Emerson Arcadia 2001: help?

[lazzeri]

So... i've got a boxed Arcadia with a few carts *somewhere* (yeah, you probably know how it is) and i'm willing to have some fun with it.

 

But I am having a hard time finding reliable info about it. E. g.: Google pointed to at least 3 different USA, Emerson-released games list ranging from 17 to 26 unique titles (!)m

 

So... Could you fine gentlemen confirm the actual USA, Emmerson-released titles? Is there a reliable rarity guide around?

 

How hard it is to hunt those babies? I always see the same 5 games on eBay.

 

Thank you all in advance!

[Blazing Lazers]

Sure! First a warning, though: don't bother wasting your time on going for a full US set, as there's three titles that often go YEARS in between any copies at all showing up for sale, let alone complete and in good shape. Furthermore, of around 55 confirmed Arcadia-family games that are known to have had a release somewhere in the world, there are only 22 titles confirmed to be have been released here in the US. Even some very prominent and hardcore collectors still do not have a full US set after many years of searching, and of those that do I know of three that only were able to complete their sets recently due to another collector helping them out. I'm one of those, entirely due to luck. The releases for the various overseas clone systems are even tougher to find. This system is a collector's nightmare. If you're just looking to game, though, it is worth spending the time on, as there are several arcade ports that can only be found on this platform, along with a few fun games with relatively unique gameplay. So for just gaming, wait for more of the following multicarts to become available again, as they have every US and foreign game on them, minus one or two that are apparently still undumped (3D Attack, for example):

 

http://atariage.com/forums/topic/189779-arcadia-2001-multicart-2011-version-any-interest/

 

I also HIGHLY recommend you check the following two sites for EVERYTHING you could ever want on the Arcadia family of systems:

 

https://amigan.yatho.com/

 

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

 

In addition, you might want to get your system recapped or tuned up if the colors in your games are faded, browned, or otherwise not in sync with emulator screenshots, as it can make a world of difference in how they look. I've had several Arcadia systems over the years and all but one had display issues that led to the graphical output looking sub-par.

 

Anyways, to elaborate on the US releases, a game catalog brochure that was included with every game indicates that 23 games were either already available or "coming soon!", all numbered 1-23. Two of these were not released, but a #24 (Spiders) was released here in the US but is not mentioned in the brochure. No other titles are confirmed to have been released that were not mentioned in the US brochure. So, the total number of US releases is believed to be 22. I personally cannot rule out there having been limited releases of the two supposedly unreleased US titles, given how rare several of the known releases are and that one of the games the brochure lists as "coming soon" (Jungler) is one of the absolutely most common US games. As to why nobody can truly be sure one way or another, and also why it always seems to be the same 10 or so games available on Ebay (usually in lots of 8 ) apparently Emerson itself only sold the games briefly, and the short retail life of the system led to a LOT of unsold stock of games, which several discounters, catalogs, and Radio Shack later sold in package deals. Whatever exactly happened to cause most of the stock of the games to become absurdly low today is unknown, and I can't help but think some warehouse out there, somewhere, is full of all the missing stock of most of the US releases. But yeah, if you'd like to see the brochure yourself, it is available here:

 

http://www.videogameconsolelibrary.com/pg80-arcadia.htm#page=pics

 

And for cut and paste purposes, here's a list of the US games:

1. Cat Trax
2. Space Attack
3. Escape
4. Funky Fish (one of two US brochure-listed titles not confirmed to have been released here in America, listed as "coming soon!")
5. Space Raiders
6. Brain Quiz
7. Space Vultures
8. Alien Invasion
9. Space Mission
10. Missile War
11. Ocean Battle
12. Red Clash (one of the three rarest, listed as "coming soon!")
13. 3D Bowling
14. American Football
15. Baseball
16. Soccer
17. Breakaway
18. Star Chess
19. Capture
20. Tanks A Lot
21. Grand Slam Tennis (one of the three rarest, likely THE rarest known US release yet not listed as "coming soon!", indicating it was commonly available originally)
22. Pleiades (the other brochure title not believed to have had a US release, listed as "coming soon!")
23. Jungler (listed as "coming soon!" yet is one of the most common titles of all)
24. Spiders (one of the three rarest US releases, not even mentioned in the brochure yet is a confirmed release)

Edited March 8, 2017 by Blazing Lazers

[lazzeri]

Wow! Thank you for taking the time to do this. Really appreciated.

[+stupus]

I have spares of a few foreign exclusives lazzeri if you have any interest in those.