The Aladdin Deck Enhancer retrospective: Itty-bitty cartridge space | NES Works Gaiden #17

This episode brings the recent run of NES Works Gaiden episodes to a head by being both massive, sprawling, and focused on a European creation. Whew.
The Aladdin Deck Enhancer is one of those NES tidbits that people have probably heard of but most likely only know through second-hand sources, such as The Angry Video Game Nerd. I don't know that I have much to add to the conversation, especially since the Aladdin has low compatibility with FPGA-based clone hardware, but by god, this was a patron request (from Joseph Wawzonek), and I am determined to give Video Works patrons their money's worth.
Honestly, this episode was a lot of fun to put together, despite its technical issues. A few of the games were definitely on the dicey side, but most were solid, and a few are good enough that I want to play them again sometime when I'm not simultaneously freebasing a dozen different unfamiliar games for an episode of a weekly video series.
Video Works is funded via Patreon ( / gamespite ) - support the show and get access to every episode up to two weeks in advance of its KZbin debut! And be sure to check out the Retronauts podcast (www.retronauts.com), where I (and many others!) tackle a much wider array of classic gaming topics each week.

[@RobinZeg]

I somehow never made the Genie -> Aladdin connection until this video.

[@TheSmart-CasualGamer]

No, me neither.

[@gitgeronimo9375]

My neighbor and I both had the gold Camerica carts of Quattro Adventure. We played the hell out of Treasure Island Dizzy! We’d play on our own, make notes, get together, compare them, and then try beat the game. In 8th grade, one afternoon after school, we did it! We got the petrol, the outboard motor, and the dehydrated boat, and left that island for good! Such a great memory for me.

[@ColdPie]

We had Quattro Arcade, which features a pretty fun Dizzy puzzle game. Spent many hours on that. Years later I learned about Dizzy's other games and was both baffled and blown away.

[@Larry]

Fun Fact: Treasure Island Dizzy only gives you one life as the original Amstrad version contained a glitch, where if you jumped into the sea at the beginning of the game, you'd both die and drop all your items, making it impossible to pick them up again. The Oliver twins didn't have enough time to fix the issue, so just programed the game to give you a single life!

[@JeremyParish]

Huh... I guess that's one way to go about it.

[@joypadretro2797]

Ah so you'd have to restart?

[@Larry]

@@JeremyParish Gotta love how the gaming industry cuts corners like that. Cut off the entire leg to save the patient.

[@DragonRaiderX9]

If you'd like some catharsis, check out the Oliver Twins' KZbin channel. They have a video where they play Treasure Island Dizzy and talk about their time making it. Plus, watching them experience the frustration that they created is a touch more satisfying than it ought to be.

[@KevlarGorilla]

Jeremy's intros feel like an immortal being welcoming you to discover essential life knowledge.

[@jasonjayalap]

He's the crypt keeper?

[@stevemanart]

Micro Machines for the NES taught me two things. 1. That a game can be a good game even if I don't enjoy it. 2. I don't like racing games.

[@SuperZeroNegative]

Dizzy (and almost all the Aladdin games) was quite popular in Poland. We never had true NES but instead after 1989 our market was flooded with clone consoles. Aladdin games were sold as Famicon format multicart. There was glod five with (Fantastic Adventures of Dizzy, Micromachines, Ultimate Stuntman, BigNose Caveman and BigNose FreaksOut) and gold four cart (Super Robin Hood, Boomerang Kid, Linus Spacehead and Tresure Island Dizzy). There is a big dispute in Polish retrogaming community if they were licensed by Codemaster.

[@BagOfMagicFood]

The Oliver Twins believed they weren't licensed by Codemasters!

[@TheSnoopyclone]

I remember the home shopping network had these for sale with 4 games for like $70, $80.

[@jasonblalock4429]

19:06 This hurts so much, even just a few seconds of it. I know that emulating the Mega Drive's sound hardware is hard, but who could have possibly thought *that* was acceptable for release?

