slydc

Ok, now for how to mod a Toshiba Visicom COM-100: It is really simple actually, you will only need to solder (or tie together...not the best thing but only do this if you don't have a solder iron) 3 wires! One for the video, one for the audio and one for the ground. At first when i've opened the console, i was hesitant since everything written is in Japanese but once i saw only seven wires connected to the RF modulator, it was much easier than to translate...lol! There is three yellow wires which are connected to a switch, these three you can cut since it's only for channel 1 & 2 and you can also cut the wire next to the yellow indicated by a weird "N" symbol (that one is the +5V). Now that four wires are cut, there is only three left (those that we need). Now cut those three and solder/wire them to the appropriate output (video = yellow, audio = red and ground ....is ground! lol!). Voila! Told you guys that it was simple! Here's the picture how to do it: Now the next mod i'm going to do for the Toshiba Visicom is a cartridge adaptor to see how Studio II/MPT-02 cartridges look like. Will the Toshiba displays the same colors or only 2 or more colors ? We'll only know when the cart adaptor will be done since the Visicom cart pinouts doesn't match the Studio II/MPT-02. I think Charles McDonald posted the pinout of the Visicom cartridge, but i'll use my multimeter to check where each pins goes where in the Visicom. It won't take too long since there is only 22-pins. Next A/V mod, either the RCA Studio II or the Conic M-1200 coming soon. =) --- Sly DC ---

@carlsson: Completely agree with you that European clones have a better "color palette" than the Toshiba Visicom. But if you check the guts of a Conic M-1200 and the Toshiba Visicom, you'll notice that the two doesn't use the same color encoding circuits, The Conic uses two TTL's (CD4001 & CD4069) with a PAL Color encoder circuit and the Toshiba uses a lot of transistors. Even an MTP-02 (say...Hanimex) uses a PAL color encoding circuit with five TTL's. Would love to have HD pics of an MPT-02 (Hanimex or Soundic) board (both sides) to see how the color encoder circuit is interconnected. @Blazing Lazers: Thanks. I'm looking forward to read what you'll find at the RCA archives. I'll post later today how i mod the Toshiba Visicom and also the Conic M-1200 but as for the RCA Studio II how to mod it, i did it some time ago but never finished the mod itself (boost the video signal). Check here: http://atariage.com/forums/topic/209519-rca-studio-ii-gold-mine-an-interview-with-the-studio-2-production-manager/page-12?do=findComment&comment=2735241 After i've finished modding the Conic M-1200 with A/V output (just made a test if it worked or not), i'll do the Studio II. I'm pretty sure that i'll only need 3 components (x1 transistor and x2 resistors) to make the video mod. And maybe i'll also try the pause button mod, a reverse-video mod and...err...i'll stop right there. =p --- Sly DC ---

Hi folks, been quite a while i've posted here. Well, i've received 2 days ago something pretty rare and since the person who sold me this game system said that it was broken, i simply tried to see if it works or not. Just to say, i've modded it with A/V output (which is sssooo damn easy to do BTW) and recorded this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BKsR-LYN2vs Already 4 views in less than 12 hours before i've posted here.....KEWL! --- Sly DC ---

Sorry about this, my web site was infected by a $%?$%?$ virus and Google virus alert was intefering with my web site. Now my web site has come back from the "dead" status and virus free. If there is anything on my web site that's not properly working, please let me know. Thanks very much! --- Sly DC ---

Hi rsb0204, Nope, an European game console/system will NOT work on an NTSC television, the vertical sync will roll and also you will lose color. Either on a old TV (you may adjust the vertical knob) but still you won't have color. What i did to be able to play with a Conic M1200 was by converting it to Audio/Video (A/V) and plug it on an small NTSC/PAL TFT monitor (can ind these for around $30 on YouPay). Now i can play RCA Studio II/clones games in color! =) --- Sly DC ---

