In depth Look - RCA Studio II AKA: The "Real" Worst Console Ever

[Rev. Rob]

 

And to the person who commented about Pong being broken - if you hit the ball on the edges of the paddle WHILE the paddle is in motion, the ball will take a sharp turn part-way across the screen....that was supposed to simulate putting "english" on the ball.

 

That was me, and I take it back. You're right. I now clearly see it on page one and two in the manual.

 

 

 

If you scroll to the bottom of this page there are 3 homebrews that you can play on an emulator:

 

http://studio2.classicgaming.gamespy.com/

 

Combat, Space Invaders and Hockey.

 

 

Emulation is not the same as owning. I want a cart, damn it!

Edited September 30, 2009 by Rev. Rob

[Segataritensoftii]

 

There's not much you can do on a 64x32 pixel display.

Maybe somebody could port Microvision games to the Studio II?

 

I would throw down some money for that right now!

 

Seriously, I'd pay a pretty good price for any homebrew Studio II game.

 

If you scroll to the bottom of this page there are 3 homebrews that you can play on an emulator:

 

http://studio2.classicgaming.gamespy.com/

 

Combat, Space Invaders and Hockey.

 

This thread actually inspired me to download their emulator out of curiosity, and I played some of the built-in games for a few minutes. Definitely as bad as people have described. Bowling was the first game I tried which was okay but it looked ugly as hell. The doodling game was pretty boring especially without any color! The racing game was weird in that when you hit the other car nothing happened, LOL. I couldn't get the sound to work but maybe that's a good thing? I believe the only homebrew that they had a ROM for on that site was Space Invaders, I think the Combat and Hockey links don't work any more but they do have screenshots. Space Invaders was definitely more fun compared to the built-in games that I played. Not sure if the homebrews were ever released on cart.

 

Maybe someone should port Pac-Man? LOL.

I played Combat on that sites WinSTEM emulator, and it looked like a fairly faithful conversion. Edited September 30, 2009 by Segataritensoftii

[Atari2008]

 

There's not much you can do on a 64x32 pixel display.

Maybe somebody could port Microvision games to the Studio II?

 

I would throw down some money for that right now!

 

Seriously, I'd pay a pretty good price for any homebrew Studio II game.

 

If you scroll to the bottom of this page there are 3 homebrews that you can play on an emulator:

 

http://studio2.classicgaming.gamespy.com/

 

Combat, Space Invaders and Hockey.

 

This thread actually inspired me to download their emulator out of curiosity, and I played some of the built-in games for a few minutes. Definitely as bad as people have described. Bowling was the first game I tried which was okay but it looked ugly as hell. The doodling game was pretty boring especially without any color! The racing game was weird in that when you hit the other car nothing happened, LOL. I couldn't get the sound to work but maybe that's a good thing? I believe the only homebrew that they had a ROM for on that site was Space Invaders, I think the Combat and Hockey links don't work any more but they do have screenshots. Space Invaders was definitely more fun compared to the built-in games that I played. Not sure if the homebrews were ever released on cart.

 

Maybe someone should port Pac-Man? LOL.

I played Combat on that sites WinSTEM emulator, and it looked like a fairly faithful conversion.

 

I've installed their Windows emulator but I can't get any sound out of it. Is there some compatibility issue with Vista? I know who would want to try Studio II games but I'm curious.

[BigO]

Emulation is not the same as owning. I want a cart, damn it!

I'm surprised that of the high powered talent that worked on the emulator and wrote games, none of them put a homebrew on a cart.

[Atari2008]

Emulation is not the same as owning. I want a cart, damn it!

I'm surprised that of the high powered talent that worked on the emulator and wrote games, none of them put a homebrew on a cart.

 

I wonder the same thing but I'm assuming they probably figured that the audience for a Studio II homebrew would be very small.

[BigO]

Emulation is not the same as owning. I want a cart, damn it!

I'm surprised that of the high powered talent that worked on the emulator and wrote games, none of them put a homebrew on a cart.

 

I wonder the same thing but I'm assuming they probably figured that the audience for a Studio II homebrew would be very small.

I might buy Space Invaders or something like that just to have a reasonably good game to play on my Studio II, but I wasn't necessarily thinking of a commercial venture, just something to prove that it could be done. The proposed design I saw for putting homebrew games on a cart says it's untested. Edited October 1, 2009 by BigO

[Atari2008]

Emulation is not the same as owning. I want a cart, damn it!

I'm surprised that of the high powered talent that worked on the emulator and wrote games, none of them put a homebrew on a cart.

 

I wonder the same thing but I'm assuming they probably figured that the audience for a Studio II homebrew would be very small.

I might buy Space Invaders or something like that just to have a reasonably good game to play on my Studio II, but I wasn't necessarily thinking of a commercial venture, just something to prove that it could be done. The proposed design I saw for putting homebrew games on a cart says it's untested.

 

I can see that. That's definitely one of the reasons why I bought Pac-Man for the Channel F. Having a new game which far exceeds anything originally available for the system was just too cool to pass up.

[DemonoidTentacle]

Emulation is not the same as owning. I want a cart, damn it!

I'm surprised that of the high powered talent that worked on the emulator and wrote games, none of them put a homebrew on a cart.

 

I wonder the same thing but I'm assuming they probably figured that the audience for a Studio II homebrew would be very small.

I might buy Space Invaders or something like that just to have a reasonably good game to play on my Studio II, but I wasn't necessarily thinking of a commercial venture, just something to prove that it could be done. The proposed design I saw for putting homebrew games on a cart says it's untested.

 

Hell, I'd put down some cash for a homebrew cart of Space Invaders for the RCA.

 

Anyone know how these guys made their homebrew projects? What coding? What assembler?

[TheGameCollector]

Hey guess what? There are two "systems" that are worse than the RCA Studio II. The justice system and the government! haha

[LS_Dracon]

Hell, I'd put down some cash for a homebrew cart of Space Invaders for the RCA.

 

Anyone know how these guys made their homebrew projects? What coding? What assembler?

 

You can use TASM. Also the Studio 2 uses same processor and similar hardware from many computers (Cosmac, Elf), these computers uses Chip-8 language wich is very easy and fun to code. There is a Space Invaders written in Chip-8 for "Elf computer" wich is very good actually.

 

 

 

Hey guess what? There are two "systems" that are worse than the RCA Studio II. The justice system and the government! haha

 

 

Haha and even slower!

Edited December 5, 2011 by LS_Dracon

[PsychoKittyNet]

I own one and a near complete collection of games for it, and honestly it is the worst console I have ever used. The controls are bad, the sound is worse and the graphics? I have seen stains more appealing. Still it has it's charm, kind of like the kid in class who did nothing but eat paste all day.

[toptenmaterial]

Could it really be THAT bad?

 

Admittedly, I have never played one. The only thing that makes a game bad, in my humble opinion, is if it isn't fun.

 

Many, many VCS games are non-intuitive and require instructions to even figure out what is supposed to be happening. A young kid these days would likely consider these games unplayable. Don't get me wrong, though, I love the 2600.

 

I'm just saying, is the Studio II, or any other system, really not fun at all??

[PsychoKittyNet]

None of the games are complex, and they do have them printed on the cart. The issue is that none of the games are any fun, mostly bland copies of better titles and the keypad controls are uncomfortable. It seems like RCA tried to do everything wrong.

[swlovinist]

Complete set here. RCA Studio II is terrible to play. To me, it is that bad.