[@XanthinZarda]

I like how the mapping is mishandled a bit; a lot of the audio data leaks into visual memory. A good sign of quality, that.

[@HybridAngelZero]

Despite having known about this thing for a few years, growing up with everyone I know having Game Genies, and knowing they were from the same company, I never put together the *Aladdin* and Game *Genie* connection until you pointed it out just now.

[@JeremyParish]

I didn't realize it myself until I was writing this and had an "Ohhhhh" moment.

[@HybridAngelZero]

@@JeremyParish Saw a few other people mention it in comments as well. Codemasters really be out here waiting almost 30 years for us to get the joke

[@TheSmart-CasualGamer]

I actually hadn't thought of the link between the Aladdin Deck Enhancer and the Game Genie. I feel a bit dumb. Funnily enough, I was playing the DOS version if Fantastic Dizzy when I was alerted to this video.

[@lemmingscanfly5]

Why?

[@TheSmart-CasualGamer]

@@lemmingscanfly5 Why what?

[@lemmingscanfly5]

@@TheSmart-CasualGamer Why were you playing the DOS version of fantastic dizzy?

[@TheSmart-CasualGamer]

@@lemmingscanfly5 Because it's fun? And I was recording it for a retrospective for a mate.

[@lemmingscanfly5]

@@TheSmart-CasualGamer Dam Fun.. ? Your response make *ME* Dizzy.

[@drsnicol]

It's worth noting that codemasters started life as a 'Budget' game specialist for the popular home micros in the Uk (Spectrum, C64 and Amstrad CPC mainly). in the early days they came on tape formats at around a 1/4 or a 1/3 of the price of 'full price' games (e.g. around £1.99 to £2.99 vs £6 to £8 pounds for most releases in 1986). They also distributed to non-gaming retailers to encourage impulse purchases by parents etc. They weren't the first to do this (a company called Mastertronics beat them to it - in fact the young codemasters founders, the Darling brothers, once worked for them had a part ownership in Mastertronic before selling and setting up their own publisher on the same business model). Their aim was to up the quality of budget games as many mastertronic releases were absolute shovelware garbage that used the 'but they're cheap' as an excuse. Many of the games in those 4 in one packs like super robin hood were ports of those early budget games.

[@chocomunky128]

I just learned about the Aladdin Deck Enhancer from DJ Slope's Dizzy complete history. It's insane to see how influential the Oliver Twins were. Great video as always Jeremy!

[@absolutezeronow7928]

The look at the Dizzy games was nice, thank you. Super Robin Hood was definitely the best of the Quattro Adventure NES cart (which I still have somewhere).

[@ZeldaDD]

Yeah...I don't particularly care about a lot of their games but Super Robin Hood is my jam.

[@DanielMonteiroNit]

Quattro Arcade was also pretty good

[@MCastleberry1980]

Apparently the Evercade has an Oliver Twins collection that includes Super Robin Hood, so that's at least an option these days

[@adultmoshifan87]

It also features the multi language version of Fantastic Dizzy, which was one of the 2 versions released on a black cart in Europe! There’s an article on it in NES World!

[@mrp4242]

I’ve picked it up--and its pretty fun. My 9 year old son in particular likes that Evercade cart. I wasn’t familiar with Dizzy back in the day....

[@absolutezeronow7928]

Yeah The Oliver Twins cart for the Evercade has all the Dizzy games and Super Robin Hood. Treasure Island Dizzy is much more tolerable with save states and Fantastic Adventures of Dizzy is mostly a good game but they do need a guide to play.

[@Prokudak]

'Micro Machines' and so-called 'Golden Five' (Camerica's compilation cartridge) were the only genuine boxed games I bought for my fake Famicon (Pegasus) in Poland in 1990's. All other cartridges were fake reproductions.

[@thecunninlynguist]

I had the game gear version of the Cosmic Spacehead game. It definitely is a fun game, and the mix of puzzle/maniac mansion and platformer is a cool mix. I remember writing Codemasters about it and I think they sent me a poster.

