MAGFest 2019: The Rediscovered History of RCA's Video Games and Computers

RCA's Studio II was its lone, failed venture into the video game industry, seemingly little more than a footnote compared to its competition, such as the Atari 2600. There's more to the story, though: recent research into its design history has unveiled home computer prototypes dating back to 1970, arcade machines, the work of the first female indie developer, and even the first glimpses of the internet. Join game historian Kevin Bunch and curator Florencia Pierri as they discuss some of their findings and show off some previously lost games, demos, and hardware in action! Kevin Bunch is a science writer and video game historian focused on the early days of the medium. He is the creator of the Atari Archive video series on YouTube, which looks at each game for the Atari 2600 in release order with occasional tangents into related topics, such as the history of the RCA Studio II. Florencia Pierri is a historian of technology and the curator at the Sarnoff Collection at The College of New Jersey.