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


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Incredible collection, to be sure, but the seller can f@ right off for $5,800.

 

That book is definitely interesting. Any kind of paperwork or ads or other materials regarding the Studio II is unusual. I've never ever heard of this book!

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.... the seller can f@ right off for $5,800.

 

I already have many times, can I get credit for time served? :-)

 

 

I'm stopping by because I was contacted on ebay by a member here (I don't know your handle--please shoot me a pm) shortly after I listed this auction. He immediately recognized my collection from a Philly Classic a long time ago.

Honestly, I had a blast at both Philly Classics that I attended, but I didn't realize that my Studio II stuff interested anyone too much. Not that it mattered to me at the time, because I was enjoying everyone else’s collections. I left my rented table a lot with the demo cart running.

 

My gaming time wound down not long after the 2001 show because we had a baby with colic (I took the evening shift with her). That's when we moved too--and then had another baby. Long story short, most of my gaming collection pretty much stayed in moving boxes for about 17 years.

 

I recently decided to go through the boxes and downsize my collection—all my systems.

 

Thanks for reading my too long post.

 

 

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Nope. Care to enlighten us? :)

There are 2 box versions I know of.

The top 1 is more rare, I want to guess about 5 to 1 maybe....maybe more.

I would guess it's the original release box since the art matches the cart boxes.

Maybe they changed it as the people on the top 1 are bordering on looking special needs.

It's the 1 I prefer though ;)

As far as I can tell everything else is on the boxes is the same besides that main art piece.

 

post-26050-0-68321100-1529430150_thumb.jpg

 

These are my 2 cib units.

Edited by stupus
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I already have many times, can I get credit for time served? :-)

 

 

I'm stopping by because I was contacted on ebay by a member here (I don't know your handle--please shoot me a pm) shortly after I listed this auction. He immediately recognized my collection from a Philly Classic a long time ago.

Honestly, I had a blast at both Philly Classics that I attended, but I didn't realize that my Studio II stuff interested anyone too much. Not that it mattered to me at the time, because I was enjoying everyone else’s collections. I left my rented table a lot with the demo cart running.

 

My gaming time wound down not long after the 2001 show because we had a baby with colic (I took the evening shift with her). That's when we moved too--and then had another baby. Long story short, most of my gaming collection pretty much stayed in moving boxes for about 17 years.

 

I recently decided to go through the boxes and downsize my collection—all my systems.

 

Thanks for reading my too long post.

 

 

You made it here- yes!!! :)

 

A few of us were looking for you a while back based on your old postings and trying to get in touch with you, as you had the only known copies of Bingo and the Demo at the time. Several of us even met you at the Philly Classic shows. Thank you so much for joining us and reconnecting at long last!

 

I do have a ton of questions, and a few requests:

 

can you take more pictures of that flipbook, and/or scans? We'd love to see the whole thing, for the sake of preservation.

 

Do you have a manual for your copy of Bingo?

 

Is the red box divider for your copy of Bingo original to it, or has it been with the copy since at least when you found it back in 2000 at the Circle 40 Flea Market? I know this seems like the most trivial thing to ask about but it does matches the color-coded divider from the only confirmed big-box release, TV Schoolhouse 1. The current theory is that Bingo never got beyond a few sales samples, and the only other known copy has a Casino Series blue divider. There may be some significance to it.

 

Did the person/persons you bought the Bingo copy and some of your other games from say anything at all about it? That they used to work for RCA, perhaps? How old were they?

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There are 2 box versions I know of.

The top 1 is more rare, I want to guess about 5 to 1 maybe....maybe more.

I would guess it's the original release box since the art matches the cart boxes.

Maybe they changed it as the people on the top 1 are bordering on looking special needs.

It's the 1 I prefer though ;)

As far as I can tell everything else is on the boxes is the same besides that main art piece.

 

attachicon.gif20180619_123856.jpg

 

These are my 2 cib units.

I can confirm this, and as it turns out I have both box versions. I ought to be shot for not even realizing it until just now. The box and system serials for the weirder version both match on my copy: 19,826. It also has really early paperwork and forms with it. It must be the first version, one that was changed fairly early on. Who knows just how rare it is, but it is entirely possible that plenty have come up for sale over the years and none of us realized the minor difference until now.

 

There's also two different system manuals with the same artwork difference. Both of my copies have the much more common 50's-looking couple, though. The only time I've seen the rarer bored couple (used on the early game boxes, too) manual version was on one of my visits to the Hagley Library. I've attached an image to verify this.

post-33467-0-45638500-1529436519_thumb.jpg

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Yeah I think the BIN is a bit too high. I would have just done a regular auction and see where it went. My gut says the high 2K range.

I generally agree, except that there was that Ebay BIN for just Bingo a couple of years ago where it was supposedly sold for over $3,500. It would be interesting to see what this lot would hit in an open auction as you have Bingo, the demo cart and the flip book which are all very unusual pieces.

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I generally agree, except that there was that Ebay BIN for just Bingo a couple of years ago where it was supposedly sold for over $3,500. It would be interesting to see what this lot would hit in an open auction as you have Bingo, the demo cart and the flip book which are all very unusual pieces.

True except at the time it was the only Bingo known to exist. Now there's at least two.

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This and the 2016 Ebay copy originally owned by RCA Finance exec Joseph Santone are still the only two US Bingo copies ever known. And this one was presumed lost until yesterday. All of the other rumored copies can be traced back to this one that was shown at PC2K1. If any more still exist they are very few in number, or there's an entire warehouse crate full of them. I doubt that though- as this game doesn't even say Studio II anywhere on it, and is not among those that were mass produced at the Swannanoa factory where all the others were manufactured en masse. We know that it and the other "foreign exclusives" were created in the US and intended for sale for the S2 and S3, but we also know that they never actually seem to have been sold or even mass produced. The two surviving copies are almost certainly preliminary sales samples. I can't help but be reminded of the debate from the Digital Press thread in which swlovinist correctly noted the difference between the existence of a sample copy or two and proof of an actual retail release.

