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

[sut]

Some fantastic work on this thread, brilliant preservation.

 

Has anyone got the release dates (year) for the MPT-02 and Visicom games ?

[ranger_lennier]

Some fantastic work on this thread, brilliant preservation.

 

Has anyone got the release dates (year) for the MPT-02 and Visicom games ?

 

I'm not sure. I don't see any dates on the manuals, carts, or boxes that I have.

[+stupus]

I believe the clone systems were all released in 1978 so probably the games as well...not sure though if this is true to the visicom too.

[TLD1985]

My video of Bingo

 

[ranger_lennier]

We've finally got a Toshiba Visicom game dumped correctly--the very Japanese CAS-130 Sports Fan (Baseball & Sumo Wrestling). Thanks to Charles and Marcel for figuring out how to do it. I'm not sure if they needed to consult anyone else. Check it out here. It runs in Emma 02.

 

http://www.mediafire.com/download/papn69k23pvv2o1/cas130.zip

 

The only instructions I have are what was printed on the cart label. Here's a translation courtesy of Octocontrabass on the MESS forums.

 

Baseball (for two players)

1. Press clear, then press the 0 key on controller A (left).

2. Player A (left) goes to bat first. The 5 key is to swing.

3. Player B (right) pitches. The 2 key is an inside corner curveball. The 5 key is a straight ball. The 8 key is an outside corner curveball. If you hold the key you can throw a slowball.

4. When player B is catching a batted ball, use the 2 key to move up and the 8 key to move down.

5. After 3 outs, players change sides.

 

Sumo Wrestling (for two players)

1. Press clear, then press the 5 key on controller A, and press the 0 key on both controllers to do the initial charge.

2. The left wrestler (A) uses the 6 key to push, the 5 key to throw, and the 4 key to pull. The right wrestler (B) uses the 4 key to push, the 5 key to throw, and the 6 key to pull.

3. When the match is complete, the winner will be indicated, both players will press the 0 key, and the game will continue for 15 matches.

 

Note: For more information on how to play the game, please read the manual.

 

Probably the only Studio II-family cart of mind that's still undumped is Fun With Numbers, which we'll need to get back from Guru first. I also have several carts from different territories, but I haven't yet found a difference between the Studio II and MPT-02 carts.

 

Is anyone able to loan out other any other Visicom carts to get them dumped?

[ranger_lennier]

Guru checked the resistors on the MPT-02 to fix the colors in MESS. Here's the update to the code. Hopefully the information will be useful for Emma 02 or any other emulators.

 

http://mame.dorando.at/svn/?rev=24771

 

I can probably get more information if there's not enough detail there.

[TLD1985]

More Great news! I also still have the Apollo 80 carts but I HIGHLY doubt there are any rom changes at all..

 

I know 1 or 2 games had words in them... so I suppose it's possible on the French/German carts those were altered... I need to check which games they were.

 

 

Now the correct colour information is available... is anyone able to list the RGB values?

 

 

Just 5 Visicom games to do...

 

 

[carlsson]

I might have some time tonight to take pics of my Conic M1200, regarding which colours it outputs unless that information already is covered through other colour-enabled clones. For that matter, would it make any difference if I connect it to a 40" LCD or a 14" CRT, which one typically is best at reproducing colours with default settings? I feel it is kind of a dumb question as you can always adjust brightness, contrast, saturation etc on the TV but I had the urge to ask it anyhow.

 

Or for that matter, I could have another go with TV tuner on the PC but I reckon I didn't get very good results last time I tried.

 

Second edit: Ah, last time I used Bt-based PCI cards. Since then I got myself an USB stick that may or may not be more powerful so perhaps it is worth trying that one too.

Edited August 7, 2013 by carlsson

[CatPix]

CRT since it's an RF connexion. I will trust it better than LCD TV and all their fancy picture "improvements".

Personnally, I wonder if those colors are real, programmed colors or like Pong systems and SECAM Atari 2600, just a grayscale coloring chip?

 

Was the original RCA in pure monochrome or levels of gray? And even... Did they took the cheap route of coding the games in levels of grays and attributing a color on output, muck like how the Game Boy Color or the Super Game Boy colorize Game Boy games?

Adding real colors sounds like a big pain for such a system... especially when Soundic provided a likely system, the HMG 7900 (hmm, maybe it came after the European version).

Edited August 7, 2013 by CatPix

[TLD1985]

I might have some time tonight to take pics of my Conic M1200, regarding which colours it outputs unless that information already is covered through other colour-enabled clones. For that matter, would it make any difference if I connect it to a 40" LCD or a 14" CRT, which one typically is best at reproducing colours with default settings? I feel it is kind of a dumb question as you can always adjust brightness, contrast, saturation etc on the TV but I had the urge to ask it anyhow.

 

Or for that matter, I could have another go with TV tuner on the PC but I reckon I didn't get very good results last time I tried.