It's been 3-4 days now i'm trying to "clean-up" my database of Studio II stuffs and clones. As i was writing down notes on paper (just in case my HD brakes down...) about the Hanimex MPT-02, i just discovered that this game system (and maybe also the Soundic Victory MPT-02) doesn't have any built-in games! Upon checking a picture of the unit board: You can see that U13 and U14 are missing and these IC's are the ones that have the built-in games. So now i understand why the hell there is the "Grand Pack" cartridge since all other clones (surely accept the Soundic) doesn't have this cartridge listed or available. For those who doesn't know, the "Grand Pack" cartridge contains the same five games found in all other European clones: Doodle, Patterns, Bowling, Blackjack 1 player and Blackjack 2 players. So if anyone has a Soundic Victory MPT-02, could you open it up and tell us if this one also doesn't have any U13 & U14 chips ? Also, a high resolution of the Soundic board would be greatly appreciated since i wanna know why the MPT-02 has a bright magenta for background instead of the blue backgound found in M-1200 series (Conic/Sheen M-1200 and Mustang 9016). Still leaving the Academy Apollo 80 wondering which color background it has. And for last, there is 3 other Studio II homebrew games made by Lee Romanow: Outbreak, Climber and TV Arcade 2012.. These roms are available on Yahoo rcacosmac group ( http://dir.groups.yahoo.com/group/rcacosmac/ ) in the files section under the "Studio II and clones" folder. Also, the TV Arcade 2012 rom, it's a 5-in-1 multi-games which contains these games: Craps / Moon Lander / Repeat After Me / Space Rescue / Nim. --- Sly DC --- (has left the studio... - instead of "left the building"...LOL!!!)

Humm...then who is the guy standing on your right ? because Dan was between Al and Curt table (in that peticular corner). After Curt, it was your table and on the other side of Al, it was Tom Zjaba. I can remember names but i still don't remember the Bingo game or simply i never paid attention to Studio II stuffs back then...scrap! (like in the latest Transformer TV serie).

Seems that the "Bingo" mystery will be going on if Matt (aka Tempest) can't remember the guy how he looks like (the guy that's bending/ out of focus in this picture in the right corner beside you Matt): which is in fact Dan McIntyre. The guy with the black t-shirt standing on your right, is it Curt Vendel (?). If you can recall his face and look through here: http://web.archive.org/web/20011031044247/http://www.phillyclassic.com/pc2k1/ Maybe we'll have better chance to find Dan if we can put a face on his name. As for me, i'm out of options to find this guy. Maybe other RCA employes from Deptford, NJ could know about Bingo ? The problem is to find people who did worked back in 1977-78...sigh! --- Sly DC ---

Sorry about this Tempest, thought that you were talking about Al. Here's two pictures i have in my database: Don't remeber where i got them but these are genuine. So the Demo cart does really exists. Same as the test cart but never saw a picture of that cart as to date. --- Sly DC ---

Hi ranger_lennier, Yes, i still have all 33 pictures on my hard drive (and backups) with also all three web pages with small picture descriptions. But i don't have any picture(s) where we can see a RCA Studio II displayed and ready to play. I remember that only Al had Studio II stuffs and the Philly was intended in a very small room at the Sheraton Suites hotel near the airport (was my 1st Philly i attended with some CCJVQ fellows). The room was so small that on Saturday, it was so jammed-packed that i mostly spent time near the bar just beside the room. What i remember was that i brought from Al an Atari Stunt Cycle SC-450 (complete), a Tron joystick for the Atari 2600 some a vendor and a complete Spider-Man for the Sega 32X for $10 from a guy which he's holding a DP guide beside his girlfriend. That guy was cursing after he checked the value for the 32X Spider-man in the guide...lol! I also remember meeting Al and his wife, John Dondzilla also with his wife, Roloff De Jeu, Sean Kelly, Ianoid and Matt. I did met Joe Santulli and John Hardie in a previous NAVA meeting (in Feb.1999). Al would be the guy to ask about Bingo. He listed it in the RED DP Guide as a "RARE 9" and $50 value (that's back in 2002). Here's the complete description in the guide: Bingo - RCA - $50/R9 TV Casino Series. Includes 20 bingo cards & 150 marker chips. Comes in a larger box than the normal miniscule RCA game boxes. #18V601 So there you have it, the comlete list of Bingo and also the model number. Knowing Al, he wouldn't put all this if he personnaly didn't had it or seen it with his own eyes. --- Sly DC ---

