When you decide to get serious, there's only one place to come the games of Super Nintendo in 1993 the North American console wars were in full swing with the Super Nintendo and Sega Genesis Competing for the top spot in the market developers and manufacturers were hard at work to make the next great 16-bit games and accessories, but One company was stuck in the past Comerica America thought it would be wiser to appeal to the more than 30 million consumers who already had an 8-bit Nintendo Entertainment System So in 1993 They announced the Aladdin deck enhancer a device you could plug into your NES and play special proprietary compact cartridges why Because not only did the Aladdin promised additional memory and graphics power But the cartridges were 30 to 40 dollars less than a traditional NES cartridge never heard of it. That's no surprise Comerica quickly went under after the product was announced in January of 1993 It's questionable if the Aladdin deck enhancer ever got a retail release And it's mostly only known today in collector circles So let's take a look at the Aladdin deck enhancer the company behind it all and why it faded into obscurity America was founded as a gift we're wholesaler in 1987 by David J Harding based out of Ontario, Canada Comerica sold items such as porcelain bears pottery and crystal glassware to gift shops But they soon got into the fast growing video game business Their first products were wireless controllers for the Nintendo Entertainment System Such as the freedom stick and the supersonic joystick Comerica also made the freedom connection which turned any controller into a wireless controller They had a few wild ideas teased in magazines including a portable Nintendo Entertainment System Called the Nintendo Express, but they were never released Camerica really hit it big in 1990 when they released the game genie a device that allowed players to add and create cheat codes for their nes games a Video game company based out of the UK known as code masters developed the game genie when founders Richard and David Darling went to Nintendo to inquire about licensing. They were turned a way So instead they licensed the device to Camerica to help with distribution outside of Canada America Licensed the game genie to toy company Galoob which would distribute the device throughout the United States in Europe Nintendo quickly sued everyone involved to prevent the game genie from coming to market But ultimately Nintendo lost the lawsuit the game genie went on to sell more than two and a half million Units it was so popular that code masters made versions for the Game Boy Game Gear Sega Genesis and Super Nintendo the game genie also helped establish a strong relationship between Camerica and code masters the two companies formed an agreement where Camerica would essentially become the sales distribution arm for Code Masters products America decided to publish several of Code masters games as unlicensed Nintendo cartridges The cartridges were either gold or silver and each one had a switch on the back to get around the NES lockout chip Depending on the version of NES hardware players would set the switch to either A or B the switch essentially crashed the NES lockout chip allowing the games to play they put out several titles including stunt kids Super Robin Hood and the fantastic adventures of dizzy Comerica relied heavily on grassroots advertised they would release titles to rental stores 30 days in advance. So players could try the games out before buying them. They also advertised on the Home Shopping Network HSN got 30-day, exclusivity before the games hit stores They even signed 1990 Nintendo World Champion Thor åkerlund to an endorsement deal åkerlund promoted the games in magazines commercials and on the Home Shopping Network Comerica games weren't sold at massive toy chains like Toys R Us but they were widely available at department stores like Walmart and smaller chains like Electronics Boutique and KB Toys Comerica and Codemasters unlicensed games sold relatively well but the biggest problem was developer costs making unlicensed games was expensive and time consuming and the Profit margins weren't great Richard and David darling of Codemasters thought there could be a better way and they came up with the Aladdin deck enhancer traditional NES cartridges contains several components including the game ROM chip and security chip The problem was every time a cartridge had to be made every single component had to be included making costs high Codemasters took most of the chips and put them inside the deck enhancer on the game cartridges was just the game wrong Therefore companies could develop games without having to pay for extra chips on every cartridge which would make games significantly cheaper America thought the idea was brilliant and agreed to license and distribute the device While a large portion of the gaming population was moving on to the 16-bit systems There were more than 30 million NES systems already out there In fact many parents were upset that the 16-bit Super Nintendo wasn't backwards compatible with the NES and refused to upgrade I'm gonna say no and I'm gonna explain to him how People market things to make you spend more money America thought they could take advantage of the lack of new NES games by Introducing the Aladdin with various budget titles, it could extend the life of the system in 1992 at the summer Consumer Electronics Show Comerica teased their new product which at the time was called the Aladdin system a Swedish magazine