''Beggar Prince'', originally known as ''Xin Qigai Wangzi'' (

Chinese Chinese can refer to: * Something related to China * Chinese people, people of Chinese nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity **''Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic concept of the Chinese nation ** List of ethnic groups in China, people of va ...

: 新乞丐王子,

Hanyu Pinyin Hanyu Pinyin (), often shortened to just pinyin, is the official romanization system for Standard Mandarin Chinese in China, and to some extent, in Singapore and Malaysia. It is often used to teach Mandarin, normally written in Chinese for ...

: Xīn Qǐgài Wángzǐ, Wade-Giles: Hsin Ch'i-kai Wang-tzu, literally ''The New

The Prince and the Pauper ''The Prince and the Pauper'' is a novel by American author Mark Twain. It was first published in 1881 in Canada, before its 1882 publication in the United States. The novel represents Twain's first attempt at historical fiction. Set in 1547, ...

'') is a Taiwanese role-playing adventure game for the

Sega Mega Drive/Genesis The Sega Genesis, known as the outside North America, is a 16-bit Fourth generation of video game consoles, fourth generation home video game console developed and sold by Sega. It was Sega's third console and the successor to the Master Syst ...

and PC. It was originally released in 1996 for the

by C&E Inc. and later ported and released in 1998 on the PC. An English translation of the Sega Genesis version was produced by the North American company

Super Fighter Team Super Fighter Team is a video game production and publishing company whose primary focus is on producing and publishing new video games for classic systems such as the Sega Genesis and Atari Lynx, among others. The company was founded in 2004 by sa ...

. A prototype version was first shown to the public on August 20, 2005, at the Classic Gaming Expo in Burlingame,

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

. The completed game began shipping to pre-order customers on May 22, 2006, at the price of US$40 per copy. ''Beggar Prince'' was the first game for the Sega Genesis to be commercially released in North America since 1998.

Technical information

For a Sega Mega Drive/Genesis game, ''Beggar Prince'' is rather large, weighing in at 32-megabits (4 megabytes) in size. Players could record their progress to any of the four available save slots. The game shipped within a plastic clamshell case along with a glossy, full-color 27-page instruction manual. The game's unique cartridge hardware was designed by Kim Biu Wong, head of

Tototek Tototek is a Hong Kong-based company that develops video game accessories, with a big focus on older consoles. Among their products are flash cartridges for the Sega Master System, PC Engine, Mega Drive and SNES. They have converters which make it p ...

, and Super Fighter Team president Brandon Cobb. All pieces were manufactured in China.Sega-16 Forums - View Single Post - Beggar Prince: Official Thread
/ref> ''Beggar Prince'' works with any Sega Genesis (with the exception of Sega Genesis Firecore), Mega Drive or

Nomad A nomad is a member of a community without fixed habitation who regularly moves to and from the same areas. Such groups include hunter-gatherers, pastoral nomads (owning livestock), tinkers and trader nomads. In the twentieth century, the popu ...

system, regardless of its region (NTSC and PAL are both supported). But for the first two runs, due to the manner in which the game's save function is programmed, it is impossible to save on systems connected to the 32X or hybrid CD systems such as the Multi-Mega/CDX and

Wondermega The Sega CD, released as the in most regions outside North America and Brazil, is a CD-ROM accessory for the Sega Genesis produced by Sega as part of the fourth generation of video game consoles. It was released on December 12, 1991, in Japan, ...

. Playing the game with a Sega Mega-CD/Sega CD attached to the Mega Drive/Genesis works with the second CD model. On a European Multi-Mega, the game resets itself after the introduction scenes, making it unplayable. The third production run is notable as the box and manual art were changed and, more importantly, the game's save feature had been re-programmed to allow full functionality with all Genesis, Mega Drive and compatible systems (such as the Nomad, 32X, CDX, X'Eye, Laseractive and so on).

Release

''Beggar Prince'' began shipping to pre-order customers on May 22, 2006. By September 8, 2006, all 600 copies had been sold. However, on October 18, 2006,

announced that they had begun taking pre-orders for a second production run of 300 copies. On June 19, 2007, this production run had also sold through. The third production run, introducing several changes, became available for pre-ordering on October 9, 2007, and started shipping on November 27, 2007. In total, the game sold 1,500 copies. On August 6, 2013, the game was released for Windows and Mac OS X, in the form of a compilation package of three Super Fighter Team RPGs, the other two being ''

Legend of Wukong ''Legend of Wukong'', originally known as ''Wucom Legend'' ( – 外傳 ''wàizhuàn'' is analogous to the Japanese Gaiden), is a Taiwanese role-playing adventure game for the Sega Mega Drive/Genesis developed by Gamtec. It was originally released ...

'' and ''

Star Odyssey ''Star Odyssey'' (Italian: ''Sette uomini d'oro nello spazio'' / ''Seven Gold Men in Space'') is a 1979 Italian film directed by Alfonso Brescia. The film is also known as ''Space Odyssey'', ''Metallica'' and ''Captive Planet'' in other video ma ...

''.

Reception

''Beggar Prince'' was covered and reviewed in gaming magazines including ''Tips & Tricks'', ''Hardcore Gamer'', ''Play'', ''Retro Gamer'', ''Edge'', ''GamesTM'', ''Super Play'', and ''Master Player''. It was sold to people in over 25 countries. After release, players reported finding

glitches A glitch is a short-lived fault in a system, such as a transient fault that corrects itself, making it difficult to troubleshoot. The term is particularly common in the computing and electronics industries, in circuit bending, as well as amo ...

. Several could result in the main character getting stuck in a certain place where he was not supposed to be, requiring loading a previously saved game. The majority of the glitches present in the original Chinese release have been fixed.

References

Notes

External links

Official siteSega Genesis Lives! Beggar Prince to be released Spring 2006Little Mathletics: Beggar Prince Interview
Interview with Super Fighter Team president Brandon Cobb and lead translator Yu-Chen Shih.
Bobby Blackwolf Show Podcast Interview
30+ minute MP3 interview with Brandon Cobb from January 15, 2006.
Beggar Prince: Start of Something Good?
Article about ''Beggar Prince'''s effects on retro gaming.
Sega-16 Interview
Interview with Brandon Cobb.
Sega-16 third run preview
Third run information.
Digital Lard Interview
Interview with Brandon Cobb. {{The Prince and the Pauper 1996 video games 2006 video games Unauthorized video games Sega Genesis games Video games developed in Taiwan Windows games MacOS games