The RCA Studio II is a home video game console created by RCA and released in January 1977. The games on the Studio II had black-and-white graphics that looked similar to those from earlier Pong consoles and their copies. The console did not include joysticks or other game controllers. Instead, it used two ten-button keypads that were part of the console itself. The Studio II could produce basic beep sounds with different tones and lengths. The console came with five games already included.

The Studio II was not a successful product. A previously released console called the Fairchild Channel F made the Studio II outdated when it was first released. Later, the Atari 2600, which was better than both the Fairchild Channel F and the Studio II, was released ten months after the Studio II. After weak sales during the 1977 Christmas season, RCA stopped making and selling the Studio II.

Development

In the late 1960s, Joseph Weisbecker, an engineer at RCA, started building his own home computer. He also encouraged RCA to sell small computers. In January 1977, RCA released the Studio II video game console, which used Weisbecker’s COSMAC 1802 CPU.

Joyce Weisbecker, Joseph’s daughter, learned to program her father’s homemade computer as a child. After finishing high school in 1976, she used her knowledge of the computer’s design to create two games for the Studio II: School House I and Speedway/Tag. She became the first woman to develop a commercial video game.

Market loss

The Studio II sold very few units. An internal sales report from RCA estimated that between 53,000 and 64,000 units of the console were sold from February 15, 1977, to January 31, 1978. The console was released after the Fairchild Channel F, which was considered a better product, and the highly successful Atari 2600, which also came out in 1977. RCA stopped selling the Studio II in February 1978 because of weak sales during the Christmas season. The company did not share details about financial losses but laid off 120 workers at its North Carolina factory, which made the system. Some experts said the Studio II’s games were in black and white, making them less competitive than systems that offered color. In 1978, Radio Shack bought the remaining stock of the Studio II and sold each unit for $59.95. This price included the console, the Blackjack game cartridge, the Tennis/Squash game cartridge, and one additional game cartridge chosen randomly from the inventory Radio Shack acquired.

Technical specifications

• RCA 1802 computer chip, operating at 1.78 megahertz
• 2 kilobytes of read-only memory (ROM), which includes five built-in games
• 512 bytes of random access memory (RAM)
• RCA CDP1861 "Pixie" video chip, capable of displaying 64 pixels wide by 32 pixels tall, with black-and-white graphics

List of games

• Addition
• Bowling
• Doodle
• Freeway
• Patterns

• 18V400|TV Arcade I: Space War
• 18V401|TV Arcade II: Fun with Numbers
• 18V402|TV Arcade III: Tennis/Squash
• 18V403|TV Arcade IV: Baseball
• 18V404|TV Arcade Series: Speedway/Tag
• 18V405|TV Arcade Series: Gunfighter/Moonship Battle
• 18V500|TV School House I
• 18V501|TV School House II: Math Fun
• 18V600|TV Casino I: Blackjack
• 18V601|TV Casino Series: TV Bingo (very limited release; only 3 copies are known to exist as of January 7, 2018)
• 18V700|TV Mystic Series: Biorhythm

• MG-200 Grand Pack (Doodle, Patterns, Blackjack, and Bowling)
• MG-201 Bingo
• MG-202 Concentration Match
• MG-203 Star Wars
• MG-204 Math Fun (School House II)
• MG-205 Pinball
• MG-206 Biorhythm
• MG-207 Tennis/Squash
• MG-208 Fun with Numbers
• MG-209 Computer Quiz (School House I)
• MG-210 Baseball
• MG-211 Speedway/Tag
• MG-212 Spacewar Intercept
• MG-213 Gun Fight/Moon Ship
• MG-214 {Rumored} Racer

• CAS-110 Arithmetic drill (Math Fun & Fun with Numbers)
• CAS-130 Sports fan (Baseball & Sumo Wrestling)
• CAS-140 Gambler I (Blackjack)
• CAS-141 Gambler II (Slot Machine and Dice)
• CAS-160 Space Command (Space War)
• CAS-190 Inspiration (Bagua, Blood typing and Astrology)

• M1200-05 Star Wars (Sheen M1200)
• M1200-07 Pinball (Sheen M1200) or Flipper (German Clone)

Legacy

The Studio II was succeeded by the Studio III. The Studio III can show color images and uses a microprocessor called the RCA CDP-1802. A Studio IV was planned but never made.