It’s commonplace these days to see a variety of independent homebrew titles become a reality on many systems of the past, with consoles such as the NES, Genesis and Atari 2600 showing dominance among retro video game fans. But it’s when a fresh game goes into development for a system that may not have a large fan base, but a loyal one, that vintage gamers start getting curious. A brand new game title for the historical Fairchild Channel F system is currently being developed, and is presently in it’s earliest stages.





The Fairchild Channel F is one of the earliest examples of a video game console for home use, and it also one of the most historical. Originally released back in November of 1976, it was the very first video game system to use ROM based cartridges, allowing you to change games at an instant. Previous home systems had only a single game, or a handful of variety, built into the console itself, and could not be expanded. The Channel F was also the first video game system to have a microprocessor as part of it’s circuitry.

The new homebrew title for this system is titled “Killer Heads of Lettuce”, and is being created by Chris Read (also known as “atari2600land”). According to Read, it is a title that is a cross between Asteroids and Space Jockey. In the game, you use your spaceship to shoot down, well, killer heads of lettuce. In his recent posts to Atari Age, he has had this to say about the games development:

“You can move the spaceship up and down, and I made a variable for lettuce speed and it seems to be working okay now. It’s set to 1, but if I set it to 2, it goes faster. The object of the game is to keep the lettuce from reaching the far right of the screen. You can shoot with the fire button, but the missiles can’t shoot the lettuce because I haven’t gotten that far yet. I was planning on making the lettuce be fully eliminated but then having a new one pop into place once that happened. I also have some code into place to speed up the lettuce, I just have to put code in to make it happen, which will be done at some point. I’m still working on this game.”

Read has presently made a work in progress ROM image available for any emulator that supports the Channel F console, and there is currently no word on a time frame for when the upcoming game would be completed.

Sources: PDRoms, Atari Age

Download Link: “Killer Heads of Lettuce” (Channel F ROM)