Last month there was a little flurry of news that a new game for the Sega Genesis was in production. Beggar Prince is the first actual real Genesis title produced and released since 1998, and although it's "just" an English translation of a Chinese title called Xin Qi Gai Wang Zi, it's remarkable to see new cartridges rolling out of the factory after all these years. Over at Little Mathletics there's an interesting interview with Brandon Cobb of Super Fighter Team, the company responsible for the brief Genesis revival. He talks about the challenges of producing a new Genesis title after all these years and just how Beggar Prince was chosen for the honor.
For production, it's a matter of finding a factory that still produces these things - and that isn't a simple process. Not only that, but if you value your customers you'll find a factory that does things right - makes a good, sharp product rather than a cheap imitation. I talked with several factories before I finally found the right one, that could deliver exactly what we had been looking for: high-quality with strong resemblance to the mainstream Sega product of yesteryear.
It seems like such an oddity to see a new Genesis title sharing space with news about the Sony PlayStation 3 and Nintendo DS. As the old saying goes, we live in interesting times.
