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Emerson Arcadia 2001 US Rarity order


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After I finished the full US set some time ago (which I do NOT recommend going for- you'll be at it for years) I ordered all the games by their rarity/ease of obtaining. I want to see if others here agree with it, and to give a guide to anybody else that might go for the full US set. 22 confirmed releases, two possible ones. Emerson only seems to have sold the games and system for a limited time, and a lot of the theoretical supply of most of the games vanished. 8-10 game lots, often still sealed, are quite common, having been sold by discounters that way. Sometimes a less common game will be among a lot of commons, and can justify buying the whole lot. In order from rarest to least rare:

 

  • Unconfirmed releases: These two could have had copies made, given the rarity of other known releases and the existence of at least one game not even mentioned in the brochure included with all games. Their existence in Arcadia 2001 form cannot be ruled out. Both would be equally rare if or when copies turn up. #4: Funky Fish and #22: Pleiades.

Confirmed releases:

 

The "Holy Trinity"- these three are some of the rarest NTSC games for ANY system, and often go YEARS in between copies showing up, especially complete. Expect to pay a few hundred if you can even find a copy of any of these three.

  1. #12: Red Clash- listed as "Coming Soon" in the brochures, and evidently saw a very limited retail release. Based on talks with fellow collectors, there may only be around 20 or so known copies in existence. Not the most common game for any of the other Arcadia systems, either.
  2. #24: Spiders- not even mentioned in any catalogs, brochures, or promotional materials, but does exist, and at least one copy has surfaced with retail stickers. Loose carts do seem to turn up once a year or so on Ebay.
  3. #21: Grand Slam Tennis- previously acknowledged as the rarest US release, multiple NOS copies turned up in a farm in rural Kansas in 2017. They had been purchased along with many other Arcadia games from a closing toy store long ago, and left sitting for decades. The seller even joined up here, and several lucky collectors were able to fill holes in their sets. Still extremely rare.

Stealth rarity:

  1. #16: Soccer. I got this one in a lot, and in okay condition. I have not seen a complete copy up for sale, by itself or in a lot, in quite a while. Not many loose carts, either. If you go for a full set, make this one a priority, and be willing to buy a lot entirely for this title. I don't imagine a Soccer game sold well in the US market. This title will be surprisingly tough to find. Likely the 4th rarest US release.

Rare: These are worth buying a lot just to get copies of, and open auctions will provide you with bidding competition.

  1. #6: Brain Quiz- does tend to turn up in lots, but not often by itself. One copy recently sold for $100, possibly because of the recent interest in the Maxit game on the cart.
  2. #18: Star Chess- Tough to find in good shape. Or at all, outside of the occasional lot.
  3. #9: Space Mission- you'd think the game featured on the system box front would be fairly common, but it isn't.

Very Uncommon: One or more of these can be part of a lot and any of these will turn up multiple times per year on Ebay.

  1. #10: Missile War
  2. #7: Space Vultures
  3. #17: Breakaway
  4. #11: Ocean Battle
  5. #13: 3D Bowling
  6. #14: American Football

Common and Guaranteed to be part or even all of any Arcadia 2001 lot. The following can also easily be found for sale at any time. They are equally common.

  1. Cat Trax
  2. Space Attack
  3. Escape
  4. Space Raiders
  5. Alien Invaders
  6. Baseball
  7. Capture
  8. Tanks A Lot
  9. Jungler

 

 

 

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I'm generally in agreement with your ratings. I finished my Arcadia set years ago, but many of the hard-to-find titles I have either incomplete or as imports. My only disagreement would be Star Chess, which I've come across multiple times, and which happens to be the only shrinkwrapped title I ever found, so I don't think it's that rare. Still looking for Funky Fish and Pleiades, too.

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I'm generally in agreement with your ratings. I finished my Arcadia set years ago, but many of the hard-to-find titles I have either incomplete or as imports. My only disagreement would be Star Chess, which I've come across multiple times, and which happens to be the only shrinkwrapped title I ever found, so I don't think it's that rare. Still looking for Funky Fish and Pleiades, too.

