Gaming Oddity: The Sheen M-1200

The late 70's and early 80's was awash with everyone trying to get into the video game market. Some succeeded, others very much didnt.
Patreon: / mrlurch
Discord: / discord
Twitter: / mr_lurch
Facebook: / mrlurchsthings
Instagram: / mr_lurchs_things
Merch: www.redbubble.com/people/MrLu...

[@OzRetrocomp]

Fun fact: The RCA 1802 CPU used in the Sheen M-1200 (and the other RCA consoles) was widely used in space devices, including the Hubble Space Telescope.

[@BilisNegra]

And this is basically an electronic toy. Awesome.

[@Brfff]

And the COMX-35 computer. Still quite an active home brew community working on the 1802

[@oldguy9051]

The main reason for the 1802 flying into space was that they made a version in "silicon on sapphire" (SOS) instead of the CMOS version you see here.

[@vwestlife]

The one other notable thing about the RCA Studio II, besides that it was a flop in the marketplace, is that it had the first ever commercially released video games written by a woman, Joyce Weisbecker.

[@MrLurchsThings]

Very cool! Had no idea (in saying that, not exactly huge amounts of info out there for it)

[@notsillyone]

Mum & Dad got us one of these for Christmas 1980. It came from BigW. They also sold the cartridges. We had what looked like a Star Wars themed cartridge. It had a very basic looking Tie Fighter that randomly moved around the screen. I think you had to use the keypad like a joystick to line up the tie fighter in the cross hairs on shoot it. It didn’t take long for us to get bored with it. A couple of years later the Atari VCS dropped in price so that was our bigger and better Christmas present for that year. I still have the VCS, but mum gave the sheen away to friend to appreciate, until they replaced it with a VCS also. Just remembered on Christmas Day we could not use the sheen because the power adapter was missing from the box. The doodle program also had a record and playback feature. The friend we ga e ours to used this to make what looked like game was playing

[@SnakeBush]

Dang I was born in the 90's and never could appreciate those early early games. Thank you for somehow enjoying these games so new ones could come out

[@fallous]

The 1802+1864 was the foundation of the COSMAC VIP. You could probably whip up some games of your own using CHIP-8.

[@MechaFenris]

The artwork is VERY 70's. :) wild stuff... I'm impressed with some of the non-US rare stuff. Makes you remember that sometimes the misses are the most interesting historically.

[@50shadesofbeige88]

Cmon, everybody knows, before we turn it on... we take it apart! 🤣

[@Mr-tl4sg]

I had one these consoles back in the 80's in Sydney, don't remember how I aquired it but it was definatly branded "RCA", had removeable controllers and came with a Star Wars cartridge that played so slow. Wish I still had it.

[@Gozling1]

That was a great review mate and yes, as a 16-year old kid in 1978, video games like this were the bomb.

[@phelyan]

That just jogged some long forgotten memories. I had a German version of this, the Mustang 9016 Telespiel. Traded it with some guy at school for a cheap microscope. For years I've been wondering about this, because I'd never seen images or videos of it again, and I really had started to think I'd imagined it all. Thanks for this. :)

[@geekwithsocialskills]

Very cool piece of history. We had some fun and interesting game technology back in the mid to late 1970s for sure!

[@ctrlaltrees]

Oh I love weird and obscure stuff like this, great video!

[@VK2FVAX]

Yep. Wait for the Everdrive cart for this. Definitely. Only problem I suspect will be figuring out what to do with the remaining 1023.9 megabytes on a 1gb SD card. It is cute. It would be fun to get some static RAM on a PCB with an Arduino to bit-bang the contents over RS232 as a dev environment so it could run some code.

[@abuttner]

I had a sheen pong clone back in the late 70s. I remember a friend getting an Atari VCS and I was so jealous. That was until I got a Commodore 64 in 84.

[@winstonsmith478]

The [RCA] 1802 [CPU] was used in many spacecraft and space science programs, experiments, projects and modules such as the Galileo spacecraft, Magellan, the Plasma Wave Analyzer instrument on ESA's Ulysses spacecraft, various Earth-orbiting satellites and satellites carrying amateur radio. The 1802 has also been verified from NASA source documentation to have been used in the Hubble Space Telescope.

[@EviesRevue]

It's a RCA Studio III, i.e. a color RCA Studio II. I have it as a "Mustang 9016 Telespiel". Works on BackBit Cartridge.

[@MrLurchsThings]

Are the III’s backwards compatible?

[@robintst]

@@MrLurchsThings Yep, RCA had planned for that before they licensed it out to Sheen. I think the game Biorhythm and one other were actually meant for the Studio III because they have color, they just already had them ready to go while the Studio II was still out.

