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

[Bill Loguidice]

I have old CRT TV's that have an external composite output, regardless of input (RF, composite, or S-VIDEO). Any time I need to use a SCART output, I usually convert it to component or HDMI using one of several boxes. I then use modern capture devices to capture the output. Same thing with RF, composite and S-Video. While its upscaled to component/HDMI, it's usually not an issue. For converting RF, I use an old VCR as a go-between to input RF and output composite for capture purposes.

[TLD1985]

One thing I am interested in finding from these snapshots is a nicer shade of the colours.

 

MESS has now set the colours as:

 

system

red = 255, 0, 0

blue = 0, 0, 255

violet = 255, 0, 255

green = 0, 255, 0

yellow = 255, 255, 0

cyan = 0, 255, 255

white = 255,255,255

black = 0,0,0

 

background

blue = 0, 0, 225

green = (I beleive MESS is wrong with this, as it has been set to red)

 

 

Essentially it's just the "max" colour for each...

 

This does make sense as the system wasn't really trying to make interesting colours.. If it wanted 'red' it just output 'red'.

 

Emulating it with these colours however doesn't look as nice. All the colours are much brighter.

 

I'm not sure how colours work on older systems. Would there be components that made colours darker?

 

I assume it's just a mixture of unpowerful components, old cabeling and tv sets that cause colours to look much darker.

 

 

 

Another useful thing to see is if the "blue" that is used in Doodle is the same as the background.. same for the "green"

Edited August 8, 2013 by TLD1985

[CatPix]

As it seems the signal is very weak, it's likely that the colors are darkened. As I mentioned somewhere else, on early B&W TVs, contrast was made by ajusting the composite signal (from the RF) so if those units have weak RF emitters, colors would appear darker than expected.

Edited August 8, 2013 by CatPix

[ranger_lennier]

I'm not really sure about the colors. I've never set up an MPT-02, since they're PAL. I'm not even certain mine still work. I was really more interested in dumping everything and using it in an emulator. But I'll see if I can figure anything else out from Curt and/or Guru.

 

Curt has also updated MESS for Visicom colors now.

 

http://mame.dorando.at/svn/?rev=24791

[carlsson]

This is the output from my Conic M-1200. I could only draw small squares before the Doodle program goes berzerk and starts repeating my patterns, but you should be able to distinguish the colours.

 

Please note that the background blue is NOT available as a foreground colour. I'm unsure if the dark green foreground and background colours are the same.

 

Here are some pictures from Bowling, Black Jack and Biorhythm. As pointed out by TLD1985 and indicated by the box art, the latter indeed uses pink, red and light blue. Please note that the light green colour on some TV:s looks more like yellow, I suppose the colour itself is something inbetween light yellow-green and actual yellow.

Edited August 10, 2013 by carlsson

[TLD1985]

Yes the "greenish yellow" is supposed to be yellow as it's the colour of "key 7" which is "Yellow" in the manual.

 

Thanks for those, has helped show that the "blue" is a different blue than the background colour. The green also appears to be a slightly different shade..

 

Using those I've created what I think is a more "realistic" pallette even if it's not an "accurate" one..

 

What do people think?

 

[carlsson]

It looks very much alike the output from my machine, and like how I'm used to seeing it on TV sets. As for lack of other measuring data, I suppose it is as good as anything.

[LS_Dracon]

Interesting.

It seems the colors can be changed every 8 pixels horizontal. Color display plus detachable controllers certainly would give an extra life for Studio 2.

[CatPix]

Well some clones have detachable, or at least, hardwired-but-mobile pads, and even some had a joystick/disc like thing used like a 8-directionnal pad.

 

And all clones have colors.

I suppose they failed to impress mostly because of poor advertising and the upcoming of more powerful systems. The released date may be important, too.

Maybe someone would buy a MPT-02 clone in 1978 when the only other choices are the Interton VC4000, the Videopac and color Pong systems (the VCS would have to wait 1980 to see an European release) but in 1980... It would be harder. And later on, it would be impossible.