[@staguar]

I remember Micro Machines being on Home Shopping Network in the late 80s and thinking it looked awesome. When I finally played it, I was surprised at how decent it actually was

[@SobmicSSBB]

As some here already said, Codemasters' NES output was very popular in Poland in the mid-90s, at the tail end of the NES bootlegs' lifespan. To further elaborate, each Eastern European country had their "official" NES bootleg, like "Pegasus" in Poland and "Dendy" in Russia. Those bootlegs could be freely sold because of a complete lack of copyright laws between the fall of the USSR and 1995. Once those laws were put in place, the people behind the "Pegasus" were scrambling to sell the console legally - by obtaining the official distribution rights for Codemasters' NES games. That built a big enough fanbase that a lot of those lost NES Codemasters games you mentioned near the end were unearthed and made functional mostly through expressed interest and crowdfunding from Polish fans. Kind of surreal to think about that among a plethora of bootlegs those countries still had their own "official" "premium" console, even if by definition they weren't. Anyway, the circumstances of those "official" distribution rights are iffy, as the Oliver Twins don't recall doing business with the company behind "Pegasus". They, however, recall selling their rights to a mainland Asian company at around the same time. So it seems the "Pegasus" company bought the rights from that Asian company and that was "official" enough for them. In conclusion, if you know Dizzy you're from England, or a 90s kid from Poland.

[@JeremyParish]

I am really astonished by how many people have chosen to take a glib, offhand remark at face value!

[@sovrinn16]

7:44 "If you know Dizzy, you are from England." Au contraire! I'm an American millennial and absolutely experienced Dizzy contemporaneously thanks to the vagaries of early 90's midwestern video rental stores. Unlicensed games from Color Dreams and Camerica were rental store staples, and it wasn't much of a gamble to spend $1 to rent a game. Fantastic Adventures of Dizzy was one such game, and as a fan of Shadowgate as well as Sierra adventures I was hooked by its Platformer/Inventory Object Adventure hybrid. I knew even at the time from its spelling of Colour and its C64-style hyperspeed arpeggios that this was a British joint. I loved it so much I doodled fanart of the characters, and I bought the cart when my rental store clearanced their NES stock. I felt like I was the only person who had ever heard of this "obscure" game in America, until a decade later with the rise of international communication on the internet. It was such a treat to find that this weird little "obscure gem" had such a storied history and was the source of so much nostalgia for Brits!

[@silentfanatic]

I rented a couple of Dizzy games as a kid in the early 90s. Some wounds never heal.

[@jpartala]

I've played most dizzy games all the way through and I'm from Finland so... not true. Or is England code for non-Us? :)

[@kof98se]

I’d initially taken this line as another American equating the UK as England, and so being Scottish and a big Dizzy fan it was really annoying. Seeing non-UK Dizzy fans here, particularly from the rest of Europe is nice though. Helps quell the rage. :P

[@massivepileup]

The idea of a caveman on wheels in Big Nose Flips Out is pretty reminiscent of BC: The Quest for Tires though the gameplay is evidently much more modern. Are all of these games ports from home computers?

[@jasonblalock4429]

Wow, someone else who remembers Quest For Tires. I loved it as a kid for some reason, even though it was kinda crap. Maybe just because anything even vaguely like a side-scrolling platformer was so incredibly rare on mid-80s IBMs.

[@treymoney]

@@jasonblalock4429 I had Quest for Tires and its sequel, Grog's Revenge, on the C64. It also wasn't very good.

[@MarcBarkyMarta]

Apparently, Camerica wasn't just Codemasters America, it was a Canadian business that had life before game software. Gaming Historian went into it a bit - something about crystal glassware and other HSN/QVC type of stuff.

[@Gatorbox]

Linus Spacehead's Cosmis Crusade exists on the Genesis/Mega Drive as "Cosmic Spacehead" as well -- it is the same exact game, though given the Genesis' more capable hardware the point-and-click scenes are much more fleshed out and "2.5D". The action stages are the same, as is the entire rest of the game as far as puzzles go, but the overhaul for 16-bit hardware really turned it into something special. It also has, in my opinion, one of the best soundtracks on the Genesis (revamped versions of most of the NES tracks). I still don't know why Linus became Cosmic though. They're totally different characters. (Also I kinda liked Boomerang Kid when I was younger, Quattro Adventure was one of my favorite NES games.)

