Arcadia 2001

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Emerson Arcadia 2001, intended as a portable game console, the Arcadia 2001 was released by Emerson Radio Corp in mid-1982.

The Arcadia 2001 is a second-generation 8-bit console released by Emerson Radio Corp. It was considerably more powerful than the then-dominant Atari 2600, but came out right before the more-advanced Atari 5200 and the ColecoVision. The game library was composed 51 unique games and about 10 variations. The graphics were similar to those of the Intellivision and the Odyssey².

The Arcadia was not named after the company of the same name. Arcadia Corporation, makers of the 2600 supercharger, was sued by Emerson for trademark infringement. Arcadia Corporation changed its name to Starpath.

[edit] Description

The Arcadia was originally intended to be a portable console, one can see that it was much smaller than its competitors at the time. The console is powered by a standard 12-volt power supply, so it could be used in a boat, or a camper, and so on. This portability feature, however, required a portable television, which was extremely rare in the early 1980s. It also has two outputs(or inputs) earphones jacks types on the back of the unit, on the far left and far right sides.

The system came with two Intellivision-style control pads, but with a lighter touch on the side 'fire' buttons. The control pads have screw holes in their centers, so that one could transform them into a joystick, a la Sega Master System. Most games came with mylar overlays which could be applied to the controllers. The console itself had five buttons: power, start, reset, option, and select.

There are at least three different types of cartridge case styles and artwork, with variations on each. Emerson-family carts come in two different lengths of black plastic cases; the short style is similar to Atari 2600 carts in overall size. This family uses a unique "sketch" type of picture label. MPT-03 family cart cases (see below) resemble Super NES carts in size and shape, except that they are molded in brown plastic. Their labels look much more modern and stylized, with only a minimal picture on each. There are also a family of what look like pirate carts, that look nothing like the others in shape, size or label artwork. The different labeled versions however all used the same cartridges.

[edit] Market Failure

The Emerson version of the console was essentially considered dead upon arrival in the USA. The system came out at the same time that the Atari 5200 and ColecoVision came onto the market. In addition, Atari's use of exclusive rights to many games made it very virtually impossible for Emerson to get popular games to the console. However it was successful in other countries.

Emerson actually created many popular arcade titles including Pacman, Galaxian and Defender for the Arcadia and had them manufactured. However, Atari started to sue its competitors for companies that it had exclusive-rights agreements and Emerson was stuck with thousands of manufactured games that could no longer be sold.

[edit] Variants

Unlike almost all other consoles, the Arcadia 2001 was sold from many different firms under different names:

These include:

Each console had a different number of games released for them; some like the Schmidt had almost every game released for them, others like the Tele-fever only had 4 games released. The Palladium has a different cartridge connector/pinout, 4 extra keys per controller.

[edit] Technical specifications

• Main Processor: Signetics 2650 CPU running at 3.58 MHz
  • Some variants run a Signetics 2650A
• RAM: 512 bytes (originally promised 28K)
• ROM: None
• Video Display: 8 Colours
• Video Display Controller: Signetics 2637 UVI
• Sound: Single Channel "Beeper" + Single Channel "Noise"
• Hardware Sprites: 4 independent, single color
• Controllers: 2 x 2 way
• Keypads: 2 x 12 button (more buttons on some variants)

[edit] Games

Many of the games for the Arcadia 2001 are lesser-known arcade game such as Route 16 and Jungler. Different games were available for the various clones of the Arcadia 2001, consult the Arcadia FAQ for more information. These game ROMS have been released into the public domain as abandonware.

• 3-D Bowling
• 3-D Raceway
• 3-D Soccer
• Alien Invaders
• Astro Invader
• American Football
• Baseball
• Brain Quiz
• Breakaway
• Capture
• Cat Trax
• Crazy Gobbler
• Crazy Climber (Unreleased)
• Escape
• Funky Fish
• Galaxian
• Grand Prix 3-D
• Grand Slam Tennis
• Hobo
• Home Squadron
• Jump Bug
• Jungler
• Kidou Senshi Gundamu (only in Japan)
• Math Logic
• Missile War
• Ocean Battle
• Pleiades
• RD2 Tank
• Red Clash
• Robot Killer (clone of Berzerk)
• Route 16
• Soccer
• Space Attack
• Space Chess
• Space Mission
• Space Raiders
• Space Squadron
• Space Vultures
• Spiders
• Star Chess
• Super Gobbler
• Tanks A Lot
• The End
• Turtles/Turpin

[edit] Screenshot gallery

Baseball	Cat Trax	Jump Bug	Missile War
Robot Killer	Space Attack	Space Raiders	Spiders

[edit] External links

• Emerson Arcadia 2001 Central
• WinArcadia and AmiArcadia emulators
• Emerson Arcadia 2001 Gaming Guide
• The Dot Eaters entry on the mighty Arcadia 2001
• GiG Manufacturer of the Italian clone named Leonardo