In the early 1990s, the Disney renaissance was in full swing. 1992's Aladdin managed to even eclipse the already greatly successful Little Mermaid and Beauty and the Beast commercially (then, of course, The Lion King came along, but that's a story for another day). Disney often relying on old public domain stories, myths and legend to base their animated films on, similarly themed features from other companies coming out in parallel has been a practice well known in the movie world for decades. Why not try the same in computer games?