Aladdin (Genesis) | Code Like It's 198x

Aladdin on the Mega Drive was sold on a promise that it would look like the film. Disney’s animators drew for it, and Virgin Games’ team in California worked out how to get their drawings onto a 16-megabit cartridge. Before release, Computer Gaming World reported that “all of the movement in the game looks like the animation in the film”.

Sega, which published it, expected to sell more than a million. Tim Chaney, who ran Virgin, said it earned the company more than $100 million, and Virgin’s Stephen Clarke-Willson later put its sales at four million copies.

Fast facts

Developer: Virgin Games, USA.
Publisher: Sega, which distributed the game for Virgin.
Programming: led by David Perry.
Released: autumn 1993; Edge gave the British release as October, at £45.
Cartridge: 16 megabits.
Structure: eleven stages and three bonus rounds, by Sega’s count.
Other versions: Amiga 1200 (1994) and PC. Capcom made a different Aladdin for the Super NES.

Disney’s drawings on a Sega cartridge

Virgin launched the game at the summer Consumer Electronics Show in 1993. C&VG reported a “$250,000 breakfast launch hosted by Disney chairman Jeffrey Katzenberg” and a stand where “the sneak previews wowed many a passing punter”. Computer Gaming World noted that the heads of all three companies, Disney, Sega and Virgin, turned up for a Mega Drive cartridge.

What impressed was the animation. Computer Gaming World reported that “Virgin has developed a process for bringing cel-based animation to the Genesis”, and that Disney had let the animators who worked on the film give Virgin access to their cels. Edge later wrote that the game was drawn “with the help of 30 artists on loan from Disney”, and PC Gamer that Perry’s team “were sent six million dollars’ worth of animation cells – with Disney drawing 2,000 especially for the video game”. Sega’s own magazine claimed film-quality cel animation as “a first for a cart-based game”.

Getting the drawings into the machine was the hard part. Retro Gamer describes a technique called Digicel, which compressed the animation frames so that they would fit into the cartridge’s small memory; Perry’s own name for his approach to animation was “Animotion”. Clarke-Willson remembered sending Virgin’s animator Mike Dietz to Disney World “to work directly with the Disney animators there on game console animation timing, which is different from the timing used in traditional animation”. By his account about fifty people made the game in about seven months, after a year of research into getting traditional animation into a console game.

Playing it

Aladdin carries a scimitar for close fights and apples to throw at range. The stages follow the film: the Agrabah market, where palace guards, knife-throwing jugglers and snake charmers wait; the desert; the Cave of Wonders and a fast escape from it; the Sultan’s dungeon; a magic-carpet ride; the inside of the Genie’s lamp; and a final battle with Jafar. Sega’s guide pointed out comic touches, such as a camel in the market that, when Aladdin jumps on it, fires “dirt wads” at the nearest guard. Genie tokens collected on the way paid for spins on a bonus machine, and an Abu token opened a bonus level.

Edge thought that in a crowded market a platform game had to “literally pounce from the screen, seize you by the throat and deny you air”, and that “Aladdin does just that”. It found the animation “astounding” and the whole game moving “so smoothly and so fast that it’s easy to see where all those megs went”. It noted that the sword fights “end very quickly”, but there were so many that it hardly mattered.

The other Aladdin

Capcom made its own Aladdin for the Super NES, released that December. Shinji Mikami, later the director of Resident Evil, was one of its planners. Edge was unimpressed by its seven sections, which it found too few and too easy, and it had heard that Capcom had gone back to improve its animation after seeing Virgin’s game at the summer show. Wireframe noted in 2019 that the Super NES game was “less fondly remembered than Virgin Interactive’s Mega Drive version”, though it had since “built up a decent following”.

Success

Retro Gamer records that the Mega Drive game won a string of awards and was bundled with the console. Clarke-Willson credited Sega’s distribution for much of its sales, “That alone could account for twice the sales”, and put the final figure at four million. Its success, Retro Gamer says, persuaded Perry to leave Virgin and found his own studio, Shiny Entertainment, to keep more of the rewards of his work; its first game was Earthworm Jim (1994). Virgin followed Aladdin with The Lion King (1994), which Amiga Format called “Virgin’s Aladdin-alike”.

Virgin converted Aladdin to the Amiga 1200 in 1994, and to the PC. The Amiga version scored 92% in The One and in Amiga Action, 90% in Amiga Format and 86% in Amiga Power. In 2019 the Mega Drive game was re-released with The Lion King in Disney Classic Games: Aladdin and The Lion King.

Sources

Computer and Video Games issue 141, August 1993: Consumer Electronics Show report (the breakfast launch and Jeffrey Katzenberg; Capcom’s Super NES version).
Computer Gaming World issue 109, August 1993, p. 18: the launch with the heads of the three companies; Virgin’s process for cel animation on the Genesis; Disney’s animators; Sega’s expectation of more than a million sales.
Sega Visions, August/September 1993, p. 71: “three entertainment giants”; release before Christmas.
Sega Visions, October/November 1993, pp. 36–37: feature (Sega, Disney and Virgin; Disney animators and cel animation as “a first for a cart-based game”; 16 megs; 11 stages and three bonus rounds; the stages; apples and scimitar; tokens and bonus levels; the camel); p. 53: Sega advertisement (“SEGA presents”).
Edge issue 2, November 1993, pp. 92–93: Mega Drive review (Virgin, £45, 16 meg, UK release October; the levels; David Perry).
Edge issue 4, January 1994, pp. 76–77: review of Capcom’s Super NES version (seven sections; the rumour about its animation).
Edge issue 13, October 1994: “An audience with Shiny” (Perry, Aladdin and the 30 Disney artists).
PC Gamer (UK) issue 8, July 1994, p. 20: PC version preview (the US team headed by Perry; the animation cels and Disney’s 2,000 drawings).
The One issue 74, November 1994, p. 40: Amiga 1200 review. Amiga Power issue 48, April 1995, p. 12: table of Amiga review scores (The One 92%, Amiga Action 92%, Amiga Power 86%). Amiga Format issue 68, February 1995, p. 66: Aladdin (Virgin) at 90%; pp. 52–53: The Lion King review (“Virgin’s Aladdin-alike”).
Retro Gamer Collection volume 6, 2012, pp. 109 and 111, “From the Archives: Virgin Games” part 2 (Disney artists; Digicel; awards; the console bundle; more than $100 million for Virgin; Perry’s departure).
Retro Gamer issue 111, February 2013, p. 41, “Gaming Legends: David Perry” (Animotion; Aladdin).
Wireframe issue 20, August 2019, p. 52: developer profile of Shinji Mikami (the Super NES Aladdin).
Ken Horowitz, “Interview: Dr. Stephen Clarke-Willson”, Sega-16, 28 March 2006 (web, secondary): Mike Dietz and the Disney animators; about fifty people over seven months; Sega’s distribution; four million sales. https://www.sega-16.com/2006/03/interview-dr-stephen-clarke-willson/
“Disney’s Aladdin (Sega Genesis video game)”, Wikipedia (web, secondary): the 2019 Disney Classic Games collection. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disney%27s_Aladdin_(Sega_Genesis_video_game)