The Arcadia 2001 is a second-generation 8-bit console released by Emerson Radio Corp. It was meant to outshine the Atari 2600, but came out right before the more-advanced Atari 5200 and the ColecoVision. It was a failure as soon as it came to market. 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 system is considered one of the biggest game console flops of all time.
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.Description
The Arcadia was originally intended to be a portable console, one can see that it was much smaller than it's 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 Gravis Gamepad. 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.Market Failure
The console was essentially considered dead upon arrival. The system came out at the same time that much better systems came onto the market — the Atari 5200 and ColecoVision — which immediately crushed sales. 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.
Emerson actually created many popular arcade titles including Pacman, Galaxian and Defender for the Arcadia and had them manufactured. However, Atari started to sue it's competitors for companies that it had exclusive-rights agreements and Emerson was stuck with thousands of manufactured games that could no longer be sold.
Today, only a very limited number of console collectors even bother to go after the Arcadia.Variants
Unlike almost all other consoles, the Arcadia 2001 was sold from many different firms under different names:
These include:
|
