BootlegGames Wiki
Register
Advertisement

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.

Overview[]

Magic Carpet 1001 Gameplay

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 stand in the way of your character (an Aladdin-type 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 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. The ending is a picture of character and (presumably) the damsel in distress were rescuing, 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.

Harry Potter (Magic Carpet 1001) Comparison

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 Witch Run 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. Little Hag may be an earlier version of Witch Run, but this is currently unconfirmed. [1]

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

Reference[]

  1. An eBay listing existed titled "Famicom FC Nintendo NES Little Hag Caltron Magic Carpet 1001 unlicensed", the listing itself was deleted and its contents are unknown.
Advertisement