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 role-playing adventure game for the Sega Mega Drive/Genesis and PC.^[1] It was originally released in 1996 for the Sega Mega Drive/Genesis 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. A prototype version was first shown to the public on August 20, 2005, at the Classic Gaming Expo in Burlingame, California.^[2] 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.^[3]

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, and Super Fighter Team president Brandon Cobb. All pieces were manufactured in China.^[4]

Beggar Prince works with any Sega Genesis (with the exception of Sega Genesis Firecore), 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, Mega Drive and compatible systems (such as the Nomad, 32X, CDX, X’Eye, Laseractive and so on).