Looking up the VIP computer leads to the CHIP-8 language used to code for it. And that rabbit hole goes deep. Who knew that they were still making CHIP-8 games? And a theoretical '77 console that realistically would have been the best demonstration of its potential? There are seven OctoJam competitions dedicated to this alternate universe insanity.
Joyce told me her dad was really interested in making a modular, easy to code language, the effort for which eventually led to CHIP8. He was really happy to see it catch on and outlive the computer it debuted on.
A great watch - the Studio II (and III) is certainly a machine I'm not completely familiar with, and seeing the library is real interesting to watch. I'm not sure I'd ever go chase one down for real, but having coverage as thorough as this is incredibly important :D
@@AtariArchive I own two Studio II's, and have since around 2000, and I assert here and now, as always (but not publicly), that the Studio II's sound is NOT "like a series of farts" but more like a two-tone car horn being run over by a bus. ;-)
I have two of them, and they really do sound like that in real life, LOL. It seems to only make two kinds of beeps: a short "BEEP!" and a longer, almost sickly-sounding "BEEEeeeep!", both from the console's internal speaker. It's a quirky little machine to be sure, and a lot of fun as a retro-history experience, even if its games look like some kind of "calculator games" masquerading as a living-room console. 😛 Even the simplest of release-year Atari VCS games blow it out of the water, even though it was released just a few months later (but since the Studio II has a planning lineage that goes back a few years before release, and micro tech was moving at lightspeed then, it's understandable), but considering how many cool tricks VCS developers learned over the following years, leading to the vastly more elaborate titles released into the beginning of the 90's, I can imagine an alternate universe where the Studio III, with its color output (such a big step up in presentation alone) and superior sound (despite identical CPU) might have ended up having some impressive games made for it a few years down the road.
Like what I assume to be many others, I had a poor opinion of the Studio II. But this video series puts it into context and genuinely meets the system at it's level, and shows that it's actually quite interesting!
Yeah! RCA! Thanks to you, I kind of want one of these things. Keep up the good work. You’re one of the select few channels I have post notifications on for.
That Star Wars game actually looks pretty fun despite its simplicity. Definitely a clever way to create a compelling action game on such limited hardware.
A fair treatment of the subject, but still a little from the wrong perspective. As lame as these games may appear now, they actually were a step forward when they were made. You mentioned RCA's VIP computers, but there was also its inofficial brother, the Elf. An Elf was usually built completely from scratch or from a kit, which often featured some improvements and expansions over the original design. Despite now two all these DIY computers being exactly alike, they shared enough similarities that enabled you to adapt VIP software, including CHIP 8. CHIP 8 was less a simple programming language and more a simple virtual machine that worked in a limited 4k memory space, runtime code, screen memory and virtual code all included. And, as a curiosity, CHIP 8 lives on to this day. It has been emulated on all kinds of devices and used to program simple games. These may be worth a look for a glimpse of what the Studio II could have been like with the same simple means. Back in the day on the ElF, CHIP 8 was only an introduction to programming. My CHIP 8 programs slowly were enhanced by native subroutines, slowly bypassing some of CHIP 8's restrictions. On the hardware side, there are two remarkable things: The CPU (the CDP1802) and the graphics chip (the CDP1861). The processor was not very much like anything Intel would have invented. It was more like a RISC processor before that term was even officially invented. Love it or hate it, but at that time many people already sneered at it for not being at least inspired by Intel. One of its features was its way to handle DMA. The 1802 never gave up control of its bus, just because someone asked politely. Instead, it did all the memory addressing itself and signaled the requesting device when to look at the data lines to get the requested data. Why is that important? Because it allowed you have graphics with having to throw a lot of expensive additional hardware at the problem or resorting to such complicated programming concepts like 'racing the beam', a concept which should be all too familiar to fans of the old Atari VCS. You only had to add that relatively cheap CDP1861 to your Elf And had graphics! At a time when DIY needed graphics hardware could easily cost more than the entire rest of the computer! In 1976 you could build an Elf with graphics for as little as 100$. And that without having to 'race the beam' . Interrupts and that DMA feature took care of that. Memories from a time when you had to build your computer yourself or probably would have none at all. But by 1978 that already was becoming a thing of thing of the past. The Studio was another case of too little, too late. RCA's engineers did their best to think out of the usual boxes, but the managers were relatively clueless what to do with it. But my old Elf still lives. A little old and worn after more than 40 years, but it still works. Elves are immortal. 🙂
Looking up the VIP computer leads to the CHIP-8 language used to code for it.
And that rabbit hole goes deep.
Who knew that they were still making CHIP-8 games? And a theoretical '77 console that realistically would have been the best demonstration of its potential? There are seven OctoJam competitions dedicated to this alternate universe insanity.
Joyce told me her dad was really interested in making a modular, easy to code language, the effort for which eventually led to CHIP8. He was really happy to see it catch on and outlive the computer it debuted on.
