RCA · 1977–1978 · 53,000–64,000
A black-and-white cartridge console with keypads built into the case instead of joysticks, launched in January 1977 — and made obsolete within the year by the Fairchild Channel F and the Atari VCS.
RCA released the Studio II in January 1977 at $149. Built around RCA's own 1802 microprocessor running at 1.78 MHz, it produced monochrome graphics at a resolution of 64 by 32 — black and white only, at a time when colour was becoming the expectation. Instead of joysticks or paddles, it had two ten-button keypads built directly into the top of the console, so players controlled games by pressing numbered keys. The machine came with five built-in games: Addition, Bowling, Doodle, Freeway and Patterns. Further games were sold on cartridges, and some were written by Joyce Weisbecker, the daughter of the system's designer Joseph Weisbecker, who became the first woman known to have developed a commercial video game. The Studio II's timing could hardly have been worse. The Fairchild Channel F, with colour graphics and proper controllers, was already on sale, and the Atari VCS arrived ten months later with hardware superior to both. RCA sold somewhere between 53,000 and 64,000 units between February 1977 and January 1978, and after poor Christmas sales in 1977 it discontinued the system in 1978. Licensed versions such as the Toshiba Visicom COM-100 in Japan and the Hanimex MPT-02 in France and Australia carried it on elsewhere for a time.