[@EviesRevue]

@@MrLurchsThings Yes, III has extra color registers, but will run all Studio II games (albeit in color, typically white on blue). Video chip for both is CDP1861, while III adds a CDP1862 for color processing.

[@bugbloke1975]

Great video Mr Lurch! Never heard of this console before, so it's great to see it in action here and in your collection!! 😊👍

[@robintst]

RCA lost a lot of money on the Studio II and they were nearing the end of the line in a few more years in large part to all the millions of dollars they also blew on the CED home video format and they finally kicked that out of the door in 1981 after 17 years of constantly stalling development. I'll hand it to Sheen though for making it more pleasing to the eye, that black casing looks slick. The Studio II looked like an old hospital intercom.

[@winstonsmith478]

I think it's interesting when some on-line research is done to find the companies mentioned on the warranty cards and Google Earth is used to see what is now at the addresses they list.

[@tenminutetokyo2643]

That is nuts dood! That thing looks nearly mint.

[@MagnusVojbacke]

12:05 riveting gameplay!

[@MotownBatman]

I Immediately sid "that looks like the Studio II" lol that's sweet

[@garyhart6421]

Farts --- I thought it was a LGR reference 😁

[@SinapTec]

Very good video. It appears to be a chip8 interpreter like the one used at COSMAC VIP. Greetings from Argentina.

[@TRONMAGNUM2099]

According to the video game Kraken. RCA 2 games are compatible. Someone on Atari Age made a multi cart for that system. Maybe it would work on this system?

[@herbertwongsanimations6266]

Back in the 80s I picked up a Sheen console with a light gun for $1. My first ever console. It was basically just several Pong games and a target shooter. A year or two ago I bought the same model for about 30 times as much. 😄

[@derekchristenson5711]

Very nice! I know that the RCA Studio II, and its color ("colour") foreign clones were weak as heck in the graphics and complexity department, but they still hold a place in my heart. They're simple, they're quirky, they're clearly something that would have become iconic had they been released a couple years earlier or so, and they use a fascinating microprocessor with a fascinating backstory. 🙂 FWIW, as I recall, what you're looking at isn't so much a Studio III clone as an enhanced Studio II clone. That is, the PAL graphics chip used in the PAL-territory clones was in color, whereas the "Pixie" graphics chip in the original Studio II was black and white. I believe that the PAL machines also have vastly improved sound capabilities, too, although I don't know how well any of the games take advantage of that. As I understand it, a "true" Studio III would have had an ever better graphics chips (the pair of chips used in the COMX-35, perhaps), but my memory might be failing there. I have a multicart for the Studio II, and it has all the foreign-released games on it as well as the original Studio II games (and some nice homebrews, including a surprisingly playable, albeit simplified, Pac-Man clone!). Everything just plays in black and white. Also, "Bowling", while graphically simple, is one of the original games for the system, but I also rather like "Space War". A homebrew fave would probably be the pretty decent "Kaboom!" clone.

[@RudysRetroIntel]

Limited but still very cool. Thanks for sharing

[@vanhetgoor]

I think you have something very special over there. I think it is the same processor is the SCMP Computer had, think of the Sinclair MK14 and the Elektor SCMP Computer of course. That processor is somewhere in outer space because NASA used it in some probe that went deep into space, and if that battery is not gone in 60 years it is still working and guiding the flight. Long history, and very important for the development of computers and games for Aliens. I think, I am not sure, that the space probe with the RCA Processor in it, is not only the first real microprocessor that went into space, it is the processor that went the longest distance ever made by a human made device, as far as we know.

[@stonent]

Farts? LGR has entered the chat.

[@robprupe]

Cool, its got the same processor as the Cosmac Elf.

[@stonent]

Don't turn it on! Take it apahhhht!

[@deagt3388]

Brand new! ;-)

[@deagt3388]

Next time use a hair dryer instead of scissors! ;-)

[@devttyUSB0]

That's a nice find. Very simple device but still historic value. Wonder what the cartridge games would be like!

[@ExplosiveAction]

Very cool, certainly not one I've heard about before. I know we did have a few pong machines here but that is far more complex. My first machine was a heavy sixer 2600 in, I think, 1983? I remember it being hooked up late at night/early at morning and I came out in my dressing gown at age 3-4 to see the wonders of Space Invaders - the sole reason my dad bought us one. It kept us entertained until about 1988 when we got an ST, which I still have.

