It seems that the Codemasters layout is pretty similar, if not identical, to Nintendo's UNROM board used for games such as Asterix, Smurfs, Castlevania, Duck Tales and Mega Man. Reduce cartridge manufacturing cost for Camerica carts a bit.
![aladdin games nes aladdin games nes](https://gamefabrique.com/screenshots2/snes/aladdin-23.big.jpg)
But fact is that the Aladdin Deck Enhancer still would The 64K "memory upgrade" written on the box is no where to be found. What it does contain though is 8K of CHR RAM and a lockout defeating curcuit - just like a regular Camerica/Codemasters NES cartridge. The difference is the ROMs are on little carts that plug into the "Enhancer". The small news snippet from Nintendo Magazinet alsoĬlaims that the Aladdin Deck Enhancer "Master Cart" would contain a lot of MMC and enhancing elements, but it really couldn't be further from the truth, at least the final product wasn't such. The Aladdin Deck Enhancer is basicly a cartridge split in two where all the generic components in one part and another smaller part, called Aladdin Compact Cartridge, contains only the ROM chip. They were even looking into bringing the Aladdin to the Sega Genesis and the Super Nintendo at this point. They expected the Aladdin to account for 60% of the companys revenue in 1993, expecting sales of more than 2 million units,Įxceeding sales of the NES Game Genie. Relationship with the Home Shopping Network, where their games would be sold exclusively for 30 days before they would be available at retailers, the Aladdin Deck Enhancer however would be available to retailers at launch.Ĭamerica had a budget of 3 million dollars to promote the Aladdin, mainly through television and print advertisement. The Aladdins true shine came at the Winter CES of 1992 where Camerica announced that the product would be ready to ship by the end of January of 1993, expecting to hit the store shelves in mid-February. At its peak the company had around 200 employees in Canada. Range of $30.000.000 according to a biography of David Harding. Camerica was founded around 1986 by Canadian David Harding, five years later the company had sales in the
#Aladdin games nes portable
Which would play NES games off CDs, a Portable NES "clone" of sorts and an adapter to play Gameboy games on a TV using the NES. The Aladdin Deck Enhancer was just one of many ideas Camerica had, others included a CD based system I'm sure we'll soon have more about the Aladdin, which is what Camerica calls their gizmo.Ĭamerica was a company dealing in consumer electronics, giftware and decorative accessories as well as retail merchandising services.
![aladdin games nes aladdin games nes](https://www.retrogameage.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/image019.jpg)
The gizmo, which you insert into your NES deck, contains various MMC-chips - meaning that theĮxpensive chips no longer have to be included in every cartridge and because of this new invention, cartridge production cost can be reduced quite a bit. Which was to be released early 1993 and yet again Codemasters was the brain behind the new Camerica product.Īladdin was first shown to the public at the Summer CES in 1992 and was at this point called "The Aladdin System" before it eventually became the "Aladdin Deck Enhancer".Ĭamerica, who made the Game Genie, now has a new gizmo in the works which will drive the people at Nintendo crazy (as usual). Well in early 1992 Camerica began spreading the word about a new product to be released, called "The Aladdin" - a revolutionary product The Game Genie was invented by Codemasters, a company based in the UK and still active to this day. In 1991 they sold 150.000+ Game Genies in Canada, while Galoob sold well over 1 million in the US in just 3 months. Though Camerica did release a somewhat limited supply of Game Genies in Canada. The company responsible for bringing the Aladdin DeckĮnhancer to the consumers was Canadian based "Camerica", a company well known to both Canadians and Americans at the time for their struggle with Nintendo regarding the Game Genie, for which they eventually handed over the publishing Welcome to the Aladdin Deck Enhancer special, in this article I will try to cover as much of the history behind the Deck Enhancer as well as the games that was in the works.
![aladdin games nes aladdin games nes](https://live.staticflickr.com/4155/34051044652_8d3b8fd4ba_b.jpg)
A very special thanks to Philip Oliver, Andrew Oliver, Bob Schuricht.