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Emerson Arcadia 2001

An 8-bit console from 1982 built around an S2650, best known for having been sold under around thirty different names worldwide. If you come across an unidentified cartridge console from 1982-1983, there is a good chance this is it.

Arcadia 2001 motherboard: Signetics 2650A CPU, 2637 video chip, two MCM2114 RAMs, 7805 regulator and RF modulator

The Arcadia 2001 board. You can read the S 2650A (date code 8210), the 2637 video chip, two MCM2114 RAMs, the 7805 on its heatsink and the caged RF modulator. Photo by Evan-Amos (Vanamo Media), public domain.

Identification

Field Value
Manufacturer Emerson (USA) — plus some thirty rebadgers, see below
Year 1982
CPU Signetics S2650 — ⚠️ frequency depends on the TV standard, see below
Video 60 Hz scan, 262 lines — ⚠️ NTSC figures
Sound machine-specific circuit
Media cartridge

Expected clock — measurement table ✅

The frequency depends on the TV standard — don't condemn a crystal too fast

This is the trap on this machine, and it affects most of the European units in the list below.

Standard Crystal Divider CPU clock
NTSC 3.58 MHz ÷ 4 895 kHz
PAL 4.433 MHz ÷ 5 886.6 kHz

Both values are their standard's colour subcarrier: on a machine of this era the colour crystal doubles as the processor clock after division.

⚠️ Measuring 4.433 MHz on a European machine's crystal is normal. The MAME driver configures only the NTSC variant for all thirty-two machines, but its own documentation gives both cases.

⚠️ What we do not know: no consulted source says which physical unit carries which crystal. Go by what is fitted on the board.

⚠️ The same machine under thirty-two names

This is the most useful part of this page. All of these consoles are the same hardware and are repaired the same way:

Year Trade name Brand Country
1982 Arcadia 2001 Emerson USA
1982 Arcadia Bandai Japan
1983 Home Arcade Advision France
1982 Dynavision Yamagiwa Japan
1982 Ekusera P.I.C Japan
1982 Leonardo GiG Electronics Italy
1982 Home Arcade Centre Hanimex UK
1982 HMG-2650 Hanimex Germany
1982 Leisure-Vision Leisure-Dynamics Canada
1982 Schmid TVG 2000 Schmid Germany
1982 Tunix Home Arcade Monaco Leisure New Zealand
1983 Mr. Altus Tele Brain H.G.S. Germany
1983 Polybrain Video Computer Game Polybrain Germany
198? Intelligent Game MPT-03 Intelligent Game USA
198? ITMC MPT-03 ITMC France
198? Prestige Video Computer Game MPT-03 Prestige France
198? Poppy MPT-03 Tele Computer Spiel Transonic Germany
198? Soundic MPT-03 Soundic Finland
198? Tempest MPT-03 Tempest Australia
198? Tobby MPT-03 Tobby ?
198? Intercord XL 2000 System Intercord Germany
198? Intervision 2001 Intervision Switzerland
198? Ormatu 2001 Ormatu Electronics Netherlands
198? Rowtron 2000 Rowtron UK
198? Sheen Home Video Centre 2001 Sheen Australia
198? Tele-Fever Tchibo Germany
198? Trakton Computer Video Game Trakton Australia
198? Tryom Video Game Center Tryom USA
198? UVI Compu-Game Orbit Electronics New Zealand
198? Video Master Grandstand New Zealand
198? Tele-Computer Cosmos Mobilar (?) Spain (?)
198? Palladium Video-Computer-Game Neckermann Germany — ⚠️ 16 keys instead of 12

The Palladium is not alone: it heads a family

The MAME driver notes that Neckermann's Palladium has 16 keys on its controllers instead of 12, and additionally gives it a distinct memory map (ROM blocks where the others have mirrors).

More importantly, three further machines are attached to the Palladium in the driver: Mr. Altus Tele Brain, Polybrain and Trakton. "Only the casing changes" therefore does not hold for those four.

Two uncertain entries, exactly as the source gives them

The driver itself marks two lines with a question mark: the brand of the Tele-Computer Cosmos ("Mobilar?") and its country ("Spain?", the author noting he only found pictures of a German Cosmos), plus the country of the Tobby MPT-03. We reproduce them with their uncertainty.

