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RCA Studio II GOLD MINE! An interview with the Studio 2 Production Manager!


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Just confirmed John is 23 which mean evg2000 is probably 22. So once we know gamermacs # the list should probably be accurate ;)

 

1. stupus

2. flip - free gift copy

3. Ed keefe - free gift copy

4. Blazing lazers

5. Anonymous ebay bingo buyer - free gift copy

6. Toymailman - traded for donor s2 shells

7. eebuckeye

8. Kyljoy

9. Krslam

10. Lazzeri

11. Spaceman

12. Atari2008

13. Mckafka99

14. Bassguitari

15. FABombjoy

16. Rhcocker

17. carlsson

18. rayik

19. y-bot

20. stupus

21. Ianoid

22. evg2000?

23. Swlovinist - traded for actionmax multi disc

24. Atarinut

25. Kelseya

26. kyljoy

27. Tombstone

28. pcata?

29. gamermac? - now sold to 8_is_enuff

30. Vintagegamecrazy

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School_girl...didn't win a single auction :)

 

The sales should be a really good basis for a S2 price guide checklist, some went under what I thought they would and some over.

 

I am also going to be auctioning off a new Fairchild Channel F and a new Bally Astrocade. Both have a couple of new games too.

 

Hope everyone enjoyed the show.

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Hey! New here. Congrats on the baby @gamerMac! I actually found this thread after I bid on the system and the 10 commercially released games. Happy to have won 5 of them, bummed I missed out on the system and the other 5 games. Someone was quicker with the bidder fingers than me! Fortunately, 5 CIB games are a great way to start my Studio II collection

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Just confirmed John is 23 which mean evg2000 is probably 22. So once we know gamermacs # the list should probably be accurate ;)

 

29. gamermac? - now sold to 8_is_enuff

30. Vintagegamecrazy

 

I just received the cart and can confirm that it is 30, not 29. So happy to have it. :)

 

gamerMac packed it up nicely and got it here in perfect shape.

 

And I must say, the cart is a thing of beauty. Actually, the box and manual too. If no one has posted pictures of these here, I'd like to (I haven't read the entire thread yet). The RCA style artwork, fonts, layout are dead-on.

 

I hope to put the multi-cart through some extensive testing this weekend. :D

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Thanks for sharing! Glad you like the packaging/art. My goal was totally for it to fall in line with the original items :)

 

Now I am super confused though as I thought I sold #30 To my friend Doug(vintagegamecrazy)

 

Time to hit him up now! I did confirm last night pcata is #29 though......

 

And congrats on having #30 if it does end up being the last 1 made! ;)

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Looks like the owners list is now all verified!

If anyone sees any error let me know. :)

 

1. stupus

2. flip - free gift copy

3. Ed keefe - free gift copy

4. Blazing lazers

5. Anonymous ebay bingo buyer - free gift copy

6. Toymailman - traded for donor s2 shells

7. eebuckeye

8. Kyljoy

9. Krslam

10. Lazzeri

11. Spaceman

12. Atari2008

13. Mckafka99

14. Bassguitari

15. FABombjoy

16. Rhcocker

17. carlsson

18. rayik

19. y-bot

20. stupus

21. Ianoid

22. evg2000

23. Swlovinist - traded for actionmax multi disc

24. Atarinut

25. Kelseya

26. kyljoy

27. Tombstone

28. Vintagegamecrazy

29. pcata

30. gamermac - now sold to 8_is_enuff

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  • 2 weeks later...

The folks at Hagley have set up a page about Joe Weisbecker and his video game and computer work. At this point it includes their wav files and the binaries Marcel converted (as well as a link to the Emma 02 emulator), plus some game footage I captured and a few document scans. They've asked me to share it with other people interested to get some additional feedback - there's more stuff they'd like to add, but this is their starting point.

 

http://digital.hagley.org/weisbecker

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So was anything interesting found on Russ' set of prototype chips?

A prototype Rom for the built in games was the main find when we dumped them. Certain things are different about the built in games on his chip set.

 

And 1 other Rom was slightly different but not enough to be noticeable other than when looking at the code. I think that was speedway tag iirc.

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A prototype Rom for the built in games was the main find when we dumped them. Certain things are different about the built in games on his chip set.

 

And 1 other Rom was slightly different but not enough to be noticeable other than when looking at the code. I think that was speedway tag iirc.

Would you get the chance to check them against the prototype rom files from Hagley? They've got a couple builds of the built-in games and a build of speedway-tag that were on tapes.