 

Second edit: Ah, last time I used Bt-based PCI cards. Since then I got myself an USB stick that may or may not be more powerful so perhaps it is worth trying that one too.

 

It will probably still be interesting to compare and see if there are differences. So I still think it is worth doing.

 

CRT since it's an RF connexion. I will trust it better than LCD TV and all their fancy picture "improvements".

Personnally, I wonder if those colors are real, programmed colors or like Pong systems and SECAM Atari 2600, just a grayscale coloring chip?

 

Was the original RCA in pure monochrome or levels of gray? And even... Did they took the cheap route of coding the games in levels of grays and attributing a color on output, muck like how the Game Boy Color or the Super Game Boy colorize Game Boy games?

Adding real colors sounds like a big pain for such a system... especially when Soundic provided a likely system, the HMG 7900 (hmm, maybe it came after the European version).

 

The original Studio II was pure black and white.

[CatPix]

Hmm so there is a bit more than just a coloring chip. Interesting.

 

I really wish I can find one Euro clone just for the pleasure of it.

Also I could compare the chips inside and the color output since I'm in SECAM country... Might be interesting.

[TLD1985]

Hmm so there is a bit more than just a coloring chip. Interesting.

 

I really wish I can find one Euro clone just for the pleasure of it.

Also I could compare the chips inside and the color output since I'm in SECAM country... Might be interesting.

 

*LIGHTBULB*

 

MAYBE THAT'S WHY... some of those old screenshots of the system are pink! Would be nice to find out for certain tho..

[CatPix]

You know, it's not because the Atari 2600 and Pong system have pink in the color choice that SECAM can't render anything else than pink

 

It's true that there is color shifting on some SECAM systems, but it's mostly because when converting digital or RVB video to SECAM, the encoder chips were using PAL color values instead of the proper SECAM values, leading to color shift.

 

Something that doesn't show for example on the Colecovision and the Master System which are RGB only, not SECAM (no video game system after the HMG 7900 released in 1983 output SECAM; except Famiclones sold in Russia).

 

The Intellivision for example had a very nicely made SECAM RF output (and there is an elusive SCART RVB version) and there is o color shifting at all.

Edited August 7, 2013 by CatPix

[carlsson]

Well, if you remember all cartridges I tried render in white pixels on blue background except for Biorhythm which itself may have been programmed for the Studio 3 that never emerged from RCA. The built-in programs in the console have a little more colour variation, but they may have been modified to meet the hardware extention.

 

Personally, I'm most intrigued by the brownish colour on Biorhythm, which I was unable to reproduce in Doodle on the console. I don't know enough about hardware video generation to tell if those would be distinct colours or created on the fly based on other parameters. If the method is known how the colours in Biorhythm (or if the built-in programs have been dumped) are generated, I suppose a test program on some flashable cartridge could be written to try all possible values to see how many colours can be coaxed out of the clones. One would at first believe it has the eight basic colours black, red, blue, violet, green, cyan, yellow, white but seemingly not if one gets brown among others.

[TLD1985]

Well, if you remember all cartridges I tried render in white pixels on blue background except for Biorhythm which itself may have been programmed for the Studio 3 that never emerged from RCA. The built-in programs in the console have a little more colour variation, but they may have been modified to meet the hardware extention.

 

Personally, I'm most intrigued by the brownish colour on Biorhythm, which I was unable to reproduce in Doodle on the console. I don't know enough about hardware video generation to tell if those would be distinct colours or created on the fly based on other parameters. If the method is known how the colours in Biorhythm (or if the built-in programs have been dumped) are generated, I suppose a test program on some flashable cartridge could be written to try all possible values to see how many colours can be coaxed out of the clones. One would at first believe it has the eight basic colours black, red, blue, violet, green, cyan, yellow, white but seemingly not if one gets brown among others.

 

I went back to page 7 where you made your screenshots and it looks like violet to me.

Edited August 7, 2013 by TLD1985

[CatPix]

Pink-colored screenshots on early what? boxes? ads? may just be from prototypes or badly reproduced colors, too.

There have been too much clones produced all over Europe to assume that ITMC only took over the Studio III.

Or maybe?

 

The MPT family SEEMS to be a creation of ITMC (which is a French company; they seems to have merged/turned into Yeno which was absorbed by V-tech).

MPT-01 family ?

MPT-02 : RCA Studio II

MPT-03 : Arcadia 2001

MPT-04 : ?

MPT-05 : 1292 AVPS/Interton VC4000 family

 

But from ITMC, having a poor reproduction of game capture seems to be a real possibility.

[TLD1985]

Pink-colored screenshots on early what? boxes? ads? may just be from prototypes or badly reproduced colors, too.

There have been too much clones produced all over Europe to assume that ITMC only took over the Studio III.

Or maybe?

 

The MPT family SEEMS to be a creation of ITMC (which is a French company; they seems to have merged/turned into Yeno which was absorbed by V-tech).

MPT-01 family ?