Nintendo mega CNET seemed to like the idea but also stated what Nintendo's lawyers have to say about this We don't know On January 7th 1993 at the Winter Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas America unveiled their new device the Aladdin deck enhancer to the public the deck enhancer itself would retail for $39.99 and come packaged with a game additional games would cost between $17.99 and $19.99 at the time Comerica was only planning to release the Aladdin deck enhancer in North America Comerica president David J Harding boasted our Aladdin deck enhancer is like a wish in hard times for families that have longed for quality video game entertainment at a recession busting price So now that you know more about the history, let's talk about the actual device Let's take a look at the packaging the bottom right corner says the deck enhancer will upgrade your Nintendo Entertainment System Well, that's interesting upgrade it with what? according to the back the deck enhancer has a 64 K memory upgrade for better graphics and bigger games But this is all just marketing hype the Aladdin deck enhancer is no different than a standard Comerica cartridge Inside the box is the deck enhancer with instructions along with a dizzy the adventurer cartridge and a poster manual for the game Believe it or not. There are two versions of the deck enhancer The first version has an a/b switch just like they're unlicensed games. This is to get around the NES lockout chip Version 2 removed the switch as they found a way to automate the whole process a word of caution The Aladdin deck enhancer only works with the original toaster design of the Nintendo Entertainment System If you try to use it on a top loader, it could potentially fry your system It also needs the nes lockout chip to work so it doesn't work with third party consoles like the retron or the analog and tea mini to use the device just Plug in a compact cartridge into the deck enhancer then use it like you would any NES cartridge They even come out to about the same size so how about the games the Aladdin deck enhancer only had Seven games and besides the pack in title. All of them had previously been released as a standalone cartridge Comerica did tease future titles on the back of the box, but the company didn't last long enough to release any of them We'll start with a pack in title dizzy the adventurer This is a port of dizzy prince of the yolk folk Which was released on several computer platforms including the Commodore 64 and Amiga Your goal is to rescue your girlfriend Daisy who is locked away in a castle the best way to describe this game is an adventure Platformer rather than attack enemies dizzy must collect items and use them to solve puzzles It's fun trying to figure out which items dizzy needs to use to get around certain obstacles You'll also get to interact with a bunch of different characters including Dizzy's pet Hoagie, the dizzy games were made by the Oliver twins a pair of developers who collaborated with code masters on many Titles they made a lot of dizzy games. There are more than 15 titles in the franchise But as far as dizzy the adventurer goes it's a lot of fun once you beat it It's not as exciting since you know what to do the second time around But it's still one of my favorite games on the Aladdin deck enhancer Next up is Micro Machines Micro Machines is probably the most well known game from Comerica. Thanks to the popularity of the toy franchise This is a top-down racer where you get to race with different micro machines and scaled-down Racetracks like in a bathtub or on a table. You also get to choose your racer and it's me as You win races. You'll add cars to your Micro Machines collection This is another fun title on the Aladin deck enhancer We're two for two so far, but as I mentioned earlier, you can also buy this game as a standalone cartridge now Let's look at big nose freaks out This is a platformer where your goal is to collect all of your stolen bones But instead of walking on two feet big nose rolls around on a wheel it almost feels like a sonic game Momentum plays a big role in making some jumps and you can even launch off of ramps Collecting power stones gives you a projectile. You can fire. Once you get hit you lose the powerup get hit again and you're dead Jumping on mushrooms reveals power-ups, but it can also cause problems Sometimes it will cause a lightning storm or even reverse your controls Big nose freaks out is a decent platformer, but can be a bit of a challenge There's also no music in any of the levels, which was an odd choice I found the prequel big-nosed the caveman more enjoyable Comerica was planning to release this on the Aladdin deck enhancer, but it never came out here we have four games in one with Quattro sports the 4 and 1 cartridges were unique to Comerica and they marketed them heavily in their advertisements Unfortunately, most of these games are poor first up is baseball pros featuring teams from around the world including The fightin bears of Moscow this game is bogged down by issues Feeling the ball is almost impossible You can only control your pitcher in the infield and you can't move your outfielders until the ball passes a certain point There's also no force outs. You have to tag everyone to get them out luckily You can easily throw a no-hitter by throwing sliders over and over the CPU just refuses the swing at this pitch Next is BMX simulator. This is another top-down racer. I just couldn't get the hang of this game It was extremely difficult to control