RCA Studio II facts for kids
The RCA Studio II was one of the first home video game consoles ever made. It was released in January 1977 by a company called RCA. This console was quite simple, showing games only in black and white, much like the very early Pong games.
Contents
Games You Could Play
The RCA Studio II came with some games already inside it. You could also buy extra games on special cartridges.
Built-in Games
The console had 5 games built right into its memory. This meant you could play them as soon as you turned on the console, without needing any game cartridges. These games were:
- Addition
- Bowling
- Doodle
- Freeway
- Patterns
Cartridge Games
Besides the built-in games, you could buy more games on cartridges. These were like small plastic cards that you plugged into the console. Here are some of the games released on cartridges:
- 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 (This game is very rare today!)
- 18V700|TV Mystic Series: Biorhythm
How It Worked
The RCA Studio II had special parts inside that made the games work. These parts were quite basic compared to today's consoles.
- CPU: This is like the console's brain. The RCA Studio II used an RCA 1802 chip, which ran at 1.78 MHz. This is much slower than modern computers.
- ROM: This is where the built-in games and basic instructions were stored. It had 2 kilobytes of ROM, which is a tiny amount of memory.
- RAM: This is temporary memory the console used while playing games. It had only 512 bytes of RAM.
- GPU: This special chip, called the RCA CDP1861 "Pixie," was in charge of creating the images on your TV screen.
- Resolution: The games were shown with a resolution of 64 by 32 pixels. This means the picture was made up of a very small grid of dots, making the graphics look blocky.
- Colors: The console could only show games in black and white.
What Came Next
The RCA Studio II was followed by a console called the RCA Studio III. This newer console was an improvement because it could display games in color! It also used the same type of main processor, the RCA CDP-1802.
Images for kids
-
Like the Atari 5200, the RCA Studio II used one cable to carry both video and power for the console.
See also
In Spanish: RCA Studio II para niños
