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History
After the disastrous release of the RCA Studio II, RCA immediately started working on an updated version of the console. The new version was to have better graphics, color capabilities and better sound, while remaining backward compatible wit
h the previous version. By September 1977, a programming guide for the RCA Studio III was already available. New titles such as Biorhythm and Math Fun were actually Studio III games, released as backward-compatible cartridges for the RCA Studio II. Work on the Studio III was almost complete, and RCA showcased a fully functional prototype.
However, with the release of the Atari VCS, the Bally Astrocade and the APF MP1000, and with the Magnavox Odyssey² on the way, it became clear that RCA was about to make the same mistake it had made with the Studio II: releasing a console that was inferior to the competition. With sales of the RCA Studio II plummeting, RCA had already lost huge sums of money in the video game business. Deciding not to pursue the Studio III was not an easy choice, as the company had already spent a fortune on R&D for this project. RCA therefore looked for someone interested in taking over the Studio III. Having already licensed the Studio II in Japan to Toshiba (released as the Visicom C-100), RCA understood that the Studio III would only have a chance of success if it was exported. In the late 1970s, the U.S. was crawling with new video game consoles, but in the rest of the world, Pong-like consoles were still king. With little to no competition, the Studio III could take a good share of those markets. But RCA had no intention of gambling any more money on this venture. Instead, it struck a deal with the Conic Group. Under the leadership of its founder, Alex Au Yan-din (柯俊文) (see picture), the Conic Group became the largest electronics manufacturer in Hong Kong. At its peak, it had an annual turnover of over HK$1 billion, more than 40 subsidiaries and more than 12,000 employees.
In April 1978, Conic signed a licensing deal that gave it the right to produce 200,000 units based on the RCA Studio III intellectual property. The deal included all the games released for the RCA Studio II, plus Bingo, Star Wars, Concentration Match and Pinball. It wasn’t long before Conic had a fully working prototype, and in June the system was presented at CES 1978 in Chicago. Code-named “Victory-3”, the console was presented by Accurate Electronics Industry Ltd (精密電子工業), a Conic subsidiary with offices in the U.S.
Release
Conic was already a well-established company in the video game industry, having released hundreds of Pong-like consoles under different brands. It used subsidiaries such as Soundic Electronics (聲德電子), as well as other affiliates, to distribute the console in different countries (see the console list below). The console was released around the same time as the 1292 Advanced Programmable Video System line of consoles, which rapidly took over the console market segment in Europe and Australia.
Demise
The Conic line of consoles was short-lived, and no games outside the launch titles were ever released. It is unknown whether Conic even managed to sell the 200,000 units covered by the initial agreement, but the agreement appears never to have been extended.
1200 Series
Most of the Studio III variations use the same mold:
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| Trevi M-1200 Micro-Computer |
Conic M-1200 | Sheen M-1200 Micro-Computer | |||
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| Mustang 9016 Telespiel Computer |
Apollo 80
The Apollo 80 has its own unique mold, which is very similar to the M-1200 series but has square edges instead of round ones.
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| Apollo 80 Programmable Video Game |
Soundic & Hanimex
Soundic chose a more elaborate design for its console, including detachable controllers.
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| Jeu TV Programmable MPT-02 by Hanimex | Victory Home TV Programmer (MPT-02) by Soundic |
Game List
Here is a list of all 14 RCA Studio II and III games released for the Conic console line. Note that every console had its own numbering scheme.
- Baseball
- Bingo
- Biorhyth
- Concentration Match
- Computer Quiz
- Fun with Numbers
- Gun Fight/Moon Ship
- Grand Pack (include the 4 built-in games. Sold with the Hanimex version as it didn’t come with the built-in games).
- Math Fun
- Pinball
- Spacewar Intercept
- Speedway Tag
- Star Wars
- Tennis/Squash
Technical Specification
RCA Studio II (for comparison)
- Video chip (NTSC): CDP1861 (also marked TA10171V1)
- Sound: 555 timer, producing the unique “squeak” sound
- Graphics: White on black
RCA Studio III
- Video chip (NTSC): CDP1861 generates the video signal
- Color chip (NTSC): CDP1862 overlays a memory-mapped color on top of the video signal
- Color memory: 256 bytes
- Colors: 4 background colors and 7 foreground colors
- Sound chip: CDP1863
- Sound: 256 different tones
- Video and sound chip (PAL): CDP1864, handling both video and sound
- PAL colors: Same 4 background colors and 7 foreground colors, achieved through different programming
- Backward compatibility: Compatible with RCA Studio II games