Well...i'll be damned...If Matt (aka Tempest) can confirm that the guy in the "DSCF0035.JPG" is the guy who had the Bingo game than his name is Al Backiel (of Digital Press). He's the one who did the section of the RCA Studio II in the Digital Press guides, and which, i helped Al with the foreign/clones stuffs for the guide. Al sold me an Atari Stunt Cycle boxed at the Philly 2001 (which you can see me also in the same picture, the guy with the grey shirt with US flag motifs) which he didn't had the manual with it. 2-3 hours later, his wife gave me the manual since Al went to his house to gave me the manual. Such a nce guy! I don't remember seeing the Bingo game BUT...i do remember discussing with Al about the RCA Studio II stuffs and he told me he was keeping everything since he was doing the DP guide section. Last time i heard about Al, he did a review about Ms.Space Fury which i contributed with Daniel Bienvenu (Newcoleco) and Joe Santulli (the head huncho of DP). Now who has the e-mail adress of Al ? --- Sly DC ---

Finally discovered about this mysterious game system after 12 years! The picture was taken from the Creative Computer Sept/Oct.1978 issue (page 39) and is called the "Victory-3" by Accurate Electronics Industry Ltd. (aka Conic) which was showned at the 1978 CES (June 11-14 in Chicago, IL). This prototype did indeed had color and the sound comes out the tv (and not from the system itself like the RCA Studio II). Just another note about the sound, same goes to all European clone. The sounds comes from the CDP1864 and not from a LM555 like in the Studio II. The "Victory-3" name was inspired from two different names actually: the "Victory" part was reused for the Soundic Victory game system and the "3" comes from the Studio III (the Studio II color prototype). So this picture would be a prototype of the Studio III in a way but the Victory-3 was a PAL system (not NTSC). To achive exactly a Studio III (3), you would need a Studio II (2) and mod it with a CDP1862 plus a VP-595 Simple Sound board and also a extra 1k RAM for the Color (VRAM), which this would make a NTSC version of an European clone. What is weird is that history was repeated with the the Magnavox Odyssey 3 prototype, which finally became the Philips Videopac+ (G7400 and other clones) in Europe. ---Sly DC ---

On Wiki ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RCA_Studio_II ) just before the contents, here's what someone wrote: There was a prototype, called simply RCA Studio. It was a test system comprising a box with exposed circuit boards. RCA executives, including then CFO Ray Easter, were lent the prototype to try at home and give feed back. The "Studio II" was the end product and first commercially available. If we could find "Ray Easter" and ask him, now we would now for sure if a RCA Studio 1 really existed. But another prototype that Joseph A. Weisbecker did worked on was the RCA Studio III. This one had color but eventually was never released in the USA due to poor sales of the S2. At least the Studio III did came out but only in Japan (Toshiba Visicom) and all the clones released in Europe/Australia. Here's a picture of a prototype i have on my HD for 12 years now: This picture comes from a Creative Computing magazine between 1977 to 1980 that someone i known did scan this but never told me which number of the magazine it comes from (does somebody knows ?) Looking at the cartridge, it looks like a Conic or Sheen cartridge or maybe an MPT-02 one. This picture may be a prototype of an European clone or maybe the Studio III ? Until someone can find the picture and article in question, this is left unanswered... ---Sly DC ---

Seeing Paul's amazing homebrews games gave me the idea to unpack my good old RCA Studio II and make a first attemps to do a mod: Audio/Video output (like a Jakk TV Plug & Play). First attemps is a succes...but the video output is a bit dark, i'll boost the signal in my second attemp. So finally NO MORE %&%&? RF SWITCH BOX!!!! If anyone wanna do this simple A/V mod, check out the PDF file from "ekeefe" which he done the schematics all by himself. The Video output is already in the schematic but for the audio output, just take the source on pin 3 of the LM555. And as for the power supply, just cut the RF cable and plug a 9VDC/300ma power supply and voila! You'll have a RCA Studio II with A/V output. Check these pics: --- Sly DC ---

