The Story of the Aladdin Deck Enhancer

Learn about the history of a unique NES accessory, the Aladdin Deck Enhancer! In the early 90's, the 16-bit war between Sega and Nintendo was heating up. But one company was thinking about the past: Camerica. In January of 1993, they announced the Aladdin Deck Enhancer, a device for your 8-bit NES that played proprietary compact cartridges. Why? Watch the video to find out!

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[thorrollosson]

Haha this is a great video :) Some additional context from the inside. David Harding and Terry Hickey, the guys I dealt with mostly from the Camerica side of things, were very nice guys and probably pretty good businessmen with more traditional products. Then they hit a home run out of nowhere with that game genie, and I don't believe they ever understood the actual gaming market itself.

I wish I had more input on the whole thing, but I was just a kid, and ultimately, a prop. As my mom was very ill after our house burning down and a heart condition/brain damage, and my dad wasn't able to find work, it fell on me to earn our roof. Micro Machines were the only toys to survive our fire in 1989, picking through the ashes. The fact that I'd later end up endorsing the video game had a certain poetic logic to it.

The game genie and Micro Machines were my introduction to Camerica and Codemasters. Although I had very little say in the matter, being signed to do this did seem promising at first. Unfortunately, the following releases of games were a mixed bag of mostly decent to below average stuff. Worse, I absolutely knew that the 8-bit days at that time were extremely limited. I nearly begged for 16-Bit titles, and the replies I received were either vague promises or flat out ignoring the question. Seeing their plans for the Alladin made it clear they had the exact opposite idea in mind. Logical on the surface, but gamers are always looking for the next best thing, not something that played old titles on an old console.

If it had been more ambitious, say with some of the more exotic add-on DSPs and processors, and had extensive cooperation with other devs, the prospects would have been at least hypothetically promising instead of an obvious dead end. After all, the PC Engine/TG16 is basically an 8-Bit with some hopped up features.

Ah well, I got to meet a lot of wonderful people, and see some interesting stuff from the ground during that era. I was at the CES where Nintendo and Sony broke up their PlayStation plans and saw a great many obviously furious Japanese execs storming around. I won a New Geo by playing Fatal Fury against Chad Okada (aka The SNK Game Lord, an amazingly nice guy), I got to travel extensively and talk games with kids across the country, and of course drop by any SF2 machine I saw :)

It just makes me a bit sad, if at least no longer outright angry, that the bulk of the games they stuck my name on were never as great as I felt Micro Machines was. And some series such as Dizzy, were in their own right pretty good games, but the US market was not really used to these in the context of NES experience. European gamers playing on 'home micros' such as Speccy, Sinclair, etc, were much more used to more involved and slower paced games. Even the dev cycle of putting out budget titles on tape or floppy at extremely low production costs and sticker price was a bad match for expensive to produce cartridges and $50-$60 game prices.

All in all, bravo for the video. If anyone feels like they bought a bad Camerica game on my account, drop me a line when in Texas, and I'll buy you a Shiner or a Dr Pepper and apologize in person.

Much love

Thor

[GamingHistorian]

I bought an Aladdin Deck Enhancer back in 2015. The only thing I knew about it was that it was from the same people who made the Game Genie. It sat on my shelf for years until a few months ago, when I decided to finally dive in. The history behind this crazy accessory was way more interesting than I ever thought. Hope you all enjoy!

[SonicFanDU]

Had to watch this after AVGN recent episode!

[dataecto]

"If the Aladdin Deck Enhancer was never released...how am I holding one right now?"

*The box in his hands begins to fade away into dust*

[craigland]

Oh DECK enhancer...I seem to have clicked on the wrong video.

[titanium_rocket]

I freaked out when this was in the AVGN episode!

[TugsP]

"One of my favorite games...on the Aladdin Deck Enhancer".


Well played, sir.

[hecatialapislazulli]

0:40 Wait a minute... He has two of them? Nobody has two!
Who would own multiple copies of something that's shitty?

[gusrendell]

James Rolfe makes a passing remark in his latest video which I think defines the appeal of Gaming Historian.

While describing the undoing of Camerica thanks to the Deck Enhancer™ the Nerd says ‘not even the Gaming Historian found any clear proof, ’ a statement which goes by quickly but rather poignantly exemplifies the thoroughness and depth which Norman examines his topics and subjects.

He himself mentions in a video about his own history that he saw a niche to fill with a detailed historical approach to looking at gaming, and there’s truly no one offering content on the same level as Norm. His background in education and research is bolstered by slick and utterly charming production, all of which is a means of conveyance for exceptional and compelling insight into a history that holds many interesting and critical stories. Norm’s offerings set the bar very, very high and there aren’t any contemporaries that provide content that teaches about the nooks and crannies of gaming in such an engrossing way.

Thanks for the great content.

[The_RadicalOne]

Dang, now I wish I had kept mine. Nice throwback memory though.

[howiefeltersnatch]

Anyone else see a young Paul Rudd in the first commercial?

[marcinkuc]

Fun fact: Those Camerica games were very popular in Poland in the 90s, where we could play them on Pegasus, a Famicom clone distributed here. Micro Machines is one of my favourite childhood games.

[ricemenarq]

this video already better than the upcoming Aladdin movie.

[BlakeBaggott]

I love how the Gaming Historian makes me care about things I didn’t even know I wanted to care about

[Movie_Games]

Why didn't Nintendo build whatever hardware that was in the Aladdin deck enhancer into the NES itself? Then sell carts for $20?
EDIT: He just said exactly what I was thinking at 18:20

[SonofMrPeanut]

I will always grin seeing that Paul Rudd SNES ad.

[TransCanadaPhil]

These were definitely available at retail in Canada for awhile when they first came out. I remember seeing them on retail shelves at places like "Zellers" back in the day.

[GameHammerCG]

The Dizzy games are wonderful. Dizzy is essentially the British 8-bit Mario. His games are held in high regard by so many British retro gamers. :)

[acvieluf]

I bought a deck enhancer once. It was not what i thought it was.

[ScreamyngYoshi]

Did you survive the explosion? Tell me your computer still works...