+stupus Posted June 18, 2018 Share Posted June 18, 2018 I am in love with that flipbook. Would be great if he would scan it all before he sells it, or good pics. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blazing Lazers Posted June 18, 2018 Author Share Posted June 18, 2018 The flipbook seems to be the same one from the following Galveston ad http://atariage.com/forums/topic/109468-in-depth-look-rca-studio-ii-aka-the-real-worst-console-ever/page-2?do=findComment&comment=1325542 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tempest Posted June 18, 2018 Share Posted June 18, 2018 Hey it's the copy of Bingo I saw at PC 3. Nice to see it surface finally. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sut Posted June 19, 2018 Share Posted June 19, 2018 That is an awesome collection he is selling. If I lived in America and I was extremely rich I would buy it lol. Thats the first time Ive seen the US box for Bingo. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hwlngmad Posted June 19, 2018 Share Posted June 19, 2018 A great collection for sure, but I am not sold on it being $5800. Seems like a bit too much chronic has been smoked. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tempest Posted June 19, 2018 Share Posted June 19, 2018 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. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blazing Lazers Posted June 19, 2018 Author Share Posted June 19, 2018 Anyone else notice the less common system box art? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tempest Posted June 19, 2018 Share Posted June 19, 2018 Anyone else notice the less common system box art? Nope. Care to enlighten us? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BassGuitari Posted June 19, 2018 Share Posted June 19, 2018 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! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
8_is_enuff Posted June 19, 2018 Share Posted June 19, 2018 .... 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. 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+stupus Posted June 19, 2018 Share Posted June 19, 2018 (edited) 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. These are my 2 cib units. Edited June 19, 2018 by stupus 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tempest Posted June 19, 2018 Share Posted June 19, 2018 Maybe they changed it as the people on the top 1 are bordering on looking special needs. I was kind of thinking the same thing. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BassGuitari Posted June 19, 2018 Share Posted June 19, 2018 Maybe they changed it as the people on the top 1 are bordering on looking special needs. Interesting that RCA kept that same design in line-drawing form (sans kid) on several of the cartridge boxes: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blazing Lazers Posted June 19, 2018 Author Share Posted June 19, 2018 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? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blazing Lazers Posted June 19, 2018 Author Share Posted June 19, 2018 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. 20180619_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. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bojay1997 Posted June 19, 2018 Share Posted June 19, 2018 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. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tempest Posted June 19, 2018 Share Posted June 19, 2018 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. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blazing Lazers Posted June 19, 2018 Author Share Posted June 19, 2018 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. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gamerMac Posted June 19, 2018 Share Posted June 19, 2018 (edited) 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 June 19, 2018 by gamerMac 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
8_is_enuff Posted June 20, 2018 Share Posted June 20, 2018 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. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blazing Lazers Posted June 20, 2018 Author Share Posted June 20, 2018 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 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blazing Lazers Posted June 20, 2018 Author Share Posted June 20, 2018 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. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
8_is_enuff Posted June 20, 2018 Share Posted June 20, 2018 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. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blazing Lazers Posted June 20, 2018 Author Share Posted June 20, 2018 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. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
8_is_enuff Posted June 20, 2018 Share Posted June 20, 2018 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 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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