Gamerz Review of Disney's Aladdin Activity Center

These activity center programs for PCs and Macs were all over the place in the mid-90s. And because this is Aladdin, it is clearly the best one of the bunch.

When I reviewed Lego Island, I mentioned its passing resemblance to children's activity centers and apparently that woke some long dormant computer memories in some of you. While others had never seen it before and were curious! So let's dive into what I showed there: Disney's Aladdin Activity Center. Developed by Gryphon Software with assistance from several other studios and published by Disney in 1994 for Windows and Mac computers. This is the first in a series of at least twenty different Disney Activity Centers but since this one is based on Aladdin, it is the best by default. I love this movie unwaveringly. As for these activity centers themselves, they seemingly came pre-installed on every other computer I used in the mid-to-late nineties. As a kid, I thought they were pretty rad. Not like amazing or anything, but bad enough to click around when there was nothing else to do. Inside the box you get the program CD-ROM packed neatly into this colorful foldout sleeve. An information card from Disney that no one cares about but I feel compelled to point out since nobody cares about it. And a surprisingly involved instruction manual. For a program as simple as this one, it does not need a manual of this complexity, but I applaud the extra effort. Or rather, I applaud whoever was getting paid by the hour to create this and rightly milk those Disney paychecks for all they were worth. Once you install some endearingly unpredictable Quicktime and video for Windows software Aladdin Activity Center begins with a centrally inactive introduction. Highly copyrighted imagery and music abounds, followed by an imposter Genie that is clearly not Robin Williams.

Aladin's Activity Center

[Genie]: Okay, let's get acquainted!
[Genie]: If you see your name on the scroll, click on it!
[LGR]: No offense to Dan Castellaneta who is trying his best to impersonate Robin Williams as those are some unfillable shoes indeed. But it's a far cry from the performance in the movie. Yet what did I care, I was eight years old when this thing came out. It was Aladdin on my computer! That alone made this the most amazing thing around. Also amazing was this map that let you explore several locations based on scenes from the movie. The Agrabah marketplace, the Cave of Wonders, the royal palace and the sultan's movie theater. Is this further evidence that Aladdin isn't set in the past and is actually taking place in a post-apocalypse? I'm serious. There is a popular fan theory that states Aladdin takes place in a far distant future... which explains all the anachronisms in the movie referencing twentieth century culture.

The magic carpet actually being a leftover of futuristic hovering technology thing and... modern day street signs buried underneath the sands of a nuclear wasteland and... Okay. Anyway, got off track there. This theater lets you watch significant chunks of the movie which was pretty unprecedented at the time. [Sultan]: Jasmine! Jasmine! [LGR]: Anyway, let's start in the Agrabah marketplace, since I always liked those scenes in the movie and wanted to live there for some reason. From here you have access to the center's eleven activities. Each of which is represented by clickable background portions. And they mean it when they call these activities and not games since they're not really games as you would normally think about them. You get some art activities, a spelling challenge, a memory game, straight up mazes likeness matching, picture puzzles and assignment music mimicking thing. And no matter which location you choose each one of these activities are exactly the same, wherever you go. The only thing that differs is the overall aesthetic... with each activity taking on a look that fits in with the selected movie scene. That is some top-notch padding right there. But yeah. In the art center you get a coloring book that lets you draw and paint using virtual art supplies and your computer's mouse. And if you don't want to bother picking out colors yourself you can use the magic paint brush and just... fill in the proper colors automatically, like a psychedelic scratch-off card. There's also a paint-by-numbers section and good old connect the dots with a surprising amount of involvement by the Genie in the latter. He reads every single number aloud as you click on them. That's dedication.

[Genie]: ...twenty-five, twenty-six, twenty-seven, twenty-eight. Twenty-nine, thirty, thirty-one, thirty-two...
[Count]: Yes! Ah ah ah. And at any point in time you can print out what you see on the screen... although with a monochrome printer, the results are less than stellar. The spelling challenge is precisely what it sounds like. Genie gives you a word and a visual and you have to spell it out by clicking on the letters in the correct order.

But don't worry about screwing up because you can't. The same goes with the memory game, the matching, the mazes, the whole thing. With every activity there is no way to lose and no penalty if you mess up. Nothing but praise and positive reinforcement anytime you do anything at all.

How delightfully nineties. [Genie]: How did you get so smart? ¡Fabuloso! [LGR]: About the only thing it does in terms of giving kids a reality check is making you feel bad for giving up. For instance, if you quit the music game, Abu just sinks down and gives you this incredibly sad look. Aw, no! Don't do that, Abu. I'm sorry. Same goes when you quit the game. Genie just starts bawling. [Genie]: Do you really have to go? [Genie]: Goodbye, master. Hurry back. Aw, man. I don't remember Aladdin Activity Center being so emotionally draining. Anyway, that's about all this is.

I mean this is it. It didn't keep me occupied for very long as a kid and it certainly doesn't now. About the most enjoyment I've ever gotten out of it is watching those highly compressed video clips from the movie. But I still kind of like this program if only because of the Aladdin connection. And being reminded of a time when children's activity centers were all the rage. They were just freakin' everywhere and it made sense because they were probably pretty easy to make and kids liked them because they knew what they were about, sort of. Makes a lot of sense that games like Lego Island would take from the same basic idea here of using a license as a base. And built a little interactive world for kids to explore around it. It's really not that big of a leap to go from clicking static backgrounds to open basic mini games... to going to a 3D world to open basic mini games. Same idea, works just as well either way. So I'm glad this existed. If only because it's sort of kind of led to somewhat nominally better things later on. (Sega Genesis version of Prince Ali plays) And if you enjoyed this episode of MACPCGAMERZ, then I'm glad! and if not, I will mope around like Abu and cry like Genie. Or at least you'll just imagine me doing that. I don't really... You know. Whatever. If you liked it. Good. Click these and see some more. And as always: Thank you very much for Reading Review.