The images of the Studio II are categorized and show the console, controls and accessories. You will also find detailed close-ups of the ports and connections available on the Studio II.
Front of the Studio II box. Released in January 1977, the Studio II images were black & white resembling those of earlier Pong-style consoles.
Front of the Studio II box. The Studio II was a commercial failure at launch. The Fairchild Channel F came to market 5 months earlier in Aug. 1976 featuring hard-wired joysticks and cart-based games among other improvements. Of course both the Studio II and Fairchild Channel F were condemned to obsolescence when the Atari 2600 console was released in January of 1977. RCA's Studio II was discontinued in 1979.
Top of the Studio II box. The graphics of the Studio II were a nominal step up from the black & white pong systems that proliferated from Atari's Pong successes.
Side of the Studio II box.
Side of the Studio II box.
Back side of the Studio II box.
RCA Studio II Packaging
The Studio II was protected by a styrofoam container inside the box.
The Studio II inside the styrofoam container with the top removed. The FR box, power supply and cables were stored beneath.
RCA Studio II Video Game Console
The Studio II gaming console with built-in "Keypad" style controls. Detachable joysticks or controllers were not part of the Studio II mix even though it was progressive enough to have a cartridge slot. Two 10-button keypads were built into the console making 2-player gaming a close affair. Either you sat very close of passed the console back and forth.
The Studio II gaming console had some pretty slick curves to it and was quite thin. Despite this late-70s curvy sexiness, the console was only capable of simple beeping sounds with slight differences in tone and length. Fun - BEEP!
Left side of the Studio II gaming console.One might be able to say it had a hybrid-like game system. There were 5 built-in games in addition to a cartridge slot to further expand it's variety... in black & white. The decision to buy more games probably came quickly as the built in ones were pretty basic: Addition, Bowling, Doodle, Freeway and Patterns.
Right side of the Studio II gaming console. The console features 2KB ROM and 512 bytes RAM.
Back of the Studio II console showing the hard-wired connections cable and the metal spikes in the cartridge slot used to guide the cart into place.
Bottom of the Studio II console showing the product info and serial number. They also have a "warranty voiding" sticker in case one was curious to see what was inside the case.
Bottom of the Studio II console showing the serial number sticker. The copyright says 1976, although I don't believe the unit was commercially available until January 1977.
The center of the Studio II gaming console showing the cartridge slot, at the top and the power light and Clear button. The video display is similar to that of Sinclair's ZX80 and ZX81 displays in that it is achieved via hardware and software.
The inside of the Studio II gaming console from iFixIt.
RCA Studio II Controllers
The Studio II's built-in controllers featured a 10-key keypad with corresponding arrows for games requiring more of a "joystick" approach to movement. Player one was labeled as "A".
Player two was labeled as "B".
RCA Studio II Game Cartridge
Studio II game cartridges. My Boxed console didn't come with any carts and I haven't had time to track any down... but here's a pic of what they look like. Rumor has it that there is a possible prototype called, "Bingo" which may have been part of the TV Casino series.
RCA Studio II Ports & Connections
The Studio II's cartridge slot featured 2 metal posts that helped align the cart with the slot.
The Studio II's RF box was similar to that of the Atari 5200 in that the box was used to connect both the console and the D/C power. This RF box scheme, with both power and video, was not seen on home consoles until the release of the 5200 in 1982. The console was turned on and off via the TV / Studio II slider switch.
The Studio II's RF box showing the 3 connections - power, antenna and console.
The Studio II's RF box showing the 300 Ohm connection for a TV antenna.
The Studio II's RF box showing the RCA connection for the game console.
The Studio II's RF box showing all the connections.
