The Sango Fighter games are a series of

fighting game A fighting game, also known as a versus fighting game, is a genre of video game that involves combat between two or more players. Fighting game combat often features mechanics such as blocking, grappling, counter-attacking, and chaining atta ...

for

DOS DOS is shorthand for the MS-DOS and IBM PC DOS family of operating systems. DOS may also refer to: Computing * Data over signalling (DoS), multiplexing data onto a signalling channel * Denial-of-service attack (DoS), an attack on a communicat ...

made by the

Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the no ...

ese Panda Entertainment. Set in the

Three Kingdoms The Three Kingdoms () from 220 to 280 AD was the tripartite division of China among the dynastic states of Cao Wei, Shu Han, and Eastern Wu. The Three Kingdoms period was preceded by the Eastern Han dynasty and was followed by the West ...

period of

Chinese history The earliest known written records of the history of China date from as early as 1250 BC, from the Shang dynasty (c. 1600–1046 BC), during the reign of king Wu Ding. Ancient historical texts such as the ''Book of Documents'' (early chapter ...

, it is very similar to ''

Street Fighter , commonly abbreviated as ''SF'' or スト (''Suto''), is a Japanese media franchise centered on a series of fighting video and arcade games developed and published by Capcom. The first game in the series was released in 1987, followed by six ...

'' and ''

Samurai Shodown ''Samurai Shodown'', known in Japan as is a fighting game series by SNK. The series began in 1993 and is known for being one of the earliest in the genre with a primary focus on weapon-based combat. Plot The stories in the series take place ...

'', but with historical context. "Sango" is a rough romanization of Three Kingdoms. Using

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 fo ...

, it would be romanized as "san guo".

Sango Fighter

The first Sango Fighter game was originally published by Panda Entertainment and released in 1993 for PC/AT platform. Shareware developer and publisher

Apogee Software 3D Realms Entertainment ApS is a video game publisher based in Aalborg, Denmark. Scott Miller founded the company in his parents' home in Garland, Texas, in 1987 as Apogee Software Productions to release his game '' Kingdom of Kroz''. In the ...

was planning on licensing and releasing the game in the United States under the title ''Violent Vengeance'', but the plans for the deal fell through. Instead, the game was distributed in English under its original title by a Taiwanese company named Accend, albeit without official permission from Panda Entertainment. In 1995, Taiwan's fledgling 16-bit Super A'can game console saw release of a cartridge version of Sango Fighter, completely programmed inhouse by a single employee of Panda Entertainment. Being a rushed port from the PC version, the A'can adaptation suffered from awkward gameplay and quite a few glitches. Sango Fighter was also released for the Japanese

PC-98 The , commonly shortened to PC-98 or , is a lineup of Japanese 16-bit and 32-bit personal computers manufactured by NEC from 1982 to 2000. The platform established NEC's dominance in the Japanese personal computer market, and, by 1999, more th ...

computer, in 1995. For this release, a portion of the game's story text was translated into Japanese. It was otherwise identical to the original

version, upon which its code was based. This adaptation was produced by Great Co., Ltd., and released by Imagineer. The game was illegally

port A port is a maritime facility comprising one or more wharves or loading areas, where ships load and discharge cargo and passengers. Although usually situated on a sea coast or estuary, ports can also be found far inland, such as H ...

ed to the

Sega Master System The is an 8-bit third-generation home video game console manufactured by Sega. It was originally a remodeled export version of the Sega Mark III, the third iteration of the SG-1000 series of consoles, which was released in Japan in 1985 and ...

console, with the name ''Sangokushi'', and released only in

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and sharing a Korean Demilitarized Zone, land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed ...

. This port is one of the larger games in the console library, with 8

megabit The megabit is a multiple of the unit bit for digital information. The prefix mega (symbol M) is defined in the International System of Units (SI) as a multiplier of 106 (1 million), and therefore :1 megabit = = = 1000 kilobits. The megabit h ...

s of data size. While Sango Fighter was quite popular in Taiwan, a lawsuit by C&E Inc. (producers of the PC fighting game

Super Fighter ''Super Fighter'' (in Chinese: 快打至尊) is a fighting game for MS-DOS. It was developed by C&E, Inc. of Taiwan, and first released in Taiwan on February 20, 1993. An English version of the game was also released, albeit in much shorter su ...

