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History
ToyMax is a New York-based company toy company better known for their Creepy Crawlers and My Pet Monster toys series. Aside from a new signed deal to publish the Nintendo Mini Classics handheld, ToyMax was not really into videogames. In 1998, they decided to release a light gun game that projects the target on the wall.
Release
The Arcadia Electronic Skeet Shoot game sets are indoor image-projecting game systems. The system can support projecting two distinct images at the same times. Released in October 1998, the game was well received and manage to sell over 435,000 units in the first 18 months. On April 5th 2000, all the systems and games were recalled following about a hundred reports of projectors overheating, melting and smoking. One consumer reportedly suffered a burn injury on the hand. ToyMax tracked down the problem to a cartridge component that was overheating and replaced the faulty cartridges by an orange version of the same cartridge.
Demise
After the recall, ToyMax had a lot of difficulties regaining customer trust with the Arcadia Skeet Shoot. Even with the replacement cartridges and the new labelling, ToyMax was unable to convince current and new customers that console was now safe. New sales were staggering, even with the release of new cartridges, the system was not able to attract new customers. In 2001, seeing that they needed a complete redesign to shake the bad reputation the Arcadia Electronic Skeet Shoot had. They came up with the Arcadia II, a console that improved a bit on the Arcadia Electronic Skeet Shoot formula.
Console Variations
The console came in at least 5 variations.
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| Arcadia Skeet Shoot 1998, U.S.A |
Arcadia Skeet Shoot Deer Hunter 1999, U.S.A |
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| AstrAdom |
Moorhuhn Jagd Released in 2001 by Stadlbauer in Germany/Austria |
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| Arcadia Skeet Shoot 2000, Japan |
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Games
Due to the massive recalled, some games came in two colors, the fire-safe version which is 
orange and the original release which have a different color for each release. It’s to be noted that once the recall was made, the new fire-safe versions were still sold in the old box but with a sticker indicating a “New & Improve Orange Game Cartridge”. Each game came with a cartridge and a piece of plastic with two lenses.
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| Duck Shoot* 1998 |
Deer Hunter* 1999 |
Moorhuhn Jagd* 2001 |
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| Fighter Attack 1998 |
Meteor Attack 1998 |
Creepy Crawlers 1999 |
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| Hot Air Balloon October 2000 |
Dinosaur Hunt* October 2000 |
African Safari October 2000 |
* These cartridges were pack-in cartridges.
- Duck Shoot was packed with the regular North American retail version. It’s unknown if the game also came in stand-alone version.
- Deer Hunter was packed with the Arcadia Skeet Shoot Deer Hunter version of the console. The game was also available as a stand-alone cartridge.
- Moorhuhn Jagd was packed with Moorhuhn Jagd version of the console. It is unlikely that the game was available by any other means.
- Dinosaur Hunt was packed with the Japanese release of the console. It is likely, but unconfirmed, that the game was available in the U.S. as a stand-alone game.