[@Steve_R]

I started out with a 2600 in 1982 (I was 18). Then a Vic 20 in 83, a 64 in 84, then a ST in 88, then a 486 with Windows 3.1 in 92. And I still have all of them plus about 40 more retro computers now.

[@ExplosiveAction]

@@Steve_R awesome!

[@BilisNegra]

@@Steve_R Awesome. Because I couldn't see the last sentence at a glance due to the line break, I thought it would go "...plus about 40 more years on my back." Sorry 😁

[@DavidWhitley]

My oldest console is an Ingersoll XK1010 (Battle Command) from 1978, it has better joysticks than Atari, the CPU is in the catridge not in the unit, it only had 5 cartridges released for it. I really need to do a video on it, but no idea where to start.

[@Foobar_The_Fat_Penguin]

5:07: Yes, I do hate that polystyrene sound.

[@samsulummasamsulumma6898]

The cartridge connector appears to be identical to the RCA Studio II, metal rods and all. As far as I can tell, the games for the Studio II were black and white only, though.

[@anderszapac]

I believe Biorhythm is the only Studio II game to be programmed for color, but the console only did black and white. Apparently RCA had plans for this Studio III but instead of spending even more money on manufacturing, they licensed it to Hong Kong based Sheen, who also sold it as Conic. There also is the Hanimex MPT-02 which is of the same age. A few more games for the MPT-02 featured colors, like Concentration Match and Star Wars (!!). The later probably was a title RCA rather not wanted to release themselves as Lucasfilm would've hunted them down, but being an obscure company in Hong Kong or somewhere in the darkest parts of Europe, chances were less that George Lucas would find them. Ironically, it seems every Studio II and III game were developed in-house at RCA, so not only did they provide licensing of the next generation hardware, they had a bunch of software for them to manufacture as well. RCA moved on with a design for an upcoming Studio IV, which was to be more computer oriented. However it never saw a circuit board. Instead it is featured in the Emma 02 emulator as one of few systems to ever have been specified but never manufactured, then emulated many years later. They may have had a roadmap with a Studio V as well, I don't recall. There are a bunch of homebrew games, featured on Flip's multicart. All the homebrew games operate in black and white though.

[@samsulummasamsulumma6898]

Ah, yes and some of those incarnations had detachable controllers and/or a joystick. Very confusing, but also very fascinating. And then there's the Chip-8 family of games, some of which might work on a M-1200, provided someone managed to put them in a cartridge (at least that's my understanding)

[@EviesRevue]

Actually, the Studio III has a double sided cartridge connector as opposed to the II's single sided one. Fun fact, the MPT-03 (Emerson Arcadia clone) has the same connector, though completely different pinout.

[@michaelsworkshop9031]

#winning

[@matthewgregory395]

is it possable to program a game through a EPROM?

[@jowi_24seven43]

This must be one of the ugliest main boards I've ever seen. Good find!

[@antonnym214]

Wow. That's the worst bowling game I've ever seen. I'm amazed this thing is still functioning after all these years! Nice , obscure find! The pong game might be worthwhile, but it would blow to have to use buttons instead of a knob or paddle. The games had to fit in the native 2K of RAM, so don't expect it to run Crysis.

[@thedungeondelver]

KZbin...shoot. I'm still only on KZbin. Every time I think I'm going to wake up back on Facebook. When I was on Myspace after my first browse, it was worse. I'd log in and there'd be nothing. I hardly said a word to my Friends, until I said "yes" to deleting my account. When I was here, I wanted to be there; when I was there, all I could think of was getting back to watching videos. I'm here a week now...waiting for an upload. Getting softer. Every minute I watch this channel, I get more anxious, and every minute Mr. Lurch edits, he gets stronger. Each time I look around and the view counter goes up a little more. I'd wanted a new Mr. Lurch's Things video...and for my sins...they gave me one.

[@BilisNegra]

Was it a competitor to the Atari VCS? Not in the slightest. By that definition we know we're talking about something as absolutely crude and primitive as you can imagine. Like Pong level of crude, but Pong is from '72...

[@MrLurchsThings]

Was it a competitor? Yes. Was it competitive? No.

[@BilisNegra]

@@MrLurchsThings That very concisely sums it all up. Still, a cool piece of little-known gaming/computing history to own!

[@senilyDeluxe]

@@MrLurchsThings With all these new colors and being able to beep more than one frequency (iirc the Studio II only could beep at one frequency), it could at least compete with the Fairchild Channel F. Had the games been any better. (imo the Channel F has a pretty decent library with not few titles that make you wanna play it every now and again. The Studio II kinda doesn't. I've seen a bunch of homebrews that look cool though).