my guy and I kept running into stuff the third game is soccer simulator everything in this game just feels very Slippery I feel like I never really have full control over what's going on? I actually think it's faster to slide tackle around the field than to actually run You can't switch players either the CPU will just select the closest player to the ball overall a pretty frustrating experience and finally there is pro tennis simulator the ball physics in this game just feel off The only way to properly serve the ball is when it's down by your face, which doesn't make much sense You'll also feel lucky just to hit the ball quatro Sports is a mess Thor you lied to us all about your sports in a four great games on a one cartridge electro baseball is incredible Let's move on to Linus space heads cosmic crusade you Play as an alien named Linus who must prove to his buddies that he discovered the planet Earth This is another platformer adventure game. But with more of an emphasis on platforming the problem is the controls Controlling Linus is a chore. You can't change direction midair. So once you commit to a jump, there's no correcting it - sometimes just won't stop moving making platforming extremely difficult. I gave up on this game pretty quickly Here is another four in one cartridge this time. It's Quattro Adventure Does it fare any better than Quattro sports? Yes, it does The first title is oh boy. Another line is space head game It suffers from the same issues as cosmic crusade hard pass Next is super Robin Hood This is another game from the Oliver twins the creators of busy you play as Robin Hood Making your way through a dungeon and collecting keys and treasure you also have a bow and arrow You can shoot to defeat enemies. It reminds me a lot of loadrunner, which is a good thing The third game is boomerang kid. This feels like an old-school arcade game The goal is to collect boomerangs and exit as fast as possible all while avoiding the dangers of the outback Despite being the boomerang kid. You don't actually get to throw a boomerang You also can't fall from Heights or you'll lose a life It's not a bad game, but it's also not a very exciting one. The final game in Quattro adventure is Treasure Island dizzy This is similar to dizzy the adventurer you collect items to solve puzzles and get past obstacles However, it doesn't run as smoothly it's also more difficult because you only get one life This is frustrating because there's a lot of gotcha traps in the game So it's a lot of trial and error. We have reached our final game the fantastic adventures of dizzy This is the biggest dizzy game on the NES It also won best adventure game in game players magazine Missy's girlfriend Daisy has once again been kidnapped and you have to rescue her This is your standard dizzy game collect items to solve puzzles and traverse obstacles and it's much bigger than dizzy the adventure The Aladdin deck enhancer version of this game is slightly different than the standalone cartridge It plays a little faster and gives you 250 stars to collect instead of 100 overall another fun dizzy game Comerica had big plans for the Aladdin deck enhancer They set aside 3 million dollars for advertising and expected the device to account for 60% of their business in 1993 Comerica planned to release more than 35 games for the device that year magazines like electronic gaming monthly wrote up previews codemasters was exploring making a version of the device for the Super Nintendo and Sega Genesis on Paper the future looked bright for Comerica and the Aladdin deck enhancer, but the reality of the situation Was much different internally Comerica had major issues Due to poor product quality Retailers got a lot of returns on Comerica products including their joysticks and unlicensed games America's giftware division struggled due to an economic recession Gift shops had trouble moving product in Comerica was stuck with tons of inventory by June of 1993 Less than five months after the Aladdin Dec enhancer was announced Comerica filed for bankruptcy It's not clear if the Aladdin Dec enhancer ever got released. There are no known Advertisements of it being for sale if it did get out. It was a very limited release So if the Aladdin Dec enhancer was never released How am I holding one right now? Well in 1996 a store based out of New Jersey called videogame connections But a ton of old Comerica inventory from a liquidator out of Brooklyn, New York The store owner estimated there were between five and ten thousand deck enhancers with similar quantities of each game Over the years even more Liquidators began selling them listings soon popped up on eBay and the rest is history Even today you can buy an Aladdin with every game brand new for about a hundred dollars The idea of the Aladdin deck enhancer isn't a bad one at all Imagine if Nintendo included the standard cartridge chips within the Super Nintendo Games would be way cheaper since publishers would only have to manufacture the games ROM chip But Comerica simply didn't have the resources to launch a product like the Aladdin deck enhancer The Aladdin also failed simply because it was a device for the NES Yes, the Nintendo Entertainment System had a huge user base in 1993 But the industry was moving on to 16-bit systems Said one former Comerica employee. It was never going to work. We were two steps behind on the dance That's all for this episode of the gaming historian. Thanks for watching Funding for gaming historian is provided in part by supporters on patreon. Thank you
