The Last Undumped Game: 3D Attack Emerson Arcadia 2001/Gig Leonardo

[Blazing Lazers]

The only undumped Arcadia game is 3D Attack, a Zaxxon (!) clone that is only known to have had a very small retail release for just one of the various Arcadia systems, the Leonardo by Gig, and only in Italy. Only around 5 copies at all are known to still exist, and the game itself, along with the boxes, manuals, etc, has never been properly preserved via a ROM dump and scanning. None of the multicarts have it included in their game selections. Beyond being phenomenally rare, this also happens to be a shmup AND apparently both a graphics AND gameplay showcase for the Arcadia system, as well as a platform exclusive- exactly the sort of game that truly earns system library Grail status. Even many web resources still list this titles as "unconfirmed". It exists, and needs to be dumped and preserved. The entire purpose of this thread is to do just that.

 

The supreme global Arcadia collector (a very knowledgeable gentleman from Europe, not somebody here in the US) recently had his complete copy available for sale, and I purchased it as soon as I knew. It's the same copy that was just on Ebay, and is also the source of the various images from Pinterest. I just took delivery of it, and want to get this dumped as soon as possible, so it can be played in emulators and ideally added to future multicart runs. So in order to get this dumped, I'd like to solicit help on the following:

 

1. Above all else, who has an Arcadia series cart ROM dumper, and can it be sent to me to accomplish this? Would we have to make a new dumper? I'm especially interested in any technical advice along this line.
2. Will this cart work in a US Arcadia 2001 system? I haven't yet tested it out of paranoia about damaging the cart. I'd to at least capture some gameplay footage.
3. Can anybody here translate Italian? It's what the manual is all in- makes it somewhat difficult to play, or will once the ROM is dumped.
4. What is the best Arcadia emulator out there, as of 2017? Thanks to the multicarts I've never actually needed to play around with any, though I will need to now so as to test whatever dumps are made.

I've attached pics of everything, and plan to scan the manual soon. I hope there'll at least be some minor interest in this, and that 3D Attack can finally be preserved for all!

[+stupus]

It can be played on a USA emerson.

[Blazing Lazers]

It can be played on a USA emerson.

Ah good! There'll be some gameplay footage soon, then

[Tombstone]

Amazing. So was this meant for release in the US since the back label, overlay, and box are in English?? Terrific find, Jack!

[+stupus]

Amazing. So was this meant for release in the US since the back label, overlay, and box are in English?? Terrific find, Jack!

I would say at 1 point it and many more titles were planned for release in the USA by emerson.

After UAL (Universal Appliances Limited) got sued for games like their defender and pac man clone titles they pulled any other clone games from a potential release in the usa. But still sold them in other regions where us law didn't apply.

There were 41 silver box games they made total and probably most besides the 4 Bandai games were probably planned to hit our market if it were not for the lawsuits and that the system did horribly here.

I believe there may be a release of this under the home arcade name too. I need to double check with 1 collector friend to be sure.

That would make sense as 'home arcade' was UAL's own line for the system. But all the home arcade titles are very hard to find at all.

Edited August 13, 2017 by stupus

[CatPix]

Unless I'm wrong, all boxes of this family are in English regardless of the location.

French ones have a dual display, with English on some parts of the box and French on other parts.

They are under the Home Arcade label, BTW.

Advision Home Arcade.

 

 

The carts have a dent on one side and a bump on the other end, but aside from that, the carts are identical to US ones (I have one multicart).

 

Is there a topic about this system, with more infos? That's the first time I heard that Home Arcade as a label.

Edited August 13, 2017 by CatPix

[+stupus]

The silver box games are usually english. But the Leonardo ones usually have Italian on the back. Like you can see this 3d attack does.

They came with both an English and Italian manual.

You can see though the instructions on the box back is a applied sticker.

Which could mean a correction or language change possibly.

I will have to pull out my copy and see if it's the same.

 

Yes home arcade gets confusing.

Catpix your games are actually the advision home arcade ones. They are a french exclusive release with hybrid french/English boxes.

 

There is a separate line just called home arcade which is ual's original line I believe.

These are in English only and have a different number scheme from the advision ones.

 

It seems some company's that distributed ual's console and games chose to keep some of the home arcade name in their own name.

Like advision home arcade or

Tunix home arcade.

Also ual put out its own home arcade branded consoles in an ntsc and a pal format.

These are very hard to find but I believe them to be the actual parent version for this system.....not emerson of course.

 

Also certain pal systems game lines had the dent and Ridge on the sides of the cart like catpix mentions.

This was a horribly implimented region lock out.

 

These still will fit in the emerson and other ntsc systems.

They work fine they just fit tightly.

Edited August 13, 2017 by stupus

[macdlsa]

Awesome find !!!

Of course... please send me the manual scan and I'll translate it for you

 

 

Cheers,

 

Marco

[CarloSanta]

Great!

 

Send an e-mail to amigansoftware@gmail.com for info about dumping this rarity.

 

The Arcadia emulator was just updated last month (10th july 2017)

http://amigan.1emu.net/releases/

 

Here it is in 3D Attack in "unarchived" section:

http://amigan.1emu.net/agg/#unarchived

 

Emerson Arcadia 2001 Central (world's largest and most popular Signetics-based machines site)

http://amigan.1emu.net/

 

[+stupus]

I believe James will need you to send him the cart to get it dumped.

[+stupus]

I just looked at the unarchived section at the amigan.

I believe that 3d raceway is just autorennen/Monaco grand prix by palladium.

I believe the 3d raceway name is just the working title for its unreleased variant by hanimex.

[Blazing Lazers]

I believe James will need you to send him the cart to get it dumped.

