Arabian is an arcade game released in 1983. This game was designed by Sun Electronics but licensed to Atari games.
The concept behind Arabian was that of a video book. A nice concept, but the finshed product doesn't reflect that concept very well (they show a book in between each level, that is as far as it goes). Gameplay is very similar to that of Kangaroo (not surprising since they came from the same company), even to the point of having a super leap manuever. The game is played out on a series of fixed vertical screens (Pirate ships mostly).
You control an Arabian Prince. Your mission, to rescue your Princess from the enemy (sound familiar?). Pick up brass jugs (that have Genies inside), for bonus points. Some jugs also have letters on them use them to spell A-R-A-B-I-A-N and you will get a bonus. Your enemies include Rocs, Oscars, and the evil genies (which can all be defeated with a swift Arab kick). You can lose a life by falling off a ledge or touching an enemy.
From the August 1983 Issue of
Atari Age
Atari has taken a page from the 1001 Tales of the Arabian Nights for this new coin videogame. In fact, they've taken four entire chapters - four different exciting episodes to challenge a fast running, kicking, and jumping little prince in ARABIAN.
Most Arabian machines were shipped in white dedicated cabinets featuring sideart of a Prince, a Genie, and some bats. This game had a built in amplifier, but that was not good enough for Atari. They would turn the onboard amp down and they then ran the sound to yet another amplifier, they did this because all of their other games had amplifiers (this was obviously a management decision).
This game was not ported to the Atari 2600 (even though Atari held the rights to it). The home videogame crash had already begun when this machine first hit the arcades. You will probably never see a real Arabian machine, but it is supprted by MAME (so you can still try it out if you would like).