Beggar Prince

Infobox VG| title = Beggar Prince


developer = C&E Inc./Super Fighter Team
publisher = C&E Inc./Super Fighter Team
released = 1996/2006
genre = RPG
modes =
ratings =
platforms = Mega Drive/Genesis
media = 32 Megabit Cartridge
requirements = Game controller
input = 1 Player

"Beggar Prince", originally known as "Xin Qigai Wangzi" (Chinese: 新乞丐王子, Hanyu Pinyin: Xīn Qǐgài Wángzǐ, Wade-Giles: Hsin Ch'i-kai Wang-tzu, literally "The New The Prince and the Pauper") is a Taiwanese game for Sega Mega Drive/Genesis, originally released in 1996 by C&E, Inc.An English translation of the game was done by the North American company Super Fighter Team, and began shipping to pre-order customers on May 22, 2006, at the price of $40USD per copy. "Beggar Prince" was the first game for the Sega Genesis to be commercially released in the United States since 1998.

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, and Super Fighter Team president Brandon Cobb. All pieces were manufactured in China. [ [http://www.sega-16.com/forum/showpost.php?p=71885&postcount=1034 Sega-16 Forums - View Single Post - Beggar Prince: Official Thread ] ]

"Beggar Prince" works with any Sega Genesis, Mega Drive or Nomad 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. 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, Megadrive and compatible systems (such as the Nomad, 32X, CDX, X'Eye, Laseractive and so on).

Availability

Beggar Prince began shipping to pre-order customers on May 22nd, 2006. By September 8th, 2006, all 600 copies had been sold. However on October 18th, 2006, Super Fighter Team announced that they had begun taking pre-orders for a second production run of 300 copies. On June 19th, 2007, this production run had also sold through.

The third production run, introducing several changes, became available for pre-ordering on October 09, 2007 and started shipping on November 27, 2007. While it is unknown how many copies will be produced this third time, most people would speculate the number to be between 600 and 900.

Criticism

Although it received critical acclaim upon its release, gamers soon discovered a few glitches in the game. While Super Fighter Team had spent over a year working out the bugs left behind by C&E, it was simply not cost efficient to fix them all. While most of these errors were trivial, one or two could result in the game's main character getting stuck in a certain place where he was not supposed to be, meaning the player would have to backtrack by loading a previously saved game. Fortunately, the majority of the glitches present in the original Taiwanese release have been fixed.

The third run has also received some critics for fixing those issues of the first two runs; some customers were upset to have received an "inferior" version although they, as early buyers, helped making further production runs possible to begin with. Also some say that the third production run, being as big as the first and second runs combined, was made to get collectors to buy Beggar Prince again even though they already own one of the earlier versions. This rumor is based on both the number of copies produced for the third production run and by the fact that customers of the old version have no other way of getting at least the new cover than to order a second copy of Beggar Prince. [ [http://www.sega-16.com/forum/showthread.php?t=30&page=58 Beggar Prince: Official Thread - Page 58 - Sega-16 Forums ] ]

References

External links

* [http://www.beggarprince.com/ Official site]
* [http://www.gamingsteve.com/archives/2006/01/sega_genesis_li_1.php Sega Genesis Lives! Beggar Prince to be released Spring 2006]
* [http://www.littlemathletics.com/beggar.php Little Mathletics: Beggar Prince Interview] Interview with Super Fighter Team president Brandon Cobb and lead translator Yu-Chen Shih.
* [http://www.allgames.com/radio.asp?show=blackwolf&ep=26 Bobby Blackwolf Show Podcast Interview] 30+ minute MP3 interview with Brandon Cobb from January 15, 2006.
* [http://www.sega-16.com/feature_page.php?id=121&title=Beggar%20Prince:%20The%20Start%20of%20Something%20Good? Beggar Prince: Start of Something Good?] Article about "Beggar Prince"'s effects on retro gaming.
* [http://www.sega-16.com/feature_page.php?id=191&title=Interview:%20Brandon%20Cobb Sega-16 Interview] Interview with Brandon Cobb.
* [http://www.sega-16.com/review_page.php?id=169&title=Beggar%20Prince Sega-16 Review] Review of the game.
* [http://www.sega-16.com/feature_page.php?id=304&title=Beggar%20Prince:%20Third%20Time's%20the%20Charm Sega-16 third run preview] Third run information.
* [http://gamingtrend.com/Articles/articles.php?artID=184 GamingTrend Review] Review of the game.
* [http://www.retrothing.com/2006/11/review_beggar_p.html Retro Thing Review] Review of the game.
* [http://www.justinstructions.com/games3.html Justinstructions.com Interview] Interview with Brandon Cobb.
* [http://www.digitallard.com/blog/118/ Digital Lard Interview] Interview with Brandon Cobb.