Edited August 11, 2013 by CatPix

[sut]

Any chance of a Sumo video TLD ?

[TLD1985]

Any chance of a Sumo video TLD ?

 

Sure thing... although I had trouble working out the "moves" in the game.. I somehow managed to do a flip once... but couldn't repeat it.

[TLD1985]

Had another play around with "Sports Fan - Sumo Wrestling" and I just don't get it... I suppose the manual would have explained more but sadly no one here has the manual.

 

I managed to flip and throw the opponent and cannot understand the button combinations... doing the same thing can seemingly cause 3 different things to happen for no apparent reason.

[carlsson]

Someone who knows 1802 machine code and how the machine works will need to disassemble the game in order to reverse engineer some instructions how to play it.

[ranger_lennier]

The cart label has the basic instructions, which I had translated as follows:

 

"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."

 

Of course, I didn't completely figure it out playing around with it, either. But I didn't try very long since I didn't have a second player around.

[ranger_lennier]

Curt said this regarding MPT-02 colors:

 

"You can get the RGB values by taking screenshots of MESS and colorpicking them There are no hardcoded values used since they are calculated with the MAME resnet.c code.

 

I'll check the CDP1864 background selection logic."

[TLD1985]

Thanks for that.

 

I did see the translated cart instructions but... it is difficult to explain... unless you actually attempt to try it... XD

 

I may have posted this already but you can get some old photos of the other Visicom games on this page...

 

http://www.geocities.co.jp/SiliconValley/4130/

 

sadly it's an old inactive page and whoever owned it never left any contact details... and he didn't take a photo of everything....

[ranger_lennier]

Wow, that's quite a collection there. I guess one of the films is for Sumo Wrestling, but not one with a close-up, so I'm not sure if anyone would even be able to read it.

[ranger_lennier]

Curt's updated the MPT-02 colors in MESS:

 

http://mame.dorando.at/svn/?rev=24861

 

If anyone tries this out, let us know if it looks like what you're expecting.

[TLD1985]

Wow, that's quite a collection there. I guess one of the films is for Sumo Wrestling, but not one with a close-up, so I'm not sure if anyone would even be able to read it.

 

As far as I can tell the "Instruction films" have the same text that appears on the back of the cartridges. Essentially the games had 3 sets of instructions... A manual, a piece of film and the carts. The film was designed so you could see the instructions as you were playing the game.

 

 

Curt's updated the MPT-02 colors in MESS:

 

http://mame.dorando.at/svn/?rev=24861

 

If anyone tries this out, let us know if it looks like what you're expecting.

 

I'll try to compile it at some point.

[ranger_lennier]

OK, it does look like that's what the instruction films are for.

 

ianoid thought he had the manual for CAS-130, so hopefully we'll get a scan when he's able to get them out of storage in a few months.

[Tempest]

Me: I mentioned the urban legend of the Bingo game for the US Studio II...

I just saw this after re-reading the original post. I can say with 100% confidence that Bingo is NOT an urban legend. It exists, I saw it. Hell I even touched it and looked through the contents (never played it though). It was in a large box like the TV Schoolhouse I game and was blue because it was part of the TV Gambling Series like Blackjack. Inside was the cart, manual, bingo cards, and bingo chips. This was at Philly Classic 3 and the guy had a whole RCA display that he said he got from a little mom and pop store years earlier. I really wish I had taken pictures, but at the time I didn't know it was an ultra rare possibly one of a kind item as I was only marginally into Studio II stuff. I remember people offering him money for his setup but he wasn't interested.

 

I know I wasn't the only person who saw it, he had all his stuff out on display both days and I remember someone else there looking at the Bingo box and commenting that they had never seen it either. I don't know if he ever had it up and running though, if he did I didn't see it. So unless someone has planted an EXTREMELY detailed memory in my brain, the game does exist.

