Camerica

Nintendo Incorporated

Camerica

By: SPMAN

Camerica, one of many other unlicensed developers for the NES, released quite a large number of games, they include:

Bee 52

Big Nose the Caveman

Big Nose Freaks Out

Fantastic Adv of Dizzy

Fire Hawk

Linus Spacehead

Micro Machines

Mig 29

Quattro Adventure

Quattro Arcade

Quattro Sports

Stunt Kids

Ultimate Stuntman

Notables: Camerica did not start out making games. Their first effort on the system was developing accessories, most notably the Freedom Stick. The controller was nothing more than a cordless clone of the NES Advantage, and Camerica quickly got the pants sued off of them by Nintendo. Then, in 1990 they attempted to release a new kind of accessory. It was a device that altered games to your advantage and allowed you to basically cheat your way through even the most difficult games. It was called the Game Genie. Before it ever hit store shelves, they got yet another law suit from the Big N. The courts in Canada went in favor of Camerica though causing the Game Genie to be released there first. It wouldn’t see release in America until 1991. Around that time, they released the games listed above, all at about the same time. There most interesting accessory / game was a device called the Aladdin Game Enhancer. It was supposed to enhance the NES, allowing better graphics and faster gameplay. There was only one problem, they went out of business before it ever hit the shelves. Galoob received the rights to all their stock, and eventually released the item in VERY limited quantities. It was sold almost exclusively on the Home Shopping Network. The Aladdin and its games are almost impossible to find these days and except for the few times they appear on eBay, are sold exclusively by Mike Etler.

Status- Went out of business in 1992. Galoob took over their operations until 1994, when they sold of most of its stock to someone close to Mike Etler, which is why he has every game they produced brand new for sale on his site.

Best Games- None of their games are truly awful and in fact most of them are pretty good. Micro Machines is one of the best racers on the system. Bee 52 is a different type of side-scroller. The Quattro games are great, although some of the games on Sports have a lot of problems. Firehawk and Mig 29 are lame shooters with no real value. The rest are decent side-scrollers. With the exception of Firehawk, Mig 29, and Quattro Sports you can't really go wrong with any of their games.

Popularity of games- Micro Machines has somewhat of a cult following to it, but besides that, its pretty low.

Rarity of games- Moderate with the Aladdin Games and Big Nose Freaks Out being exceptions.

Overall grade- B+