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In the Sega Genesis version of Disney's Aladdin (1993), the player encounters a merchant on multiple occasions who will offer either an extra life for every five rubies Aladdin collects, or a scroll labeled "wish" for every ten rubies. What benefit does the scroll labeled "wish" offer?

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From this guide - "A wish gives Aladdin one continue. That means when he loses his last life, he can continue the game from the level he is at instead of having to start over. Every time you continue a game, you get the same number of lives as when you first started the game. A wish could be worth up to 6 extra lives."

So since a continue is worth so much more, it makes sense to save up for them instead of just regular extra lives, if you can.

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    I can't remember how it works in Aladdin but in some games, using a life sends you back to the last checkpoint whereas a continue sends you back to the begining of the level. Also, there might be a max number of lives (maybe 9 ?). That's two points to take into account when choosing a life/continue.
    – Fana
    Nov 13, 2019 at 8:24
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    Ahhh.... I never could quite figure out what these things did.
    – Gloweye
    Nov 13, 2019 at 12:10
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    @BruceWayne that would be an interesting question to ask to get some detailed answers. My guess is that because more memory allows for larger, longer games, game designers no longer expected the player to finish the game in one sitting. If you can save, if doesn't make sense to have continues.
    – Rob Watts
    Nov 13, 2019 at 16:35
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    IIRC continues were a feature of arcade games where you could put in more money to continue playing when you ran out of lives. the tradition continued in home console games for a while before people realized that it didn't make any sense.
    – 12Me21
    Nov 13, 2019 at 16:39
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    @PaulO. I don't remember exactly when it started (Super Nes? Megadrive?) but saving a game was a huge event. I still remember the day when my dad turn off my Game Boy because I was at the end of Super Mario Land for the first time and was late for dinner. I had to start everything again... before they found a way to save progress on Game Boy (Zelda? Mystic Quest?), we had to rely on passwords.
    – Taladris
    Nov 16, 2019 at 0:33

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