Aladdin Deck Enhancer

File:Aladdin-desk-enhancer-box.jpg

Aladdin Desk Enhancer box.

The Aladdin Deck Enhancer, produced by Camerica, was a device that one would plug into a Nintendo Entertainment System. It contained a bypass chip which would work with the lock-out chip inside the Nintendo Entertainment System. With this hardware in the deck, one would then insert a much smaller cartridge containing a game into the Aladdin Deck Enhancer.

The idea behind the Aladdin Deck Enhancer was to provide a cheaper means with which to make the game cartridges, mainly due to the fact that each cartridge requires its own 10NES lock-out chip, RAM and extra circuitry. Camerica was one of the major purveyors of unlicensed NES games, so the Deck Enhancer was a logical creation for them. Also, since the slot for the actual game was much smaller, less material was needed to produce a cartridge. However by the time the product was released the Super Nintendo and Sega Megadrive/Sega Genesis were already released and the product never had a large installed base to warrant large amount of software. Camerica never recuperated from the release and shortly was forced to close down.

Codemasters' game Dizzy Prince of the Yolkfolk designed by the Oliver twins was enhanced for the NES and retitled Dizzy the Adventurer and originally bundled with the Aladdin. Only another six titles were ever released all primarily from Codemaster's library. More titles were listed as "Coming Soon" on the Aladdin's box, but never released as Aladdin cartridges. CJ's Elephant Antics wasn't released as a standalone game at all but was part of the Quattro Arcade NES cartridge which contained three other games. Aladdin games were typically identical to their standalone counterparts with a few exceptions. Dizzy the Adventurer was the only one to receive any improvement, having a faster character, changed items system, and 250 instead of 100 stars to collect (other smaller things were changed as well). Baseball Pros on the Quattro Sports Aladdin cartridge seems to have a small problem. It always plays ten innings despite the score, rather than ending after nine when the score isn't tied.

Aladdin Deck Enhancer Games

• Big Nose Freaks Out
• Dizzy the Adventurer
• The Fantastic Adventures of Dizzy
• Linus Spacehead's Cosmic Crusade
• Micro Machines
• Quattro Adventure
• Quattro Sports

Games announced but never released

• Bee-52
• Bignose the Caveman
• CJ's Elephant Antics
• Go! Dizzy Go!
• Team Sports Basketball
• DreamWorld Pogie
• F16 Renegade
• Metal Man
• Mig-29 Soviet Fighter
• Stunt Kids
• The Ultimate Stuntman

See also

• List of NES accessories