[@todesziege]

I loved this game on the Mega Drive. The soundtrack is great, and has such an unique sound for the platform.

[@philipneedstowrite1799]

The opening stage of Linus Spacehead reminds me of Bubble Dizzy... which I haven't exactly heard great things about

[@BagOfMagicFood]

And the game ends with clouds you slowly sink through, like later Dizzy games!

[@elfiebranford9330]

I remember in my youth seeing Dizzy, that strange looking egg on a magic carpet, and having him burned into my memory. It wasn't until years later that I learned he was from a game, but even longer was the wait for me to understand exactly what his game was lol. The Aladdin Deck Enhancer sure is a weird oddity, but I have a strange fondness for the cartridges; they look so quaint and compact.

[@sebastianflesjandersen939]

If you know Code Masters you'll know they slapped "simulator" on many games like Arcade Flight Simulator one of the best playing and looking games for the C64 🤭

[@sebastianflesjandersen939]

@@leeharveydarke Yes I think so

[@BeyondTheScanlines]

@@leeharveydarke They were responsible for a chunk of them, but the concept started with BMX Simulator (which was first coded for the C64 one of the Darlings, though I think the Oliver's did handle ports of it) which was one of Codies' launch games. But I guess it became their "brand" sort of after a while. Along with "Absolutely Brilliant" of course :)

[@frankieh]

I'm Canadian and my friend had the regular non-Aladdin cartridges of both Micro Machines and The Fantastic Adventures of Dizzy. I will never forget the music in Dizzy, ever. AND Jeremy immediately talks about the normal NES stand alones. This is what I get for commenting before finishing the video.

[@frankieh]

Micro Machines is punishing!

[@2yoyoyo1Unplugged]

The Nerd makes me think of upper deckers now whenever I hear about the Deck Enhancer. Mostly because I’d never heard of an upper decker before that.

[@kmaru80]

Looking forward to watching this one Friday. I love your videos. It's like narrated nostalgia

[@craigcharlesworth1538]

There was an interesting bit of info on Treasure Island Dizzy in an interview with (I think) Retro Gamer. Players were supposed to have 3 lives (as was standard for Dizzy games) but the Oliver Twins realised when the game was almost finished that there was a logical problem in the flow of the game's puzzles that meant if you died in a particular spot it rendered a certain item irretrievable which you needed later in the game. Rather than completely overhaul that puzzle to get around the issue, their solution was to only give players one life so they could never find themselves trapped in the unwinnable state.

[@RedSilvers]

Fantastic Adventures of Dizzy came to the Genesis as Fantastic Dizzy and I loved it.

[@Thorgrim8]

Another excellent installment, sir. Thank you.

[@SuperTrainStationH]

I just watched the Gaming Historian and AVGN episodes about this yesterday, I’m really freaked out right now.

[@binkbonkbones3402]

That stuff happens to me sometimes. The other day I was watching old videos about assassins creed rogue, and all of a sudden like five new videos appear when before that the newest video was from over a year ago. The same thing happened with just cause 1 and bushido blade.

[@stevenglowacki8576]

I had the feeling that I already heard about this from a KZbin video as I was watching it, as I certainly never saw it when it was new but the concept seemed familiar. I assume I saw the Gaming Historian's video on it.

[@PizzaDinosaur]

I remember countless ads for the Aladdin Deck Enhancer in EGM and the like circa 1992...the way that Camerica pushed Dizzy in the advertising made me think that I was *supposed* to know who he was.

[@JeremyParish]

You know, Dizzy! The lovable rascal!

[@DaneeBound]

and now, less than a month after this episode came out, Codemasters is to be acquired by EA

[@Daryoon]

We Brits were always at least 18 months behind the rest of the world when it came to Nintendo. I wonder if that played a part in Codemasters' poor timing?