Incredibly comprehensive look a games pretty much no one else has covered. Excellent work.
A great watch - the Studio II (and III) is certainly a machine I'm not completely familiar with, and seeing the library is real interesting to watch. I'm not sure I'd ever go chase one down for real, but having coverage as thorough as this is incredibly important :D
@14:40 OH SHIT THAT AIR HORN BREAK IS DOPE
On a Studio III, it's playing that kid's song Bingo! On the Studio II... well, it sounds like a series of farts.
@@AtariArchive ina way I wouldn't have it any other way. Great series! It has me looking at the library a lot differently. Very chill.
@@AtariArchive I own two Studio II's, and have since around 2000, and I assert here and now, as always (but not publicly), that the Studio II's sound is NOT "like a series of farts" but more like a two-tone car horn being run over by a bus. ;-)
Interesting change of pace. Excellent job. :)
heeeey, I had Bio-Rhythms for the Mattel Aquarius!
Personally I love how all it's sound effects seem to come from a rubber chicken.
I have two of them, and they really do sound like that in real life, LOL. It seems to only make two kinds of beeps: a short "BEEP!" and a longer, almost sickly-sounding "BEEEeeeep!", both from the console's internal speaker. It's a quirky little machine to be sure, and a lot of fun as a retro-history experience, even if its games look like some kind of "calculator games" masquerading as a living-room console. 😛 Even the simplest of release-year Atari VCS games blow it out of the water, even though it was released just a few months later (but since the Studio II has a planning lineage that goes back a few years before release, and micro tech was moving at lightspeed then, it's understandable), but considering how many cool tricks VCS developers learned over the following years, leading to the vastly more elaborate titles released into the beginning of the 90's, I can imagine an alternate universe where the Studio III, with its color output (such a big step up in presentation alone) and superior sound (despite identical CPU) might have ended up having some impressive games made for it a few years down the road.
Like what I assume to be many others, I had a poor opinion of the Studio II. But this video series puts it into context and genuinely meets the system at it's level, and shows that it's actually quite interesting!
Keep it up! This is great stuff. I never really experienced the Studio II so more info out there is always welcomed.
I had never heard of this machine until I saw it referenced in the Atari videos. Very interesting overview. Thanks.
Same here.
Yeah! RCA! Thanks to you, I kind of want one of these things. Keep up the good work. You’re one of the select few channels I have post notifications on for.
That Star Wars game actually looks pretty fun despite its simplicity. Definitely a clever way to create a compelling action game on such limited hardware.
A fair treatment of the subject, but still a little from the wrong perspective. As lame as these games may appear now, they actually were a step forward when they were made. You mentioned RCA's VIP computers, but there was also its inofficial brother, the Elf. An Elf was usually built completely from scratch or from a kit, which often featured some improvements and expansions over the original design. Despite now two all these DIY computers being exactly alike, they shared enough similarities that enabled you to adapt VIP software, including CHIP 8. CHIP 8 was less a simple programming language and more a simple virtual machine that worked in a limited 4k memory space, runtime code, screen memory and virtual code all included. And, as a curiosity, CHIP 8 lives on to this day. It has been emulated on all kinds of devices and used to program simple games. These may be worth a look for a glimpse of what the Studio II could have been like with the same simple means. Back in the day on the ElF, CHIP 8 was only an introduction to programming. My CHIP 8 programs slowly were enhanced by native subroutines, slowly bypassing some of CHIP 8's restrictions.
On the hardware side, there are two remarkable things: The CPU (the CDP1802) and the graphics chip (the CDP1861). The processor was not very much like anything Intel would have invented. It was more like a RISC processor before that term was even officially invented. Love it or hate it, but at that time many people already sneered at it for not being at least inspired by Intel. One of its features was its way to handle DMA. The 1802 never gave up control of its bus, just because someone asked politely. Instead, it did all the memory addressing itself and signaled the requesting device when to look at the data lines to get the requested data. Why is that important? Because it allowed you have graphics with having to throw a lot of expensive additional hardware at the problem or resorting to such complicated programming concepts like 'racing the beam', a concept which should be all too familiar to fans of the old Atari VCS. You only had to add that relatively cheap CDP1861 to your Elf And had graphics! At a time when DIY needed graphics hardware could easily cost more than the entire rest of the computer! In 1976 you could build an Elf with graphics for as little as 100$. And that without having to 'race the beam' . Interrupts and that DMA feature took care of that.
Memories from a time when you had to build your computer yourself or probably would have none at all. But by 1978 that already was becoming a thing of thing of the past. The Studio was another case of too little, too late. RCA's engineers did their best to think out of the usual boxes, but the managers were relatively clueless what to do with it. But my old Elf still lives. A little old and worn after more than 40 years, but it still works. Elves are immortal. 🙂
This console is certainly fascinating as a piece of gaming history, but those sound effects are really unpleasant