I love a good yard sale and was pretty excited to find this RCA Studio II in it's box with the manual. This is one of the first Generation 2 consoles - it came out just prior to the Atari 2600 and had five built-in games as well as a cartridge slot - that didn't see too many game releases. The controllers are built into the unit.
Studio II - Technical Specifications
The RCA Studio II is a video game console made by RCA that debuted in January 1977. The graphics of Studio II games were black and white and resembled those of earlier Pong consoles and their clones. The Studio II also did not have joysticks or similar game controllers but instead used two ten button keypads that were built into the console itself. This made two player games difficult because the players would be forced to hold the console and sit extremely close. The console was capable of making simple beep sounds with slight variations in tone and length.
One distinct feature of the Studio II was its five built-in games. Another was its use of a switchbox that relayed both the modulated RF signal of the console's video to the television set while powering the console with DC power. This type of switchbox would not be seen again until the Atari 5200.
The Studio II was not a successful product; the previously released Fairchild Channel F made it obsolete at launch and it suffered a final decisive blow when the superior (to both) Atari 2600 console was released only 10 months later. It was discontinued in 1979.
The name "Studio II" is a reference to RCA's then-famous recording studios. The RCA Studio II was named as to represent a second studio in which artists could create productions for RCA
System specs
RCA 1802 microprocessor, 1.78 MHz
2 KB ROM (includes the five built-in games)
512 bytes RAM
RCA CDP 1861 "Pixie" video chip, 64x32, monochrome graphics
There is also 1 known game that is a possible prototype called: 'Bingo' which was possibly part of the 'TV Casino' series. Many of the Studio II clones had the same games but they also had unique titles not released in the USA:
M1200-05|Star Wars (Sheen M1200)
M1200-07|Pinball (Sheen M1200) or Flipper (German Clone)
List of carts released on the: MPT-02 clones(France/Australia)
MG-200 Grand Pack (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 Biorythm
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
List of carts released on the: Visicom COM-100 clone(Japan)