MPT-02 : RCA Studio II

MPT-03 : Arcadia 2001

MPT-04 : ?

MPT-05 : 1292 AVPS/Interton VC4000 family

 

But from ITMC, having a poor reproduction of game capture seems to be a real possibility.

 

these photos from http://www.old-compu...iew.asp?r=2&a=5

 

 

 

The clone systems can be divided like so:

 

MPT-02 model

-Soundic MPT-02 (Australia)

-Hanimex MPT-02 (France)

 

M1200 model

-Sheen M1200 (Australia)

-Conic M1200 (?????)

-Mustang 9016 (Germany)

 

Apollo 80 model

-Academy Apollo 80 (UK)

 

They all shared the same exact cartridge design but had different labeling/artwork/branding

The game manuals shared mostly the same text too

The Euro-Australian clones seem to all come from the same factory in Hong Kong

 

then the Visicom Com-100

 

that was completely independent system.

Edited August 7, 2013 by TLD1985

[CatPix]

Yep. ITMC was importing most of their stuff from Soundic, a Taiwanese maker than happened to sell also under their own brand in Europe.

So maybe Soundic themselves made this MPT families and ITMC was the prime buyer.

 

Maybe it's not the case for the RCA Studio II but on other families, carts shapes and pinout number/size isn't compatible; I can show you the difference between a MPT 05 cart, an Interton VC 4000 and a Radofin cart... Even if they are the same exact system. Same goes for the MPT-03 which is the reason why I'm looking for an Advision Home Arcade which use the same port and pinout than the Emerson Arcadia.

 

Well if you have MPT-02 carts you surely know better

 

And yeah those screenshots looks more purple to me than pink; at least, it's way away from the bright pink from Pong chips and Atari 2600.

Edited August 7, 2013 by CatPix

[TLD1985]

-nvm-

Edited August 7, 2013 by TLD1985

[carlsson]

Ok, USB video capture is out of the question. Back to take photos of TV screens.

 

Edit: My camera (for obvious reasons) doesn't like the 50 Hz CRT. I should try the LCD, or even better I will connect the console to an old VCR and use its tuner to output composite video which hopefully can be fed into the capture device for best possible results.

Edited August 7, 2013 by carlsson

[TLD1985]

Ok, USB video capture is out of the question. Back to take photos of TV screens.

 

Edit: My camera (for obvious reasons) doesn't like the 50 Hz CRT. I should try the LCD, or even better I will connect the console to an old VCR and use its tuner to output composite video which hopefully can be fed into the capture device for best possible results.

 

I find that image odd..

 

I just recompiled the latest MESS to see what has changed colourwise. Everything looked fine.. but then when I tested Bowling/Blackjack then the colour changes to the 2nd background colour... MESS set it to red.

 

Now in the image you posted it is a red/green hybrid. In all previous images I've seen including your own it is Green.. I don't know if it's a mistake/coincidence or a more technical reason why it would output red but actually become green when displayed..

[CatPix]

Feels like those units have a very bad RF emitter...

 

I mean, in PAL, a very poor emission/reception may lead to color shifting much like in NTSC.

SECAM is free from such things. So hopefully they were made with a correct calibration of colors so it could be used as a reference... How ironic that could be.

Edited August 7, 2013 by CatPix

[carlsson]

Yes, the picture I posted is an example of very bad reception. Actually it flickers in all sorts of colours when connected to the USB stick, far worse than the older Bt type capture card did. On a TV, the image is solid though, in this case dark green.

 

The correct colours for built-in Bowling should be player 1: yellow/white on dark blue background, player 2: yellow/white on dark green background. The built-in Black Jack game has dark green background alltogether. Actually I doubt the console can produce other background colours than dark blue or dark green, then there are foreground colours to those. I will bring out a VCR some other night or in the weekend to see if I can capture nice pictures that way, otherwise I'll just take photos of the LCD. Actually I think it has composite output as well, but I'd have to install the USB software on a laptop to use it.

[carlsson]

Now I am only one misplaced SCART to composite adapter away from capturing images. I found my old VHS VCR in the basement and remembered output is through SCART. It works fine when connected to a TV, clearer colours than I've seen before. One of my 14" TV's has both composite video in and out, so I thought I could use it as a media converter to RCA plugs. However the composite out from the TV only seems to operate with TV channels and possibly the built-in DVD player. Any signal from SCART or composite in is not mirrored on composite out, it rather outputs the last TV channel instead. Well, well, as soon as I find or otherwise obtain an adapter, I'll be fine to go.

[CatPix]

SCART TV output is always from an analog channel. I never saw any TV outputting something from a composite input.

You can simply buy a MultiSCART like one of those :

 

 

very handy for plugging multiple systems, and the RCA plugs are input and also output from the plugs.

 

Avoid cheaper models with no button selection : they tend to make the picture darker, and most of them are composite only, not RGB.

Edited August 8, 2013 by CatPix