[+stupus]

I just saw this after re-reading the original post. I can say with 100% confidence that Bingo is NOT an urban legend. It exists, I saw it. Hell I even touched it and looked through the contents (never played it though). It was in a large box like the TV Schoolhouse I game and was blue because it was part of the TV Gambling Series like Blackjack. Inside was the cart, manual, bingo cards, and bingo chips. This was at Philly Classic 3 and the guy had a whole RCA display that he said he got from a little mom and pop store years earlier. I really wish I had taken pictures, but at the time I didn't know it was an ultra rare possibly one of a kind item as I was only marginally into Studio II stuff. I remember people offering him money for his setup but he wasn't interested.

 

I know I wasn't the only person who saw it, he had all his stuff out on display both days and I remember someone else there looking at the Bingo box and commenting that they had never seen it either. I don't know if he ever had it up and running though, if he did I didn't see it. So unless someone has planted an EXTREMELY detailed memory in my brain, the game does exist.

Thanks for posting this tempest. I think most people don't believe this game does exist in the rca s2 set. I know a few people had seen a copy at a show, I wonder if they all are this same instance? All the info I have ever been able to research in the past years seems to jive exactly with what you saw at that show. I had posted a couple weeks ago the info I knew about the game and being certain that it does exist:

 

Bingo was released in the us and came in a large box similar to school house 1. It came with 20 bingo cards and 150 marker chips.

Its numbers/title should be - 18V601 TV Casino II: Bingo

It is incredibly rare, and was the last game made for the us rca studio II. Copies are known to exist but with how incredibly rare they are I wonder if they are unreleased copies or from only a handful that hit stores at the consoles end and almost no one bought them and even less saved them.

I don't see a lot of people wanting to buy a bingo game anyway, what really are the benefits to adding a video system to the game if you still need marker chips and game sheets too?

I have never heard or seen anything about the more common mpt-02 line having the accessories for the bingo game. The mpt-02 manual mentions using a bingo card but does not specify if they are included or not and does not mention markers at all-so that's a mystery....

 

Now if the game did make full production or not in the usa is still to be determined and may never be. I could easily see it going either way that only a handful of full production samples got made and sent out to dealers etc. But I could also see the game actually having a release between it being the last game, right as the system (that wasn't big to begin with) totally died, and being a game that would certainly not be popular with video gamers...its quite possible only a handful got out to stores and they just did not sell at all before stores just stopped carrying the whole system altogether.

[Tempest]

Thanks for posting this tempest. I think most people don't believe this game does exist in the rca s2 set. I know a few people had seen a copy at a show, I wonder if they all are this same instance? All the info I have ever been able to research in the past years seems to jive exactly with what you saw at that show. I had posted a couple weeks ago the info I knew about the game and being certain that it does exist:

 

 

 

Now if the game did make full production or not in the usa is still to be determined and may never be. I could easily see it going either way that only a handful of full production samples got made and sent out to dealers etc. But I could also see the game actually having a release between it being the last game, right as the system (that wasn't big to begin with) totally died, and being a game that would certainly not be popular with video gamers...its quite possible only a handful got out to stores and they just did not sell at all before stores just stopped carrying the whole system altogether.

I didn't see you had commented on it. How did you get your info like the part number and number of cards?

[+stupus]

There is a book I bought about 10 years ago by author/collector David Ellis that had the info about the amount of cards and chips and box size.

Also I have talked to different people and collectors over the years to try and find more info about it. And people have confirmed its existence and larger box. Part # is not 100% verified but this is what I had found from researching but cant say now exactly from where.

I know the part number wasn't in Ellis book though and sadly no pics were in it either. I know lots of pics though in the book were from Cassidy Nolen's collection, no idea if he possibly has a copy maybe? Ellis obviously got the info from a good source/collector/owner. I would love to see pics of it all someday. If a multicart is still a possibility a bingo repro would also be an awesome thing if all the components could be tracked down to repro sometime

[Tempest]

I'd really like to know who the guy with the Studio II display at PC3 was. I can't believe no one knows who he was. The only thing I remember is that he was a nice guy which really doesn't narrow it down any.