[@TeruteruBozusama]

The world of gaming before I truly got into it because I was too young or not even born yet is really intriguing to me even though it's hard to research because I don't even know where to begin..!

[@The_Lawnmower_Man]

4:24 "This wasn't a wholly original idea" -- I suppose you could also consider the Famicom Disk System to be another example of that concept, because it also connects to the Famicom console via its cartridge port, allows games to go beyond the Famicom's normal 32 kB PRG + 8 kB CHR data-size limit, and contains its own wavetable *and* FM synth audio hardware.

[@CVRJM]

Your video is "Absolutely Brilliant" Jeremy. ;)

[@coreyschwanz9316]

Oh man, while I have heard of the Deck Enhancer from Gaming Historian and AVGN I didn't know much about the titles. THAT SAID, I actually did have the golden Unlicensed Camerica carts growing up so I know Quattro Adventure and Big Nose. These were some of those games that I've never heard of anyone else talk about so I thought we must have had the only one!

[@Trainy2]

I always thought of myself as an NES expert, but I never really knew anything about this. I just remember seeing a couple at game stores.

[@davidwebb3407]

19:07 Oh that hurts my ears.

[@BAIGAMING]

2:51 Nooooooo his name's not Zelda 😥

[@TheSmart-CasualGamer]

If you name Link Zelda, you go straight to the second quest.

[@opaljk4835]

Genie...Aladdin...OH!

[@Naedlus]

Big Nose also took inspiration from the comic strip BC by the looks of it (though, I dare say, they created a superior game to BC: the Quest for Tires, though, that is also damning with faint praise)

[@smiskimins]

Great video! Never heard of this, it's super interesting from a hardware perspective even if the games aren't great. Would be really curious to know why it doesn't run well on the analogue.

[@jessragan6714]

I'm surprised Ultimate Stuntman wasn't included. Was that just an ordinary cartridge? I thought it got an Aladdin version for some reason... Also, I didn't know Camerica meant "Codemasters America." I thought it was a combination of Canadian-American, like how Chef Boyardee is made by Franco-American. Neat to know!

[@TRJ2241987]

I remember about 20 years ago the sealed complete sets were absolutely flooding eBay for like $30-40 for everything....I remember considering buying a lot back then, but ended up passing on it

[@FallicIdol]

What an interesting sidebar of history

[@LadyBrightcynder]

"If you know Dizzy, you are from England." Uh, Scotland, sir :P

[@sebastianflesjandersen939]

Heck, even I know Dizzy and I'm Norwegian. Microcomputers were popular here and I got my C64 in 1987. Sometimes it feels like people in the US completely overlooks European culture(but acknowledges Japanese culture)- ironic really, seeing as we basically "grandfathered" their culture 🤣🤣🤣

[@goatbone]

I'm Australian and pretty familiar with Dizzy but I assume that is due to British home computers were used here too.

[@DanielMonteiroNit]

Brazil and Portugal

[@TheSmart-CasualGamer]

Wales!

[@theguaable]

Fantastic Dizzy does have an inventory screen.. I think you just press select. Although I suppose it just gives you information about your items and location, it doesn't let you select which item to use (at least on the versions I've played)

[@JeremyParish]

That strikes me more as a status screen than an inventory screen. To me, an inventory screen lets you make active selections and manage your tools. Splitting hairs, I guess.

[@theguaable]

@@JeremyParish Treasure Island Dizzy could have done with an inventory screen. You can get a snorkel which enables you to go underwater, but if you cycle through your items one too many times underwater, you drop the snorkel and die instantly!

[@BagOfMagicFood]

Only the Sega Master System and Game Gear ports of Fantastic Dizzy let you select items directly off the inventory screen, likely due to a lack of buttons and/or using the Dizzy the Adventurer engine.