 

https://forum.digitpress.com/forum/showthread.php?113201-Can-we-please-remove-bingo-from-the-quot-offical-release-quot-RCA-Studio-II-library

 

Another possible Bingo copy could have been among those found by Tom Keiser among the trashed belongings of an RCA employee and subsequently lost to Hurricane Sandy:

http://www.fruitlesspursuits.com/2012/02/video-game-system-i-trashpicked-from.html

 

 

As for known Demonstration carts, there's 4, three of which are complete. This copy from PC2K1, the one that turned up in DeWitt, Arkansas from a former RCA dealer estate sale and sold for an amazingly low $29 BIN on Ebay in a lot, and another seen in a certain YouTube video whose owner is not willing to part with it (and yes, I asked). The 4th, loose copy is the one from Ebay that had been owned for 40 years by the same family that obtained it from a closing store in Cavalier, North Dakota. A 5th, lost copy was owned by Tom Keiser, and a photograph exists of a 6th copy that has not been known for over 20 years. An image of several RCA executives showing off the system also shows that a 7th copy existed decades ago. Many more must have existed back in the day, and likely still do, given how several have turned up in very remote and obscure parts of the US.

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I can confirm this, and as it turns out I have both box versions. I ought to be shot for not even realizing it until just now. The box and system serials for the weirder version both match on my copy: 19,826. It also has really early paperwork and forms with it. It must be the first version, one that was changed fairly early on. Who knows just how rare it is, but it is entirely possible that plenty have come up for sale over the years and none of us realized the minor difference until now.

 

There's also two different system manuals with the same artwork difference. Both of my copies have the much more common 50's-looking couple, though. The only time I've seen the rarer bored couple (used on the early game boxes, too) manual version was on one of my visits to the Hagley Library. I've attached an image to verify this.

I asked the seller (8_is_enuff) for the serial #, it is #29324. And it does match console #.

My earliest box serial #81278, it has the newer art work.(TV facing foward)

 

If anyone has box serial #'s between these two, post them and which art work they have and we can get a good idea of when the box art switch was made.

Edited by gamerMac
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A few of us were looking for you a while back based on your old postings and trying to get in touch with you, as you had the only known copies of Bingo and the Demo at the time. Several of us even met you at the Philly Classic shows. Thank you so much for joining us and reconnecting at long last!

 

I do have a ton of questions, and a few requests:

 

can you take more pictures of that flipbook, and/or scans? We'd love to see the whole thing, for the sake of preservation.

 

Do you have a manual for your copy of Bingo?

 

 

I'd be happy to share pictures or scans of the flip book. I'll start with pictures because that's easiest for me.

 

I have a photocopy of a Bingo manual that looks about a thousand years old, two actually.

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I asked the seller (8_is_enuff) for the serial #, it is #29324. And it does match console #.

My earliest box serial #81278, it has the newer art work.(TV facing foward)

 

If anyone has box serial #'s between these two, post them and which art work they have and we can get a good idea of when the box art switch was made.

 

I was thinking the same thing, too. It's a good idea. And sure enough, a quick check of recent sales on Ebay had a system box with the earlier version! I feel like an idiot for being oblivious to this other box art all along.

 

So far we know the switch happened between 29324 and before 58181 :)

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I'd be happy to share pictures or scans of the flip book. I'll start with pictures because that's easiest for me.

 

I have a photocopy of a Bingo manual that looks about a thousand years old, two actually.

How and where did you obtain a photocopy of a Bingo manual- unless it's from your own copy? It can't have been from the 2016 copy. If not from yours, there'd either have to be a third Bingo copy that somebody copied the manual from, or you have another copy of the same S3(!) Bingo manual that was among those found typed up at the Hagley. Could we also see the photocopy? The Hagley Studio 3 Bingo manual had some differences from the 2016 Santone copy.

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How and where did you obtain a photocopy of a Bingo manual- unless it's from your own copy? It can't have been from the 2016 copy. If not from yours, there'd either have to be a third Bingo copy that somebody copied the manual from, or you have another copy of the same S3(!) Bingo manual that was among those found typed up at the Hagley. Could we also see the photocopy? The Hagley Studio 3 Bingo manual had some differences from the 2016 Santone copy.

 

They were in the same box at the flea market, as were photocopies of manuals for other games. Oddly enough, two copies of most. And they don't fit inside the game boxes. But they are definitely RCA font and format.

 

I've almost thrown them away by mistake a couple of times.

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They were in the same box at the flea market, as were photocopies of manuals for other games. Oddly enough, two copies of most. And they don't fit inside the game boxes. But they are definitely RCA font and format.

 

I've almost thrown them away by mistake a couple of times.

Do any of them mention Studio III, or Pinball, Star Wars, or Concentration/Match?

 

Really eagerly awaiting these. It's a very good thing that you kept them.

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Do any of them mention Studio III, or Pinball, Star Wars, or Concentration/Match?

 

Really eagerly awaiting these. It's a very good thing that you kept them.

 

Besides bingo, nothing out of the ordinary I'm afraid: Bingo x 2, Squash / Tennis x 2, Math Fun x 2, Space War x 2, Blackjack x 2, Baseball x 2, Fun with Numbers, Gunfighter/Moonship Battle

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