) stopped Panda Entertainment from distributing the game, let alone adapting it to other machines. Thus the game was never able to reach its full market potential. On February 24, 2009, the full legal rights to both Sango Fighter and its sequel were acquired 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 ...

. Following this, on June 18, 2009, both Chinese and English language editions of the game were released as a free download on th
Official ''Sango Fighter'' Website
An updated version of the game was released, also as freeware, on February 15, 2011. It featured several significant changes and additions. The current Super Fighter Team version supports English, Chinese and Japanese languages, with Japanese based on the PC-9801 release of the game with newly translated text. On December 24, 2021, ''Sango Fighter Special Edition'' was released as a free download for

Windows Windows is a group of several proprietary graphical operating system families developed and marketed by Microsoft. Each family caters to a certain sector of the computing industry. For example, Windows NT for consumers, Windows Server for serv ...

. This version of the game contains elements from both the MS-DOS and Super A'can editions, and features new material such as a remixed and expanded soundtrack, and rebalanced fight system. There may have also been a planned, but unfinished 3D sequel by Panda Entertainment. However, the former owner of Panda's intellectual properties stated that no records of any such title exist.

Reception

Sango Fighter drew much attention of PC gamers when it was released, offering the first fighting game with great graphics for that time and became the definitive fighting game for DOS. The game came in six 1.44 MB floppy disks, considered a large size compared with other games of the same genre. ''

Computer Gaming World ''Computer Gaming World'' (CGW) was an American computer game magazine published between 1981 and 2006. One of the few magazines of the era to survive the video game crash of 1983, it was sold to Ziff Davis in 1993. It expanded greatly through ...

'' in 1994 stated that "Game play in ''Sango Fighter'' is very good, on par with the PC version of ''Street Fighter''". It praised the graphics and sound: "the overall quality of this release is equivalent to any commercial offering". The magazine concluded that the $30 shareware registration fee "is a good value, and comes recommended".

Sango Fighter 2

A sequel was released in 1995, ''Sango Fighter 2'', with more characters and more detailed graphics. Sango Fighter 2 also featured a conquest mode in which the player attempted to unify the empire by invading other nations. In addition, the kingdom of Wu was added to the game. On November 6, 2013, Sango Fighter 2 was released as a free download on th
Official ''Sango Fighter 2'' Website
In addition to being translated into English, the updated game also features several new additions and enhancements. The Super Fighter Team version supports English, Chinese and Korean languages.

Characters

The following is a list of the characters from ''Sango Fighter'' and ''Sango Fighter 2''. Cao Cao is not a playable character in ''Sango Fighter 2'', but he retains a role as a character within the story.

Liu Bei Liu Bei (, ; ; 161 – 10 June 223), courtesy name Xuande (), was a warlord in the late Eastern Han dynasty who founded the state of Shu Han in the Three Kingdoms period and became its first ruler. Although he was a distant relative of the H ...

Sun Quan Sun Quan (, Chinese: 孫權) (183 – 21 May 252), courtesy name Zhongmou (), posthumously known as Emperor Da of Wu, was the founder of the Eastern Wu dynasty, one of the Three Kingdoms of China. He inherited control of the warlord regime es ...

Sima Yi Sima Yi ( ; 179 CE – 7 September 251 CE), courtesy name Zhongda, was a Chinese military general, politician, and regent of the state of Cao Wei during the Three Kingdoms period of China. He formally began his political career in 208 un ...

Zhuge Liang Zhuge Liang ( zh, t=諸葛亮 / 诸葛亮) (181 – September 234), courtesy name Kongming, was a Chinese statesman and military strategist. He was chancellor and later regent of the state of Shu Han during the Three Kingdoms period. He is r ...

and

Zhou Yu Zhou Yu (, ) (175–210), courtesy name Gongjin (), was a Chinese military general and strategist serving under the warlord Sun Ce in the late Eastern Han dynasty of China. After Sun Ce died in the year 200, he continued serving under Sun Quan, ...

also serve as story characters. Even though Sun Ce served as leader of the kingdom of Wu historically before his death, in Sango Fighter 2, he is made a subordinate of his younger brother.

References

External links

*Super Fighter Team page
Sango FighterSango Fighter 2Super Fighter versus Sango Fighter: Chinese War Ends in America
* * * {{Romance of the Three Kingdoms DOS games 1993 video games Master System games NEC PC-9801 games Sega Genesis games Video games based on Romance of the Three Kingdoms Fighting games Unauthorized video games Video games developed in Taiwan