We're all looking for Funky Fish and Pleiades in US form, just in case they do exist :)

 

You got really lucky if you found a sealed Star Chess- that's among the only games I've never seen sealed.

 

I'm curious, too- what was the last title you needed? When did you finish off your set? Very, very few of us have all of the Arcadia 2001 titles.

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Last title I got was Grand Slam Tennis, probably 7 or 8 years ago. That's one of the ones I settled for an Import version (Schmid in this case), and I think it was the only one I had to go to eBay for. The others were all found in the wild between 1995 and 2005, including all the imports (mostly in Canada). I was trying to get all the titles, if not all the versions, and ended up with 33 different games.

 

Photos, if interested, are included in the last image of post #6 of my entry in the show-us-your-collection forum.

http://atariage.com/forums/topic/212189-krslams-collection-if-i-had-38-make-that-46-bookcases/

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Last title I got was Grand Slam Tennis, probably 7 or 8 years ago. That's one of the ones I settled for an Import version (Schmid in this case), and I think it was the only one I had to go to eBay for. The others were all found in the wild between 1995 and 2005, including all the imports (mostly in Canada). I was trying to get all the titles, if not all the versions, and ended up with 33 different games.

 

Photos, if interested, are included in the last image of post #6 of my entry in the show-us-your-collection forum.

http://atariage.com/forums/topic/212189-krslams-collection-if-i-had-38-make-that-46-bookcases/

 

Ah... I was wondering how you found Arcadia 2001 versions of Red Clash, Spiders, GST. You have some versions. Good luck ever finding the exact US Arcadia 2001 packaging. It took me years and luck. Still, you have a great collections- I'm damned impressed by it all! :)

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I only started getting serious about this system a few years ago. I'm getting close, but will never have a full CIB collection. I hope to at least finish a mix of loose / CIB. I've got a loose copy of Arcadia Red Clash and a CIB Spiders (foreign). I was one of the lucky folks to pick up a cheap sealed copy of Tennis a while back. As far as Soccer goes, I actually picked up a nice CIB copy on eBay less than a year ago for cheap. That's the only copy I've ever seen for sale since. I think I got lucky on that one too. All in all I've got most of the tough ones out of the way and I think I'm missing maybe 3-4 lesser titles.

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I only started getting serious about this system a few years ago. I'm getting close, but will never have a full CIB collection. I hope to at least finish a mix of loose / CIB. I've got a loose copy of Arcadia Red Clash and a CIB Spiders (foreign). I was one of the lucky folks to pick up a cheap sealed copy of Tennis a while back. As far as Soccer goes, I actually picked up a nice CIB copy on eBay less than a year ago for cheap. That's the only copy I've ever seen for sale since. I think I got lucky on that one too. All in all I've got most of the tough ones out of the way and I think I'm missing maybe 3-4 lesser titles.

 

Never say never- it IS possible to get the full set. It'll just be a long wait.

 

Yeah, you a great deal on that copy of GST- that seller really had no idea of what they had at first. Between all of her copies of just that title she easily cleared a cool Grand. It also serves to remind one that the stuff is still out there.

 

How much was your copy of Soccer, if I might ask? You certainly did get lucky on it if the price was under $100. I have no doubt that would be the most recent sale of a copy, so current price data could help some who still need one.

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I don't recall exactly, but it was less than $50 I'm pretty sure. I wasn't sure if I should grab it or not. Checking outdated rarity lists it didn't seem particularly rare but I knew I'd never seen it for sale before. I grabbed it (BIN).

 

**edit** I found my purchase. It was actually $19.99 shipped!

Edited by Atari_Bill
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I don't recall exactly, but it was less than $50 I'm pretty sure. I wasn't sure if I should grab it or not. Checking outdated rarity lists it didn't seem particularly rare but I knew I'd never seen it for sale before. I grabbed it (BIN).