Common faults

Symptom Likely cause Lead
Won't power up S2650 or its crystal ⚠️ 895 kHz (NTSC) or 886.6 kHz (PAL) — see the box
No picture video stage or RF modulator A 1982 machine: period RF output
Cartridge not recognised connector contacts Clean with isopropyl, never an abrasive
No sound, or wrong sound machine-specific sound circuit ⚠️ see the caveat below

Procedure — a dead console, step by step ✅

What this adds

Ordered for a console, not for an arcade board: what kills these is almost never the CPU. It is, in real order, the power supply, the capacitors, the drive or the cartridge slot, and only then the logic. → PCB diagnosis

1. The power supply. Two cases, depending on the machine. External brick: ⚠️ read the marking on the machine, next to the socket, and check the adapter against it — voltage and polarity. A centre-negative machine fed centre-positive loses its fuse, sometimes its regulator; do not trust a third-party label or a generic tip. Internal supply (the machine plugs straight into the wall): mains is inside the shell. Unplug, wait, and confirm the large capacitors are discharged before touching the board. Either way, measure under load: a failing supply holds its voltage until it is asked for current.

2. The fuse. Many of these machines have one right behind the socket — it is the part designed to die. Test it in continuity, out of circuit. A fuse that blows again is a short, not a fuse problem.

3. Capacitors. On most machines of this age this is the default suspect rather than a last resort — leaking SMD electrolytics eat the tracks underneath before they give any other sign. ⚠️ Not all of them are like that: some carry very few and are not recapped on principle. Read what this page says about it before reaching for the iron. → Recap

4. The cartridge connector. Cartridge contacts with isopropyl alcohol, never an abrasive eraser: it takes the gold plating off and the problem comes back worse. On the machine side, inspect the slot pins — splayed, bent or oxidised — and check continuity between slot and board.

5. Video output. Isolate the machine from the display: another cable, another TV, another input. A sizeable share of "dead consoles" are a dead cable, or a display that will not lock onto what this machine outputs — see the video section of this page for what that is.

6. Still nothing. Now, and only now, the logic: rails on the board, reset, clock, bus. → PCB diagnosis

Repair (technician)

  • Signetics' S2650 is not a common processor. Unlike a 6502 or a Z80, replacements are not easy to find — worth considering before condemning it.
  • A single crystal, but its value depends on the standard: 3.58 MHz on NTSC, 4.433 MHz on PAL. Identify the standard before concluding.
  • The name on the case tells you nothing about the hardware. See the table: thirty-two names, one machine. A service note found for one applies to the others.

→ Methods: PCB diagnosis · Recap

Preservation status

What the source says it does not know

The MAME driver carries three explicit caveats worth knowing:

  • the character ROM has not been dumped — the driver is still looking for it;
  • the front-panel RESET key is not implemented;
  • all thirty-two variants carry the "imperfect sound" flag (counted one by one);
  • four of them additionally carry "not working": Mr. Altus Tele Brain, Palladium, Polybrain and Trakton — the four of the Palladium family.

In other words: if your machine's sound does not match the emulator's, that is not proof your machine is faulty.

Modernisation & mods

  • ⚠️ Do not host ROMs — method only.

Photos / assets

(To take: the board with the S2650 and the crystal, the cartridge connector, and if at all possible two differently branded cases side by side — the most telling illustration this page could have.)

Archived manufacturer documentation ✅

Manufacturer documentation archived locally. ⚠️ These are owner's and reference manuals, not service manuals: they give the specifications, the connectors and the expected behaviour, but not the schematics or troubleshooting voltages.

  • Arcadia 2001 — owner's manual (ADV-1) — PDF
  • Advision Home Arcade — manual (French rebadge) — PDF

Status

Manufacturer documents with no explicit licence, kept for preservation (machines out of production for decades).

Sources & attribution

Text (synthesis; sources listed for attribution):

  • MAME — src/mame/arcadia/arcadia.cpp (GPL-2.0+, driver by Peter Trauner; documentation consolidated and enhanced by Manfred Schneider from earlier work by PeT and Paul Robson, minor updates by incog): the S2650 at 3,580,000 ÷ 4, the 60 Hz scan over 262 lines, the machine-specific sound circuit, the driver header giving the CPU "at 3.58/4 MHz (for NTSC) or at 4,433/5 (for PAL)" — the source of this page's conditional — the full list of the thirty-two variants (thirty-one rebadges plus the original Emerson) with their years, brands and countries — including the uncertainties the driver itself notes about the Tele-Computer Cosmos and the Tobby MPT-03 — the note about the Palladium's 16 keys, the "imperfect sound" flag on all thirty-two variants and the "not working" flag on four of them, the Palladium's distinct memory map and the three machines attached to it, and the driver's TODOs: RESET key not implemented and character ROM not dumped — https://github.com/mamedev/mame/blob/master/src/mame/arcadia/arcadia.cpp

Image:

Review & corrections

How this space is used

Spotted a wrong value, an outdated procedure, a chip reference that does not match your board? Say so here, with what you observed (model, board revision, serial number, measurement). Every report is cross-checked against a source before anything changes — an unverifiable correction is published as “reported by …, not cross-checked” rather than silently applied.

Reading is open to everyone; posting requires signing in with Discord. Reports from the wiki's declared reviewers are handled first; anyone else's are read too, but go through a human before anything is changed.