[@Saturnome]

The NES Micro Machine is so similar to the SNES one that for a moment I thought I had played the NES version! But the SNES game is Nintendo-approved

[@RabbitEarsCh]

I cannot believe that in over a decade of looking at this history, playing the games, etc. I did not *once* notice that Camerica is just "Codemasters America".

[@JeremyParish]

Apparently that is a lie and I was misled. It seems like it SHOULD be correct, though.

[@BagOfMagicFood]

​@@JeremyParish I keep thinking it should be based on "Camera"... Then I think of one KZbinr who kept pronouncing it "Camamerica" and assuming they were the developers.

[@NadiimNafei]

The Linus Spacehead sequal was later remade for the Sega Genesis as simply “Cosmic Spacehea”. While some parts of it is still a bit wonky and obtuse it is actually a pretty enjoyable game and the graphics takes great advantage of the improved capabilities of the newer generation of hardware consoles. If you enjoyed the game on the NES I would argue it only improves on the Genesis

[@joeleagles5491]

great video as always! any updates on the Gintendo streams for those of us that don't follow on any other socials?

[@rubberwoody]

crazy that codemasters of all people went on to make MTV music generator for the PS1

[@dakotaboy80]

I consider myself to be a NES geek, but I've never even heard of this one.

[@repussified]

I saw a magazine ad for it back in '92, not quite comprehending what it was and ignored it.

[@zachreddy]

Not sure of the provenance of Camerica as "Codemasters America". Partially because they're a Canadian company, but mainly because, from what I've gathered, Camerica started in 1987 or 88 wholesaling ceramics and glassware, got into video game hardware with some NES controllers and suchlike acquired from a Pennsylvania importer called Acemore International Ltd., and started licensing software as well as the Game Genie from Codemasters in 1990, though their first game from that partnership wasn't released until 1991.

[@notsyzagts7967]

All that information is interesting but also superfluous and unnecessary to understand the origins. Camerica is a portmanteau of Canada & America so when Codemasters gave them the license to publish in North America, "Codemasters America" was an easy fit; it was already the larger part of their name. Not because they were inside/from America but because they were publishing these games TO America. I hope that clears things up.

[@zachreddy]

@@notsyzagts7967 Is there evidence somewhere that it was ever officially intended to stand for "Codemasters America" though, after 3-4 years of operating under the name with no connection to Codemasters?

[@GrimmiesN]

Are you ever planning on covering the game Nuts and Milk? I used to love it. I had it as a kid on of those hacked carts with hundreds of games.

[@JeremyParish]

If a patron requests it, sure. Otherwise I'm not really delving into Famicom exclusives.

[@GrimmiesN]

Awesome, thanks for the reply!

[@absolutezeronow7928]

Nuts & Milk gets two pages in Jeremy's NES Works 1986 book (part of his look at the 1984 Famicom releases.) That might be the closest we get on that.

[@JeremyParish]

Oh yeah, I keep meaning to put together a video based on that section.

[@jamesmoss3424]

I heard about the Aladdin deck enhancer.😀👍🎮

[@nojot0]

I’d known of the deck enhancer, and a few of its games, but I learned a lot from this! Also why was it called the Aladdin deck enhancer? Why not cart enhancer? Game enhancer? What does a deck have to do with its function?

[@JeremyParish]

Deck = console.

[@nojot0]

@@JeremyParish Ah

[@CCCW]

Linus spacehead nowadays has his own tech tips channel

[@skuzzbunny]

that Dizzy Fantastic Adventure song sounds a right banger tho.....!!)

[@Belzeboobies]

Oh, I actually know Dizzy! A childhood friend had it on her Sega Genesis, but then again I don't know how licencing worked around South America, considering most cartridges were pirated copies. I'm guessing USA never got that version of Dizzy?

[@DanielMonteiroNit]

Uh, Richard Darling was actually one of founders of Codemasters (along with his twin brother)

[@TimReviewsEveryNAWiiGame]

Out of curiosity do the deck enhancer games play on say whatever the NES version of an everdrive is?

[@BagOfMagicFood]

I didn't know Cosmic Spacehead was on Atari ST!