 

**edit** I found my purchase. It was actually $19.99 shipped!

That's a good collecting rule in general: if you've never seen it before, grab it! You got a good deal- I'm sure an open auction would go for a lot more.

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I like the list. The rankings are generally pretty much where I would put them, as well. To put it on a 1-10 scale, I think I'd go:

 

Rarity 1: Cat Trax, Escape, Space Attack

Rarity 2: Alien Invaders, Baseball, Space Raiders

Rarity 3: Jungler, Tanks A Lot

Rarity 4: American Football, Breakaway, Capture

Rarity 5: 3D Bowling

Rarity 6: Missile War, Space Mission

Rarity 7: Brain Quiz, Ocean Battle, Space Vultures

Rarity 8: Soccer, Star Chess

Rarity 9: Grand Slam Tennis

Rarity 10: Red Clash, Spiders

??? : Funky Fish, Pleiades

 

(Just a rough approximation based on my on-again, off-again Arcadia hunting.)

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I decided that since some foreign systems are compatible with the Arcadia 2001 I'm just mixing my collection and getting whatever I see for a decent price :) so far I've got a pretty even mix of Arcadia and Leisure Vision. Most CIB except Red Clash, Spiders and Hobo which are loose.

A lot of collectors do that. The boxes mesh well enough, and the Leisurevision versions seem more common for some titles, especially the rare ones. Best thing about those is that for some reason they got a lot of games we didn't here in the US.

 

I like the list. The rankings are generally pretty much where I would put them, as well. To put it on a 1-10 scale, I think I'd go:

 

Rarity 1: Cat Trax, Escape, Space Attack

Rarity 2: Alien Invaders, Baseball, Space Raiders

Rarity 3: Jungler, Tanks A Lot

Rarity 4: American Football, Breakaway, Capture

Rarity 5: 3D Bowling

Rarity 6: Missile War, Space Mission

Rarity 7: Brain Quiz, Ocean Battle, Space Vultures

Rarity 8: Soccer, Star Chess

Rarity 9: Grand Slam Tennis

Rarity 10: Red Clash, Spiders

??? : Funky Fish, Pleiades

 

(Just a rough approximation based on my on-again, off-again Arcadia hunting.)

This an even better ranking system than mine, I'd have to say. Much more refined. I would bump Space Mission up to an R7 and Space Vultures down to an R6, if only in terms of complete copies. That same seller who had all of the NOS GSTs also had a bunch of Space Vultures copies. Much more supply of them, as a result.

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A lot of collectors do that. The boxes mesh well enough, and the Leisurevision versions seem more common for some titles, especially the rare ones. Best thing about those is that for some reason they got a lot of games we didn't here in the US.

 

This an even better ranking system than mine, I'd have to say. Much more refined. I would bump Space Mission up to an R7 and Space Vultures down to an R6, if only in terms of complete copies. That same seller who had all of the NOS GSTs also had a bunch of Space Vultures copies. Much more supply of them, as a result.

Yea I got Super Gobbler and Hobo coming which didnt come out in US :)

 

I agree on Space Vultures I actually had a US version but then got one from Canada and passed the US on to friend who collects US only

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Yea I got Super Gobbler and Hobo coming which didnt come out in US :)

 

I agree on Space Vultures I actually had a US version but then got one from Canada and passed the US on to friend who collects US only

Try finding a copy of 3D Attack sometime- the one title that makes any other Arcadia title version seem common. It is likely to be on the next Multicart release. Hopefully a repro run or so could happen.

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I would bump Space Mission up to an R7 and Space Vultures down to an R6, if only in terms of complete copies. That same seller who had all of the NOS GSTs also had a bunch of Space Vultures copies. Much more supply of them, as a result.

 

Yeah, I could see that. I didn't put Space Mission higher because I believe I saw a copy on eBay not too long ago and figured it pops up at least every couple of months or so. And I didn't know about that Space Vultures stash, either, so yeah, I don't disagree. :)

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  • 1 month later...