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Would you get the chance to check them against the prototype rom files from Hagley? They've got a couple builds of the built-in games and a build of speedway-tag that were on tapes.

I sent them to both flip and ed in september. Both of them would be much better to do analyzing than me ;)

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  • 3 weeks later...

Hi everyone. I was encouraged by another member (I assume) to come here and post about a listing I have on ebay for a Studio II unit. Nothing too special about the unit or games, but it comes with a 6 page SALES FAX brochure that the other member said they have never seen before.

 

Pages 1-5 are the instructions for the built in games. The 6th page gives info on available and upcoming cartridge releases.

 

I am first asking if this is OK to post links to ebay listings. I can also upload a scan of the front and back cover if anyone is interested.

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OK, cool. Here is the ebay link.

 

https://www.ebay.com/itm/254009548057

 

I found this at an estate sale, an hour before closing. I didn't know for sure that it was, but I knew I had to rescue it. Took the whole hour to find all that I did and they practically had to kick me out. I also got an Atari C-380 woodgrain video pinball and a 2600 light sixer with a few games. Sears football in the box was about the best.

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OK, cool. Here is the ebay link.

 

https://www.ebay.com/itm/254009548057

 

I found this at an estate sale, an hour before closing. I didn't know for sure that it was, but I knew I had to rescue it. Took the whole hour to find all that I did and they practically had to kick me out. I also got an Atari C-380 woodgrain video pinball and a 2600 light sixer with a few games. Sears football in the box was about the best.

You made it!:)

 

Yes, please do share a scan or two of the brochure, especially the extra games page. That one will indicate when in the lifespan of the system it was printed.

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OK, cool. Here is the ebay link.

 

https://www.ebay.com/itm/254009548057

 

I found this at an estate sale, an hour before closing. I didn't know for sure that it was, but I knew I had to rescue it. Took the whole hour to find all that I did and they practically had to kick me out. I also got an Atari C-380 woodgrain video pinball and a 2600 light sixer with a few games. Sears football in the box was about the best.

Here is the scan of page 5&6. Enjoy!

attachicon.gifrca_studioII_page5_6_small.png

That is indeed a special brochure! It's rare to see one that mentions Baseball but not Blackjack. I've actually never seen another copy of this particular one anywhere else. Any collector would be lucky to have it. If anything, it really seems to be more of a dealer document than something that a consumer would have ever seen.

 

The cardboard box is also straight from RCA. They were used for ordered games. You can tell by how perfectly it fits the boxed games. RCA had them in several sizes for different game quantities. They do turn up from time to time but not often.

 

Overall, this is a really good lot, given that the system is also working. Way above average. Thank you so much for alerting us to it all!

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I'm clear to finally talk about this publicly: TCNJ's Sarnoff curator, Flori Pierri, and I are going to be running a panel at Magfest next month about the RCA Studio II and its history! We'll be pulling from the work done to uncover the story of FRED, the coin arcade, the Studio line, and their hobby computers, showing some clips of unreleased games and demos, and will be following it up with a hands-on in the museum space with a Studio II; Flori is also bringing a FRED prototype and another item from TCNJ's collection for the display case there. And thanks to Blazing Lazers, I'll be bringing the full 10-cart library for the Studio II display as well!

 

If you can't make it, I'm told it'll be recorded and uploaded at some point, as well. There's a whole line of video game history panels running through the weekend, so if you can make it, I can certainly encourage i t.

 

 

post-372-0-88179000-1544462868_thumb.jpg

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Some more cool stuff. I spoke with Paul Russo over the phone about two months ago, and he offered to lend me a few RCA-related items he still had from his time there (he was involved in FRED, the coin arcade, and to a lesser extent the Studio projects - by that point he was largely working on other commercial uses for the 1802). Among these was a book/magazine of articles about microprocessors by RCA engineers from around late 1977, and a series of photo prints taken of the Studio II, what I think is a telex conversion device using the 1802 that he was telling me about, and a COSMAC computer system. I'm still in the process of scanning the magazine (I'm using my work copy machine, which can only do 600 dpi but that's probably plenty for what is mostly text with some images) but I did scan in the photos. I'd love to get them at a higher dpi setting, but unless the copy machines at the library here can do better - or I just hold onto this stuff until such time that I can get a good scanner myself and find a place to set it up - 600 will have to do. Pertinent to this thread, here are those Studio II prints!

post-372-0-18870000-1544644637_thumb.jpg

post-372-0-12646200-1544644648_thumb.jpg

post-372-0-47214000-1544644659_thumb.jpg

Edited by ubersaurus
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