Fairchild Channel F "re-edits"


2024-01-08
I know the questions will come up when Becoro sees my "re-edits" of his edits of the Fairchild Channel F games. So I am starting to explain right away. I knew this would eventually would come up because with the old Arcade game I had not much knowledge, but now that its time to get into normal console system games I have to adjust some things and make some things clear beforehand.

1. I removed the entries for Democart 1 and Democart 2. Those seem to be games that were normally released. Democarts like this only qualify for an entry if it has a game on it that is maybe a protoype and is playable and not regularly released. You can mention in the Hockey game entry that its also made public on the Democart 1 for example. But unless I am missing something important this works like a re-release or compilation.

2. mame / nomame tag and "verticalscreen"/"horizontalscreen" tags: Do not use these tags outside Arcade platform. They were information for Arcade platform because it was kinda interesting due to the different machine hardware, so they this kind of information was coded into UVL. Thats why you see those tags in the editor info when they are missing in Arcade games. But in other platforms they are not needed and should not be needed.
BTW: Why were Fairchild Channel F games tagged with "verticalscreen"? The resolution and screen display is horizontalscreen. Nevertheless don't use the tag outside Arcade platform please.

3. Multiplayer: I am keeping the tag "for now". It is likely that I will eventually remove the tags everywhere, because it is a container tag. We had this discussion before. A container tag is too generic and should not be used and is only for giving direction for finding proper subtags. Better use one of the sub-tags from this list here: https://www.uvlist.net/groups/info/multiplayer
So for a Pong game use the tag "mp-versus" and not multiplayer.

5. Other tag(s):
- Racing tag... this is a bit confusing but is explained in the tag description. This is a tag for non-racing game where part of the gameplay lets you take part in a racing activity (for example as a side-activity or minigame). If its a game mainly about racing this is not the proper tag. I don't like this specific definition and confused me also. So when using a new tag for the first time its important to read the description of what the tag creator had in mind (if there is a description).

2024-01-08
Well, don't worry, I'll be careful. In any case I find that the tag system is a complete mess.


1. https://www.gamesdatabase.org/game/fairchild-channel-f/demonstration-cartridge
2. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VX2vkQ9zucs
3. https://www.facebook.com/groups/1180282045468082/ On this fan page, demo carts have been discussed on several occasions.
4. https://forums.atariage.com/topic/59087-the-very-first-easter-egg-was-not-adventure/ There's even an easter egg in one of the demcarts

Just as a fact, the Democart catridge is auctioned very highly:

https://forums.atariage.com/topic/274416-the-official-channel-f-thread/

Finally, there are many video game entries that are actually compilations, for example, NAMCO MUSEUM.
In the case of Democart 1 or 2, they were not integrated into the console, in America at least.
Finally, I wish you a good week, don't bother with me, the idea is to exchange these ideas, it is what makes UVL in my opinion the best page of this genre.
I know it is a highly discussed issue on this page. But I think it should be considered because the Democarts not only had games, mind you, they had instructions for use the Console. Democart 2 had a compilation of all the games that Fairchild released before selling to Zircon, but that's another topic.
I think mediocre compilations and pirated games suck, but at the end of the day they were marketed that way, and sold that way.

That's why I think it should perhaps be discussed.

Regarding the TAGs, you are right, I got carried away due to the lack of time in uploading information.

2024-01-09
Namco Museum is a compilation in a sense, but its a fresh product for a new platform. The single games in Namco Collection were not released separately for the consoles (Playstation etc.). And the games do do exist separately on the console outside the Namco Museum framework. So Namco Museum is the product / entity that should get an entry in this case.

We had a discussion about compilations here and I also explained why Namco Museum for example is an allowed compilation here:
https://www.uvlist.net/forum/thread/195935/

I know that the Democarts can be bought and are expensive. I did some research on it and looked if there might be games on it that are Democart exclusive. But this does not seem to be the case. So they fall under the "not allowed" category. Its a re-package of existing games for the Fairchild Channel F.

2024-01-09
We could agree, at least to maintain the logic of having the universality of the list of video games made, to include the information that both hockey and other games appear in the Democarts. Do you think so?

2024-01-09
We could agree, at least to maintain the logic of having the universality of the list of video games made, to include the information that both hockey and other games appear in the Democarts. Do you think so?


You can mention the Democart release in the Hockey game entry.

One way to document that a game has a compilation release can be seen here as an editor note:
https://www.uvlist.net/game-38876-Midwinter