Just as an update, there's a sealed #16:Soccer ending soon on Ebay:

 

 

https://m.ebay.com/itm/Vintage-Emerson-ARCADIA-2001-Cartridge-16-SOCCER-1982-NEW-factory-sealed-/162971167228?nav=SEARCH

 

...If I have seen another such copy it's been too long to recall. Apart from one that snuck by in a BIN lot it's the only one to come up in quite some time.

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Just as an update, there's a sealed #16:Soccer ending soon on Ebay:

 

 

https://m.ebay.com/itm/Vintage-Emerson-ARCADIA-2001-Cartridge-16-SOCCER-1982-NEW-factory-sealed-/162971167228?nav=SEARCH

 

...If I have seen another such copy it's been too long to recall. Apart from one that snuck by in a BIN lot it's the only one to come up in quite some time.

...ended at $75 plus $5 shipping despite the sub-optimal end time. Not bad. I really do hope whoever bought it makes sure to message the seller about the shipping. At least this sort of sets a price on this title.

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...ended at $75 plus $5 shipping despite the sub-optimal end time. Not bad. I really do hope whoever bought it makes sure to message the seller about the shipping. At least this sort of sets a price on this title.

Not horrible for the rarity on this. I thought it might go for more.

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  • 1 year later...
12 hours ago, vintagegamecrazy said:

 So I finally finished this up today after years of staying at it so it is definitely possible to do even still. Hopefully you all enjoy the video as I'm so happy for my milestone!

Congrats!   That’s tough. I’ve been trying for some time as well but cannot find a copy of Space Mission anywhere.  That’s the last I need to complete my set. 

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  • 2 weeks later...
On ‎9‎/‎5‎/‎2019 at 8:58 PM, vintagegamecrazy said:

 So I finally finished this up today after years of staying at it so it is definitely possible to do even still. Hopefully you all enjoy the video as I'm so happy for my milestone!

My congratulations on the accomplishment! And it really is one, even with it being a mix of boxed and loose carts. I don't know if this is the absolute hardest US fullset to go for, but it is one of the toughest. That you have a boxed Red Clash is truly something to be in awe of, and I think only about a dozen or so boxed copies have been accounted for among collectors, only two which were sealed (I owned both at one point).

 

Out of curiosity, where did you find the copies of Red Clash, Spiders, and Tennis? I always enjoy hearing just how somebody was able to find such treasures. Lucky Ebay BIN? I'd especially love to know how you got that Red Clash.

 

Two years ago there was a lady in Kansas (she posted here, btw) who had several sealed GSTs, and a few others in various conditions. She might still have a spare box or manual, or both, if you haven't already explored that opportunity.

 

There was somebody on Racketboy a while back posting how he was also looking for the full set, and a few years ago somebody on the old DP Forums was doing the same. If that was you congratulations on finally accomplishing your goal! :)

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  • 3 weeks later...

I think it has to be at least 15 years ago now but I bought it in a lot of games on eBay. I don't remember what I paid for it but it probably wasn't more than 75 to $80 and it came with several other games that I needed I remember going after it for that game alone and I've had it ever since. Grand slam tennis and spiders I bought on eBay to I paid $250 for spiders the Grand slam tennis I bought around the time that lady was selling all the other ones for $42 but I know it wasn't bought from her. it's not even in that great of shape I just bought it because it was a really decent price. Does anybody have any idea what a box to complete Red Clash would even go for nowadays?

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I probably posted on Digital Press many years ago that I was looking for these games but I don't have a racket boy account so I don't know if one of those is me or neither is.

 

As far as hardest to finish sets go, or at least as far as sub-100 game libraries go I think it has to be a tie between this and the Mattel Aquarius. I still haven't finished that set either. I've managed to track down a boxed copy of Melody Chase but finding a copy of Chess is its own special kind of nightmare. Something tells me that the TRS-80 may take the cake if you're going after third party titles.

Edited by vintagegamecrazy
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