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ranger_lennier

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Posts posted by ranger_lennier

  3. Posted

    Well, I've just been through the worst computer repair fiasco of my life—random computer crashes, backup software that doesn't work, replaced motherboard followed by replaced graphics card-apparently the graphics card killed the motherboard in a bizarre murder-suicide. Anyway, I think I've finally got everything working, so I could finish up the newsletter scanning task.

     

    y-bot sent me seven issues of Micro Studio News—issues 0-6. It ran from July 1979 to May 1980. Issue 0 was an original newsletter, and was a short, free issue to promote the newsletter. The others were available with a paid subscription. I only got photocopies of these (probably copied long ago). For the most part, these are easily readable. Issue 6 does mention some material prepared for the next issue, which would have been the first issue of the second volume. But they also discuss the struggle to get subscribers, so I suspect these are the only issues ever released.

     

    The newsletter tends to be quite technical. Most of it is user-submitted programs. These had to be typed in hexadecimal using a homebrew cart. There was also no way to save the programs. I'm not surprised that this didn't catch on. Computers and even some consoles, like the Astrocade, had official support for languages like BASIC and could load and save using external media like cassette tapes. I'm impressed by the people who did program under these constraints, though. If anyone uses these to make ROM files, please let us know.

     

    Most people will probably want the black and white scans, which only total 9MB. I've also uploaded my original grayscale scans—185MB total. The only real problem I noticed is page 4 of Issue 3, which is difficult to read in the lower left corner. It looks just as bad on the photocopy, though.

     

    Black and White: http://www.mediafire.com/download/7v3331o7ocw9z1a/Micro_Studio_News_bw.zip

     

    Grayscale: http://www.mediafire.com/download/7v3331o7ocw9z1a/Micro_Studio_News_bw.zip

     

    I hope someone finds these interesting. If anyone sees problems with the scans, let me know soon, since I don't want to hang onto the paper version much longer. Thanks y-bot for the loan and for your patience!

    • Like 6

  4. Posted

    Finally, another Studio II game dumped! This time it's Fun With Numbers. Thanks to brolly for buying the cart, Charles MacDonald for dumping it, and Marcel for adding the .st2 header. Here is the dump in various formats. Use the .st2 format for Emma 02, and the .rom format for MESS.

    http://www.mediafire.com/download/og13p9ys65y54is/fwn.zip

    Be sure to read the manual or the game won't make any sense. I played a two player game of Guess The Number and had fun with it once I figured out the rules. It's a good logic puzzle--the same basic idea as Mastermind. I posted links to my full scan set earlier, or if you just want this manual, get it here:

     

    http://www.mediafire.com/download/rra6vb8zl3a9diu/fun_with_numbers_manual.zip

     

    I believe that all of the American and European releases have been dumped now. We haven't always dumped both an American and European cart for games released in multiple regions, but in cases where we have dumped both, they've always been the same. There are still some missing games for the Visicom, the Japanese clone.

    • Like 5

  8. Posted

    The fact that Bingo includes the box, chips/markers, and cards suggests to me that it was a full-production release rather than a one-off.

     

    As for the fact that only one has ever surfaced, how often do other games from this time period turn up? Personally, I have never seen a Studio II (or an original Odyssey), and even one dirt-common pong consoles are becoming a rare sight. The game (presumably) did not sell many copies 35 years ago; I'm not surprised that it is staggeringly rare today.

     

     

    http://search.ancestry.ca/search/db.aspx?dbid=3693

     

    There does not seem to be any way to limit it to post-2001 deaths, other than by searching each year individually.

     

    I don't think any of the other USA games are spectacularly rare. I recall getting a system and all the other carts relatively quickly and inexpensively. I got all mine on eBay. I just now searched for "RCA Studio II" and found ten auctions with one or more carts. I don't see a system for sale right now, but I'd say there's one on there more often than not.

    '

    But I'll agree that Bingo could very well have just been the last USA release before RCA abandoned the system, and totally flopped.

  9. Posted

    Hello,

     

    Here are the "programming cart" files I mentioned.

     

    http://www.avionline...2_prog_cart.zip

     

    Let me know if they were useful.

     

    ED

     

    That's really neat--thanks for the scans! Do you know what source those pages came from? It sounds like some sort of newsletter, though I can't tell just from those pages if it was exclusively about the Studio II or not. Do you have any other documents?

     

    Interestingly, it sounds like it first started talking about making the programming cart after RCA had already abandoned the system.

     

    Was there a way to save/load the games, or would you have to type them in every time?

  11. Posted

    I still have a Fun With Numbers I can send to someone for dumping if needed.