OMG!! I am sssoooo FUDGING impressed! And only in 1.7K...that's unbeleivable! Same goes as all your others homebrews. Seems like you did the same thing as all the European Studio II clones BIOS, the Blackjack game is also mapped to $C00-$FFF. Do you have other Studio II brews up your sleeve ? So major kudos to all your Studio II brews and your Unisonic Champion 2711 emulator. --- Sly DC ---

Ask my friend and you'll shall receive (better later than never )! Here's all the Dedicated Pong console (so far) that i know which have the robot (AI) option: Alcatel Visiomat 11 Atari Super Pong Pro-AM (C-200) [Yes! Try to find this little sucker!] Binatone TV Gaming Unit 01/4990 Coleco Telstar Galaxy Entex Gameroom Tele-Pong (model 3047) [the easiest to find in this list] Epoch Electrotennis [only If you're very rich and lucky!!!] Executive Games Television Tennis 035 First Dimension 3000W [the second easiest to find in this list] Pizon Bros Visiomat 11 Pizon Bros Visiomatic 101 Rollet International Ltd. Jeux Vidéo Rollet International Ltd. Robot OC 5000 Rollet Robot (4302) S.O.E. Match Robot S.O.E. OC 5000 (robot/with pistol) Universal Research Laboratories Video Action VA2 Universal Research Laboratories Video Action 3 VA3 There are others but i have to verify to be sure. Like the Sears Tele-Games Speedway (S-100), the variable knob is missing (1 to 10 difficulty) and also missing the switch for human or robot so you can't play versus the robot. Oh and you can play the fourth game if you pull out the cover, you can't access the fourth game (Tennis) because of the cover. [Easter Egg HERE!!] @njb12287: I already sent the Dedicated Pong console with Robots to Adrian about a year ago. Seems he didn't had the time to put it on his web site.

@Atari Rescue Group: King Point did made one in fact, it's called the "Kings Point TG-6000". One person sold one on Ebay a couple of years ago but i don't have any details or picture(s) of this beast. That's all i know so far... @njb12287: Adrian doesn't have this one listed on his web site. Oh and BTW, sorry if i didn't replied to your last e-mail, been so much busy, especially this time of year. And i still didn't forgot about your 2nd Odyssey adapter, i have all the parts right on my desk. Will reply soon! --- Sly DC ---

Hi Folks! I finally updated the Unisonic Champion 2711 FAQ (after 15 months). Here's what's added: - Specifications updated - Instruction book completely scanned (in 5 parts or full) - Casino TV Games (sold in Japan) - All the scans from intvnut (thanks again!) - added 3 more unreleased games - and so on... Go read it here: http://www.ccjvq.com/slydc/index/faq/2711/index.htm --- Sly DC ---

@Harmik: Well i don't have pretty much informations about the Intellivision, anything i have is already in the Unisonic Champion 2711 FAQ. But i strongly suggest that you visit the web site of intvnut which he has scans of the Gimini Deluxe 8900 Programmable Game System (aka Intellivision). @Minuous: I would love to help you out about the CR861 but everyhing i know is already written on this topic. The only person that may help you out would be the Father of Videogames, none other that Ralph H. Baer. He tested out this chip in September 1977. Maybe he has datasheets of the CR861. If he does, please let us know!! (i would die a happy man! LOL!)