Ideally, a dumper would be sent to me. This cart has already crossed an Ocean to get here. It's really not something I'd like to ship unless all other options were exhausted. Fortunately, somebody may be able make and send me a dumped soon. Still waiting to hear back from a few contacts.

Edited August 14, 2017 by Blazing Lazers

[macdlsa]

Hey Jack !

 

Carlo owns several (boxed) console, cartridges, computers and rarities at all, and he's a good friend of mine.

If we knew that dump-matter before...

?

[Tempest]

Wow, I didn't think this one existed. I always assumed it was an alternative name for a game that we already knew about. I can't wait to see this one dumped.

[glazball]

Very cool BL! Grats on the game and thanks for making it available for the rest of us! I'm eager to see it in action.

[Bill Loguidice]

Neat. I REALLY want to see footage of the game!

[carlsson]

In the mean time, here are some screenshots:

http://www.classic-consoles-center.at/forum/emerson/undumped-arcadia-games#p1242

[CatPix]

I really need to get my consoel working again (the RF block is botched) I love those "wire" graphisms.

[+stupus]

I just emailed my friend Jens who was the original finder of a 3d attack.

His is the copy from the forum carlsoon linked too.

 

I am very curious if his is the Leonardo version or possibly the advision or home arcade that I have seen it listed as on James amigan sute.

[Bill Loguidice]

In the mean time, here are some screenshots:

http://www.classic-consoles-center.at/forum/emerson/undumped-arcadia-games#p1242

 

Nice. I'm not that impressed from the screenshots, but then those can be misleading.

[CatPix]

If they are smooth scrolling, it would be impressive.

It's hard to say for sure what is "impressive" with the Arcadia 2001 in general

[+5-11under]

BTW, I'm sending Blazing Lazers a ROM dumper (made from a hacked multicart board and EPROM programmer), so the file can be shared.

 

Hopefully in a few weeks we'll have a ROM file to play (and another game included on multicarts).

[CatPix]

Excellent!

It might be time to create a flash cart XD

[Blazing Lazers]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XcLLL1qLO0Q&t=307s

 

As promised, gameplay footage!

 

To see the closest to a "perfect run" skip ahead to 17:10.

 

I had to find the power adapter for my Arcadia, but once I did I hooked it up to a VCR, and used the Composite output of the VCR to capture the footage. 3D Attack is known to have been released for the Leonardo, but the cart works perfectly in a US Arcadia 2001 system. The overlay also fits, and the game itself uses the Left controller. The graphics suffer from the same sunfaded look that all Arcadia systems have come down with over time- once the ROM is dumped this game will look a LOT sharper, brighter, and more colorful in an emulator. Is there any way to get a full capacitor replacement and/or an AV mod for a US Arcadia?

 

Anyway, the game itself is not quite what I expected, at least in whatever mode I ended up playing it in. I'm not actually certain what one it is as I only have the Italian manual. The overlay is in English, but that didn't help when it came to figuring out what each mode of play does, or if there is a way to slow down the speed of the game, which would be most welcome as this game moves FAST. At least one mode is where the game plays itself, but the user can take control at any time and move the fighter around, and which seems to repeat endlessly without sending the user back to the main screen.

 

There's 3 stages. The first is a sort of highway-like white screen with two different types of enemy formations incoming that you have to dodge or shoot at (in whatever mode I was in I could hit them but seemingly not destroy them). Depending on which sort of enemy formations are encountered and/or avoided, the game flashes into the next stage, which is either a flat room with a laser-gate that you must drop to a very low height to fly under (immediately AFTER being at a maximum height to avoid some sort of spike obstacle); or a tiered room with a moderate laser barrier you have to fly under but then immediately fly up and in line with the tiers to reach a portal at the top of the tiers at the right of the screen while also avoiding laser blasts from triangular laser emplacements. In both rooms, you're likely to die many times before successfully passing through, and even if you do make it out the game just puts you right back along the highway of enemy fighter waves and begins the cycle all over again.

 

Overall, the gameplay is much more akin to a 3D obstacle course than it is a Zaxxon clone, at least in the mode I played. The first highway stage, in either variation, is actually fairly simple, and the enemies can simply be avoided by either flying around them, above them, or under them. Your moves are mirrored by some of the incoming enemy formations, which does add an element of tactics, as you can actually cause them to move up or down and sideways as you want them to. Or just avoid them altogether. After this mild opening, the difficulty ramps way up. The other two stages have no moving enemies, but instead require the player to evade obstacles, and the third stage tiered room actually seems to shoot back at you, but is still easier than the second stage. As the footage shows, I was actually able to make it to the top portal three times, while I only cleared the second laser-gate room twice. This is a very fast paced game, even for the Arcadia, one which demands fast reflexes of the player much more than it does simple pattern memorization. The controls were surprisingly not an issue, though you do have to be sure to move High or Low and not just sideways depending on where you are. It might take a few minutes to adjust, but the control scheme itself is fairly good when it comes to Arcadia games. This is definitely playable, though would be much more frustrating if one lacked the overlay. This one game where the controller overlay could actually be said to be almost mandatory, even though you won't have time to look at it. This is one of the better Arcadia games I've played, as there's just enough challenge and tactics involved to make you keep on going.

 

One other quick gameplay tip: use the shadows on the highway stages to easily avoid enemies- so long as the shadow of your fighter and those of the enemies do not overlap, you won't hit them (unless you manage to reach exactly the same altitude as them and hit them head on). Don't even bother using the shadows in the two room stages, as all you need there are very quick reflexes and some pattern recognition.

Edited September 12, 2017 by Blazing Lazers

[carlsson]

Rather cool that you can fly so far to the right that you end up outside of the play area!