Emerson Arcadia 2001
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| Manufacturer | Emerson |
|---|---|
| Generation | Second generation |
| Release date | 1982 |
| Media type | ROM cartridge |
Released in 1982, during the full glory of the Atari 2600, Emerson’s Arcadia 2001 had just 22 titles in its library, and all the games were published by Emerson and developed by UA Limited. The console’s lack of commercial success in the United States kept such third-party publishers as Imagic, Activision, and Parker Brothers from entering the fray. The Arcadia 2001 was seen in many circles as nothing more than an outlet for mediocre arcade clones, but its small base of hardcore supporters argued differently.
The Arcadia 2001 has more power than the Atari 2600 (one kilobyte of RAM compared to a mere 128 bytes), but it lacked the popular arcade ports of its day, such as Space Invaders, Missile Command, and Pac-Man. Also, the next generation of systems, i.e. the ColecoVision and the Atari 5200, were released later the same year, making the 2001 all but irrelevant to the gaming masses.
Technical specifications
The Arcadia console is small (about the size of an Atari 2600 jr.), and its controllers, which have Intellivision-like keypads, a fire button on each side, and thin, short, screw-in joysticks, are hard-wired into the system. Most of the games came with plastic keypad overlays. The console’s diminutive size, combined with its 12-volt power supply, make it semi-portable as it can be plugged into various 12V batteries/battery packs.
The Arcadia 2001 was licensed to many different companies and sold under different names including Tele-Fever and Leisure-Vision. However, not all consoles are compatible due to differences in cart slots and cases.
CPU: Signetics 2650 @ 3.58 MHz
Games
The game library was composed of 51 unique games and about 10 variations. The graphic quality is similar to that of the Intellivision and the Odyssey2.
