy, GBA, DS, Sega Master System, Sega Mega Drive/Genisis, Game Gear, Mega CD, Nomad, Saturn, Dreamcast, Lynx, Jagura, Philips CDI, 3DO, Playstation, PS2, PSP and Xbox. Plus Ways around them to play wrong regions games on most consoles.

I also have an extensive knowledge of service and repair with most home consoles as well as arcade/pinball machines.

I have a reasonable general knowledge of most new to older games (I personally own about 1000 games and almost every console known to man.)

Experience
Playstation, SNES, SATURN, Genisis/MD, NES, MS conversions. Controler conversions SNES to NES. Game conversion. Multi Carts. Remix and re-wire. PSP repair. Arcade building and customising. Video Game repair

You are here: Experts > Kids > Kid's Toys and Games > Console Games (Nintendo, Sony etc.) and Arcade Games > Generation firsts

Console Games (Nintendo, Sony etc.) and Arcade Games - Generation firsts

Expert: Octane - 6/4/2009

Question
What was the first console of the 4 bit era/ was it Channel F? Or, was it atari 2600?

Answer
Gday Nick,

Actually nether console is a 4 bit console. (Technically they are classes as second generation console as well) Both the 2600 and Channel F are both 8 bit consoles. The Fairchild Channel F uses a F8 or F3850 processor chip while the Atari 2600 uses a 6507 processor (Which is actually a stripped down version of the processor the NES uses with is a 6502 also 8 bit) so they are both 8 bits.

The Channel F definitely came out before the 2600 but was by far not the first console.

Most of the first generation console like Pong, Coleco Telstar and Magnavox Odyssey uses a AY-3-8500 which is also technically an 8 bit type of processor. Although there may have been one or 2 entries of first gens that had no processor at all. (It was all contained on the cartridge)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_video_game_consoles_(first_generation)

Hope this helps

Octane

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