Magic Carpet 1001 (called 天方夜譚 or "Arabian Nights" in Chinese) is an unlicensed shoot-'em-up developed by Mega Soft (NTDEC) and distributed by NTDEC in 1991, Caltron and Gluk Video in 1992 and Asder in 1993 as part of the Asder 20-in-1 multicart. Its Caltron 6-in-1 incarnation is arguably the most well-known.
Plot[]
Plot as said from the game's packaging:
"ONCE QUIET AND PEACEFUL BAGDAD CITY WAS INVADED BY OUTER SPACE DEVIL TRIBE, IT TAKE AWAY PRINCESS OF BAGDAD AND TURN THE CITIZEN OF BAGDAD INTO STONE BY EVIL CURSE.
NEIGHBORING PRINCE ALADDIN FIND OUT THAT PRINCESS HAD BEEN CAPTURED, HE CALLS UPON THE LAMP GOD FROM MAGIC LAMP, THE LAMP GOD GIVE PRINCE THE MAGIC ARROW AND BLANKET AND INSTRUCT THE PRINCE THE WAY TO THE MAGIC TRIBE. THE PRINCE ALADDIN WILL DRIVE THE MAGIC CARPET AND STRAIGHT INTO THE HEART OF MAGIC TRIBE.
THERE WILL BE VERY DANGEROUS AND THE DEVILS OF EVIL TRIBE WILL SHOW UP ALL THE TIME, IT COULD BE KILLED ONLY BY MAGIC ARROW, EVERY STAGE WILL BE GUARDED BY A BIG MONSTER AND IT IS HARD TO DEAL WITH.
BUT THE BRAVE PRINCE ALADDIN WILL GO STRAIGHT FORWARD, COULD HE DESTROY THE EVIL TRIBE AND LIFT THE CURSE, SAVE THE BEAUTIFUL PRINCESS AND ALL THE CITIZENS OF BAGDAD?"
Overview[]
Magic Carpet 1001's gameplay.
The game is a standard NES shoot-'em-up. It is four levels long and mostly takes place in an Arabian setting, with the fourth level being in space. Many enemies from the Space Devil Tribe stand in the way of Prince Aladdin (who rides a magic carpet, although the title screen suggests he is a genie) which follow set patterns that become more complex with each level.
As well as this, all four levels have a different boss; a witch, a snake in a flying jar, a giant skull, and giant lips (possibly the leader of the Space Devil Tribe) respectively, with the latter often being considered to be far too difficult. Numerous power-ups can be collected at random by wiping out a certain group of enemies before they disappear, with P power-ups upgrading weapon, S power-ups increasing the player's speed, an icon of character's face for an extra life and hearts giving several hit points, and a magic lamp in the fourth level which maxes out character's health. By default, the character starts with 6 lives, dies in one hit and he can only fire one shot on the screen at a time.
Oddly for a shooter, this game doesn't have a scoring system whatsoever and the levels progress with the only warning being that the screen fades out after the boss. Though this isn't new for NTDEC games. The ending is a picture of Aladdin and the Princess of Bagdad in front of a castle at night. This is followed by a credits screen that has some of the names that appear in other Mega Soft games.
Hacks[]
This game was later hacked in 1995 to produce Aladdin III, which is identical apart from the title screen which removes the company name and logo, as well as decreasing the protagonist's minimal speed. This one appears on several multicarts. It is also unrelated to the Hummer Team pirate.
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Harry Potter's title screen is based on a promotional poster for the first movie.
A couple of Harry Potter-themed games were hacks of this as well, released as Harry Potter and Harry Tour. These games replace the graphics and music (The games having the same music as each other), and the sound is considered by many to be awful in comparison to MC1001 and in general. The title screens for both games are based on one of the posters for the film adaptation of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, meaning that they were released in 2001 or later.
There's also a hack on several Famiclone systems credited to Inventor called Little Hag which is similar to the Harry Potter hacks, except the backgrounds are slightly different and the music is more melodic. It is unknown which hack was made first. A variant of Little Hag known to exist is Witch Run, which exclusively appeared on Advanced Bright Limited systems.
Lastly, from NTDEC/Asder themselves, there's Magic Carpet 1001 Turbo, an updated release featured on the Asder 20-in-1. The game is mostly the same as the original, except now your attack power is maxed out at all times. (P Icons do still appear in the game, but do nothing.)
Trivia[]
- When the player exceeds 9 lives, the counter is replaced with the head of the protagonist. When they collect enough health via heart icons, they will start flashing. This is most noticeable after collecting a magic lamp.
- The "TURBO" graphic on Magic Carpet 1001 Turbo's title screen is taken from Street Fighter II Turbo.
- The bee enemies are taken from Mega Man III.
- The main character is very similar to Imajin from Yume Koujou Doki Doki Panic, a game for the Japan-only Famicom Disk System, which was later modified and released worldwide as Super Mario Bros. 2 for the NES.
Gallery[]
- Main article: Magic Carpet 1001/gallery