[@adultmoshifan87]

I’d like to know if there’s a way to make the Aladdin Deck Enhancer compatible with more clone NES systems. I hear it’s not compatible due to an automated lockout bypass. According to the Gaming Historian, it can fry toploader systems! I hope it’s just a matter of disabling a certain chip in the deck enhancer. I also hear this same region bypass was used in the European black cart releases, so I am worried! Luckily, some Deck Enhancer games, like Dizzy The Adventurer, Super Robin Hood, BMX Simulator, Treasure Island Dizzy and Fantastic Dizzy are on the Evercade’s Oliver Twins Collection!

[@BagOfMagicFood]

I believe I read that some ADEs let you disable the lockout bypass and some don't, so it may depend on what model you get.

[@danieldavis2055]

Could you imagine if, instead of just working with a few obscure games, they had a device that gave more power to any cartridge? Eliminate slowdown. Take out flicker. It COULD have been successful.

[@Funkopedia]

I assume an Aladdin could plug into a Game Genie? Get you those extra lives and continues the games didn't provide?

[@user-do2ev2hr7h]

This honestly could have been a good idea if they had come up with quality games to take advantage of the hardware.

[@NJRoadfan]

Chip tunes dominated by arpeggios, gotta keep those Commodore SID composers busy :) The only Camerica release I ever played on the NES was The Ultimate Stuntman. Unique because it has a switch on the bottom for defeating the 10NES chip. It sold via non-traditional channels, QVC to be exact. The game was mediocre at best, but like other Codemasters releases people praised the music and fluid animation.

[@jasonblalock4429]

Yeah, it seems like it would be worth having this collection (assuming one has an actual og console) just for the soundtracks. SID-style compositions were so rare on the NES.

[@ButcherGrindslam]

@@jasonblalock4429 Commodore 64-like music is common in european games: Robocop 2, 3 Alien 3 Nigel Mansell's World Championship Ferrari Grand Prix Challenge Bram Stoker's Dracula Look for titles developed by Ocean, Painting by numbers, Probe and Gremlin.

[@DragonRaiderX9]

If you're interested in Dizzy, check out DizzyAge. They've faithfully recreated all the original games (with the ability to save whenever you like, which makes even Treasure Island Dizzy playable), and they've got a boatload of fangames if you're into that sort of thing.

[@madspunky]

My German girlfriend also knows Dizzy, who she calls "Ditszy"!

[@PKMNwww411_MkII]

AtGames is best at making Atari Flashback consoles. For their Genesis consoles use first party controllers and hook the console through your PC and adjust the audio pitch.

[@Tubewings]

Oh, you went to Channel 6 this time for the random clip of the episode.

[@JeremyParish]

It’s just random. No need to seek deeper meaning.

[@SaxcatGamingCorner]

If it wasn’t for Yahtzee and Guru Larry I’d have never heard of Dizzy until the last year or so.

[@fireflocs]

Same here, but also Slope's Game Room.

[@finaltheorygames1781]

If they had dropped the idea of making games for the NES and instead focused on the SNES and made a similar device to the Aladdin Deck Enhancer but only for the SNES then they might have had a chance. Back then there was no internet in the early 90's so if you had a product that was hard to sell at a retail store then it was hard to make some money. They could have sold their games through magazines I guess. Maybe they should have done that instead. Do their own NES magazine and sell through that, but again after SNES came out, the NES market dried up quickly.

[@SECONDQUEST]

I got dizzy for genesis in box, idk if it even works. Egg is not very compelling

[@JeremyParish]

But what about Eggs of Steel?

[@BubblegumCrash332]

Interesting I never knew Codemasters made the Aladin.

[@Abonanno24601]

Why do I feel like I just watched a video on this about a week ago from a different person??

[@GoldenPickaxe]

so it's like Sonic & Knuckles

[@abraveastronaut]

Linus Spacehead would go on to create Linux.