     

    I own one, but it will be a few months before I can get it back and get it dumped. So if anyone is able to do it beforehand, that's cool. The guy who dumped mine lives in California, USA. Someone on the MESS forums also talked about sending him a cart (there was one cheap on eBay), but I'm not sure if that's happening or not.

  13. Posted

    Well done! Where did you find those two documents, btw? I hadn't seen them before. That is good to confirm the Tester 1 cart, its proper name, and that it has its own power supply, and a part number. Although I do wonder if there was ever a Tester 2 or Tester 3 cart...

     

    I originally assumed this came from the scans I uploaded, but I actually didn't find this exact passage. I did, however, find two similar descriptions of the Tester I cartridge. One is in the Studio II Service manual, available here:

     

    http://www.mediafire.com/?7jod7m8a63za1n9

     

    The other is in a book chapter scanned by Peter Trauner (PeT). I'm not actually sure what the book is, but you can get his scans here:

     

    http://www.mediafire.com/?ojxprk04sqwfihf

  14. Posted

    Well done! Where did you find those two documents, btw? I hadn't seen them before. That is good to confirm the Tester 1 cart, its proper name, and that it has its own power supply, and a part number. Although I do wonder if there was ever a Tester 2 or Tester 3 cart...

     

    I think it's actually "Tester I" (Roman numeral). This fits in with the pattern RCA named their cart series. I don't think the use of a number necessarily indicates that there was a Tester II. For example, some Blackjack carts/manuals/boxes are labeled "TV Casino I", even though there was no "TV Casino II" when it came out. I have seen Bingo referred to as "TV Casino II", however. I actually have two variations of the Blackjack box. One says "TV Casino I", and the other just says "TV Casino Series". I'm not sure which is older.

  15. Posted

     

    Dan might be the person, if I saw a picture of him back then I might be able to tell. His name doesn't sound familiar and I know most of those other guys on that list. Like I said, it was someone I had never met before.

     

    ...

     

    Seeing all those old PC photos makes me all misty. Those really were the good ol' days of collecting. :)

     

    Well, between the links in posts #407 and #411 there are a LOT of photos from the show. And the photo that says Dan wasn't in it could narrow it down some. Kind of a tedious task still, but if you do look through them, let us know.

  16. Posted

    Cool to finally have a name and (obsolete) e-mail regarding the USA Bingo sighting. I also now know that more people than just Tempest saw it. In that same thread, someone says he did get in touch with Al Backiel.

     

    Meant to follow up earlier... I checked with Al, but it's not him, and he can't recall who it was, though he said it was the guy in the booth next to him. He also says Joe was there and might recall, or possibly David Newman (the organizer) might recall.

    http://www.digitpress.com/forum/showthread.php?72720-RCA-Studio-II-bingo&p=1917729&viewfull=1#post1917729

  17. Posted

    Hmmm, I never did see a picture with a Studio II set up to play. It's a small enough venue that you'd think the table would almost have to be in some of the photos, though. But you probably couldn't make it out easily unless it was a close-up shot.

     

    SlyDC--do you still have your Philly Classic 2 photos? The Philly Classic site lists 33 photos from you, but some of them were never archived.

  19. Posted

    I found the motherload of Philly Classic 2 photos on the Philly Classic website. Of course, the website isn't actually up anymore, but most of the pictures are on the Internet Archive Wayback Machine.

     

    http://web.archive.org/web/20011031044247/http://www.phillyclassic.com/pc2k1/

     

    I looked through a bunch of pictures and found exactly two with a Studio II in them. The only game I can specifically make out is TV School House I. I wish people had 10 megapixel cameras back in 2001. One of the pictures may show the person who brought the system.

     

    http://web.archive.org/web/20020527002440/http://www.phillyclassic.com/pc2k1/JoelP/DSCF0035.JPG

     

    http://web.archive.org/web/20010903070422/http://phillyclassic.com/pc2k1/JohnD/philly36.jpg

     

    Here are some other sites with photos from the show (but I didn't see a Studio II in them).

     

    http://cafeman.www9.50megs.com/atari/phillyexpo2001/

     

    http://www.tomheroes.com/Video%20Games%20FS/Retrotimes/retrotimes_44.htm#Phillyclassic,%20the%20Little%20Show%20That%20Grew%20Huge!

  21. Posted

    It was good hearing the full story from Tempest. I also would have thought someone would take a picture of it. Of course, Philly Classic 3 was in 2002, before everyone carried a camera in their pocket at all times. :) I looked for some convention photos, and this is the only good set I found:

     

    https://atariage.com/features/philly_2002/index.html

     

    I didn't see any Studio II stuff in the photos. I suppose the Bingo owner could be in some of them, but I'd be impressed if anyone could still recognize him after 11 years.

     

    If anyone else took photos there, could you please check if you have any Studio II photos?

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