The Emerson Arcadia is a strange system. It uses controllers which are just like Intellivision controllers, but with a stick in the middle of the circular disc. It uses cartridges which look like Atari 2600 cartridges, except for some which are as big as two 2600 cartridges stacked end-to-end. Its graphic capabilities are roughly equal to that of the Commodore VIC-20, and its sound is as off-key as the Atari 2600.
At least 34 cartridges were made for the system (probably more, but that's the highest-numbered one I've seen so far). Most of the games are the standards (Football, Breakout, etc) but there is a playable Berzerk clone (Robot Killer) and an actual licensed version of the arcade game Turtles (which lacks the "houses" found in the arcade, handheld, and Odyssey2 versions!).
A clone of the Arcadia 2001 called the Leisurevision was produced. Probably the largest impact made by the Arcadia 2001 on the gaming world was Emerson's insistance that the company Arcadia, who made the Supercharger for the Atari 2600, change their name (they picked "Starpath").
Dennis Brown, dgbrown (at) pixesthesia (dot) com, creator and maintainer. E-Mail me with corrections and additions. All contents copyright 2006, Dennis Brown. All trademarks are properties of their respective companies.
