Emerson Arcadia 2001 – (1982)
Cost at Launch - $200.00 (which quickly became less than $100).
SPECS:________________
Processor speed: 3.58 MHz.
Graphic capacity: 8-bit
Sound: single channel mono
Memory: 512 bytes
Resolution: 256 x 240, 8 colors
Format: NTSC, PAL
Software type: cartridge
What can I say about this system? There is a good chance that you have not even HEARD of this system. This is one of the reasons that I have decided to write this book. I wanted to educate and inform people about the obscure systems. I have to admit that when this system came out that I did not purchase it. I eventually purchased it 20 years after it hit the market and only because I am a collector of videogames. If I were going to purchase it strictly on its merits then it definitely falls short. There are a few unique qualities to this system, but other qualities seem to roll right from the other gaming systems which were out at its time. Aesthically it reminds me of the Intellivision systems. Its controllers have the similar bubble keypads and it has a small joystick on a disk-like controller. The developers thought they were going to bring out a “Super Atari 2600 – like” machine. Well it quickly turned into a huge failure and a big piece of crap. It fell victim to the Atari 5200 and the Colecovision systems. This system reminds me of why we have copy protection laws. Most of the games were basically rip-offs of the popular games of its time. Can you guess what game “Alien Invaders”, “Missile war”; “Super Gobbler”, “Robot Killer”, “Spiders” and “Crazy Gobbler” were based on. It reminds me of what happened to Donkey Kong, when some idiot made a “Krazy Kong” clone. There is a huge lack of creativity if you are going to just bring out a rip-off version of a game. This is one of the reasons that this system failed. On top of that, its competition was much more advanced and was at least a million times more creative than the developers for this system.
This system was licensed to be produced by many other companies, why so many companies actually produced this system eludes my feeble brain. You can actually buy this system from many different companies and the outcome is the same. You won’t find many people who actually collect this system, but there are a dedicated few who actually enjoy this system. It proves the saying “One man’s junk is another man’s treasure. It probably has a bigger following in Europe, but it still pales in comparison to the number of collectors for other similar systems which were released and manufactured during this game systems tenure. What were the other names of this system? That is a good question for which I hopefully have a good answer. It will help you either avoid or assist you in purchasing this fine system which only lasted a few years on the market before it went down into flames of obscurity. I recommend the American version of this system. It was released under the names of:
Advision Home Arcade |
France |
Advision |
Bandai Arcadia |
Japan |
|
Hanimex Fever 1 |
Germany |
Hanimex |
Hanimex HMG-2650 |
Germany |
Hanimex |
Hanimex MPT-03 |
France? |
Hanimex |
Intercord 2000XL |
Germany |
??? |
Leisure-Vision |
Canada |
Leisure-Dynamics |
Italy |
||
Germany |
||
Prestige MPT-03 |
France |
??? |
Rowntron MPT-03 |
?? |
Rowntron? |
Schmidt TVG-2000 |
Germany |
|
Soundic MPT-03 |
?? |
Soundic? |
Tempest MPT-03 |
Australia |
|
Tele-Fever |
Germany |
|
Tryom |
??? |
Tryom? |
Tunix Home Arcade |
New Zealand |
Monaco Distributors Ltd. |
Video Master |
New Zealand |
Grand Stand |
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