Salut! Je parle Québéçois (Canadien-Français) MDR!!! Il n'y a pas juste des Français sur le forum d'Atari Age, il y a aussi des Québéçois comme Newcoleco, Maxime Beauvais, Lady Jaye, et j'en passe. @ Rhod: comment va René Spérenza et la bande de Silicium ? Et Philippe Dubois de MO5.com ? Je n'ai pas de nouvelles d'eux depuis quelques années, surtout depuis je suis papa de deux enfants. @ PitfallHarry2600: Si jamais tu cherche des forums en Français, je te recommende le forum de Silicium: www.silicium.org/forum (en France) et celui du CCJVQ: www.ccjvq.com (au Québec). Salut bien! --- Sly DC ---

Hi again Joe, Great! So in the next version of the FAQ (this month), you'll see your name in the credits. I have a GI databook called "Microelectronics Data Catalog" published in 1982. It features the CP1610, the 8900 Programmable Game System (which became the Mattel Intellivision) and dedicated game chip AY-3-8500-1 and the 8600 Series TV Games (better known as the Soundic SD-050/SD-070 and SD-090 and a multitude of cartridge dedicated chip systems) [AY-3-8603, AY-3-8605, AY-3-8606, AY-3-8607, AY-3-8610 and AY-3-8765]. But there no reference to the 8950 Challenger/Mid-Range system. Seems that even the 8950 Challenger/Mid-Range is obscure informations. --- Sly DC ---

Hi pboland, My avatar comes from your picture actually! You posted the picture in this thread: http://www.atariage.com/forums/topic/117540-atari-tank-ii-odyssey-5000-pics/page__p__1420423__hl__Odyssey%205000__fromsearch__1#entry1420423 I've rendered the screenshot and made it my avatar, hope you don't mind! As for the Odyssey 5000, here's what i know: It had x2 dedicated chips inside, one made by National Semiconductors called the MM57106 and another one by Signetics called the CR861 (aka MUGS-1). The MM57106 has 7 games in color which with variations, gave a total of 23 games. This chip has never been released here in the U.S. but was released in Japan and in Europe (called the MM57186). Philips used the MM57186 in their Odyssey 2100 (color display) and Videojeu N30 (black & white display). As for the CR861, it only had two games (x1 helicopter game and x1 tank game), which the tank game is featured in your picture you scanned from a unknown magazine (would appreciate to know which magazine you've find the picture ). So the Odyssey 5000 had 9 games but with variations totaled 25 games all in color. Also, Ralph H. Baer worked on the Odyssey 5000 between the 8 & 9th of September 1977. He was later informed (September 19th 1977) that Magnavox management finally decided to proceed with the Intel 8048 processor (the CPU of the Odyssey 2) and scrap the Odyssey 5000. For the helicopter game, you can see a screenshot in the book "Video Games" by Len Buckwalter (page 84 - Fig. 8-3 "Battling Helicopters"). It is still unknown if the Signetics CR861 still exists somewhere but they did manufactured a bunch of them. Oh and if you didn't know this, Signetics was brought by Philips in 1975 and Magnavox was owned by Philips. So here you have it, that's all the information i have regarding the Magnavox Odyssey 5000. P.S. What i would give to see the CR861 in action!! Sigh... --- Sly DC ---

No problem and thanks in advanced! --- Sly DC ---

Hi Joe, Thank you so much for all those scans and accepted that i can update the FAQ, but do you want your real name written or do you want me to write "intvnut" for the credits ? And thanks for sharing the story on how you've obtained your photocopies. Always fascinates me to learn whom was involved in all sorts of video game projects. And it will be very usefull, to everyone and to the MESS team so that they can easier do a AY-3-8800 (aka AY-3-8950) driver since i've lended to them a Champion 2711 to be digitally preserved. Thanks again! --- Sly DC ---

Hi Eduardo, I've contacted Fernando about the Champion 2711 on Ebay to ask him the serial number since i'm trying to keep track of all known Champion 2711 serials and owners so far. He also told me about the others he found and that he reserved one especially for you. Great to known a future Champion 2711 owner! I don't want the one on Ebay or the rest since Fernando sold me seven Champion 2711, have plenty of them. Onced you've gotten your Champion 2711, could you tell me the serial number of yours please? P.S. if any person is interested in owning a Champion 2711, Fernando has on on Ebay right now: eBay Auction -- Item Number: 280557390809 --- Sly DC ---