Arcadia 2001

[nester]

I'm interested in this system right now. I've never played one because they seem to be difficult to find. I like it because it's really obscure. I remember seeing a couple of the games at a thrift store years ago and not knowing what it was. Also, Emerson has always been my mom's favorate brand of home electronics and I find it really strange that they were ever in the video game market. Anyway, I just thought it would be nice to have an Arcadia topic. It's creepy when there's something on this planet that isn't always on ebay. I hope I don't have nightmares!

[christianscott27]

there are lots of arcadias out there, hiding under different names and shells. it never really made a splash on the US scene but the leisure-vision is pretty common in canada. go over to europe and new zealand and you'll find whole families of clones such as the tunix and hanimex models. its sort of a video game history sidequest to trackdown and list all of the various types and which games were available for them. in many cases the carts and cart slot are incompatible with the north american versions but the underlying hardware is the same. i've always wondered why atari, coleco and emerson went with the same basic cart dimensions...anybody have a theory?

[Bruce Tomlin]

i've always wondered why atari, coleco and emerson went with the same basic cart dimensions...anybody have a theory?

I've always wondered why humanity went with the same basic hand dimensions...anybody have a theory?

[Famicoman]

"Also, Emerson has always been my mom's favorate brand of home electronics and I find it really strange that they were ever in the video game market."

 

Alot of compaines are like that.

[Jess Ragan]

there are lots of arcadias out there, hiding under different names and shells. it never really made a splash on the US scene but the leisure-vision is pretty common in canada. go over to europe and new zealand and you'll find whole families of clones such as the tunix and hanimex models. its sort of a video game history sidequest to trackdown and list all of the various types and which games were available for them. in many cases the carts and cart slot are incompatible with the north american versions but the underlying hardware is the same. i've always wondered why atari, coleco and emerson went with the same basic cart dimensions...anybody have a theory?

870417[/snapback]

 

Familiarity would be my guess. People had come to expect a certain look from their game cartridges, and most of the major companies offered it. That way, even the less knowledgable shoppers (soccer moms, for instance) would know what to look for when they went out to pick up games for their kids.

 

JR

[Tempest]

Just do a search on AA for Arcadia 2001. I made a huge post about it once. It's a quirky little system thats not all that great, but it does have some hidden gems. It's definetly not a system for beginners...

 

Tempest

[SteveW]

i've always wondered why atari, coleco and emerson went with the same basic cart dimensions...anybody have a theory?

870417[/snapback]

 

Familiarity would be my guess. People had come to expect a certain look from their game cartridges, and most of the major companies offered it. That way, even the less knowledgable shoppers (soccer moms, for instance) would know what to look for when they went out to pick up games for their kids.

 

JR

871110[/snapback]

 

I'd think that the game boxes would be more important to set the system's games apart from other consoles. Cart sizes being similar would just confuse your average soccer mom. She wouldn't know what system all these similarly shaped cartridges are for, so she would just buy a random one. It's kind of the same thing on eBay, where there's sometimes Colecovision carts mixed in with 2600 cart collections. As far as the seller's concerned, same size equals same system.

[bcostin]

The Arcadia 2001 has always intrigued me, too. My Dad was an audiophile and back in the 80's he used to enjoy visiting an electronics discounter in Maryland called Luskin's. Once when I went along they had a huge display of Arcadia 2001 systems, which I'd never seen before. It's pretty clear in retrospect that they were liquidating a poorly-selling system, but it was a lot more interesting to me at the time than yet another turntable or cassette player. I bugged Dad to buy me one, but no luck.

Edited June 13, 2005 by bcostin

[Lord Thag]

I'd love to get one of these. I've been looking for one for years, and have had no luck. I found a place with some games (WAY overpriced) once, but no system. How does it compare to it's contemporaries? Is it on-par with CV or 5200? Or are we talking more like the Intellivision? Just curious. I've always heard it was 'just an ok system', but no one ever says why. Any comments?

[J.Max]

It's more like a 2600 with really poor sound. I had one, but I recently sold it with a Fairchild Channel F also.