[@DeathCrustPunk]

I think you gave Eddy Betwetter exactly the amount of time he deserved. EEET EET EEEEET

[@Dwedit]

4:42 "The Aladdin's were essentially on par with the official MMC3 mapper chip". Nope, entirely incorrect. It was on par with the UxROM discrete-logic mapper, plus character RAM (Mapper 2). Equivalent to cartridges such as Contra, Castlevania 1, Rygar, or Megaman 1.

[@taionalmeida5337]

I've Heard that Camerica/Codemaster originally marketed The console as "sort of a 32x" for The NES. It would be something like dock Who would improve The games graphics and sound capabilities to keep The owners of The NES with something fresh to play in The middle of 16bit era. The deck ENHANCER would make The NES more powerfull and, you know, this Idea sounds a lot Nice thinking in the 30 something milions users of The old console that might not sell The previous generation console to still having something New to play. Unfortunetelly this does not seem to be The plan from The very beggining. Probably do The ENHANCE would cost a lot more and have some more troubles in legal action against The Big N but... It would be so much fun... *sigh sigh*

[@JeremyParish]

This shipped three years before the 32X even existed, so I'm not really sure how that supposed marketing tagline would have worked.

[@taionalmeida5337]

@@JeremyParish this was not sort of an "answer" to The 32x but The concept was almost* the same. Dont buy a New console, play New games on your good old NES. If Sega didn't GO absolutely nuts The concept of The 32x was The same - GET 32 bits experience for cheap on the Mega Drive/Genesis One or two years prior to The Saturn The concept may have worked. But being released almost at The same time... The 32x simply Never would have a chance.

[@GardevoirBoy1991]

I feel sorry for Camerica who created the Aladdin Deck Enhancer for NES. Even though I didn't like how overbearing Nintendo was to third-party companies after Atari's mess-up with video games during the early 80's, I do respect Nintendo's American branch for taking game handling very seriously. For the Aladdin Deck Enhancer, it was too little too late. I felt sorry for Nintendo having to censor, or as I like to say, play god with third-party video games following fears they were harming the video game development in North America. Even so, I felt sorry for the nation's children back then having to see their favorite games and anime censored so hard following fears that the producer were harming the development of children. Anyways, the Aladdin Deck Enhancer didn't do so well was because it came out very late in the NES lifespan, and many of the games for that thing were well known in the UK.

[@andrewkaye2108]

To this day, I still do not care about Nintendo's weak arguement against the Game Genie, I beat several games on NES that I had given up on, by using the Genie to help me out. ( Especially games that had no save feature to them.)

[@elrincondelukas]

Hi. I suscribe your channel. Like

[@masonasaro2118]

Hey, why didn't your deck enhancer explode?

[@Dystnine]

Some of those games had trippy music. I think Dizzy Games were the better ones over the others in their pool. I did play Linus/Cosmic on the DOS, disliked those games so much.

[@gaylordfocker7990]

This was a great idea if they had better developers/games on board. Nobody gave a shit about Dizzy.

[@RyumaXtheXKing]

These soundtracks really show you how not to use arpeggios.

[@JeremyParish]

You just pissed off the entire continent of Europe

[@RyumaXtheXKing]

@@JeremyParish Only those with bad taste.

[@catsaregovernmentspies]

Maybe they should have designed it for the SNES instead

[@billcook4768]

Just think - if you have an Evercade you can now relieve this era of mediocrity. Meanwhile, am I the only dolt who never realized Camerica = Codemasters America?

[@Belzeboobies]

Also I guess it's not even related, but that Big Nose game reminds me of that other unlicensed, "erotic" game, Miss Peach World. Must be the weird physics+skateboard!

[@silentfanatic]

Jeremy spoke in, spoke in.

[@dumpnchase]

Camerica always triggers Kramerica in my head.

[@bootwest3]

Hellooooo la la la

[@ButcherGrindslam]

Mega Drive version of "Fantastic Dizzy" is superior.

[@todesziege]

The Mega Drive version pretty much adresses all of Jeremy's complaints.

[@jillhopkins4842]

Hope it did not explode.