Sega Nerds

Interview: Brandon Cobb, Super Fighter Team

by Chris on April 29th, 2008

In May 2006, an independent, California-based developer called Super Fighter Team made history when it brought Beggar Prince, a Sega Genesis RPG originally released by C&E in Taiwan in 1996, to Sega Nerds everywhere. This was notable because it was the first commercially released Genesis title since the mid ’90s.

Complete with an authentic Genesis box art and case, Beggar Prince met with commercial success during Super Fighter Team’s first two production runs. In November last year, the developer released its third production run, which featured tweaked box art and support for game saves on other Genesis supported hardware like the Nomad and 32X.

Brandon Cobb, the president of Super Fighter Team, recently sent us a copy of the game and was gracious enough to sit down and answer some of our questions.

Sega Nerds: First off, Westerners are familiar with Beggar Prince’s The Prince and the Pauper themed storyline, but we never received the game here. What about the game made you think Western gamers would be receptive to it?

Cobb: Unlike most Taiwanese RPGs, Beggar Prince is set in a medieval fairy tale, almost European styled story world. This makes it easy for just about anyone to drop into the game and understand what’s going on, especially with our carefully crafted editing/re-writing. The original game even used common Western names like Sarah, Steven and Tom for the main characters. In the end we were able to keep a good balance of the energy, quirkiness and humor from the original text intact, while simultaneously strengthening the character development and inserting some more “close-to-home” references and gags.

Sega Nerds: Can you go into detail on all the changes and improvements you made to the game in bringing it stateside?

Cobb: Definitely the biggest changes we made to the game’s original programming involved the fixing of leftover bugs, rather than the overall localization which was, by comparison, much easier and less time consuming. To begin with, the original Chinese version of the game wasn’t even completable (without losing your sanity) due to the abundance of bugs. The game would crash when monsters used certain magic attacks, when the prince walked over certain switches, because it just plain felt like it, etc. I spent a large chunk of the development time seeking out and documenting bugs for our programmers to fix, supervising their work, then testing the result. Because of our hard work and keen eyes, the game became a much sturdier, more enjoyable experience overall.

Sega Nerds: Like with any game in development, I’m sure you guys ran into your fair share of hiccups and problems along the way. Could you discuss any of these hurdles Super Fighter Team had to overcome from start to finish?

Cobb: There were at least two instances where I presented one of our programmers with a problem only to get the response, “It can’t be fixed.” Needless to say such an answer wasn’t going to work, so we kept on discussing and hypothesizing until a suitable solution was reached. Once, to my surprise, I found a bug in the final version of the game which wasn’t present in an earlier prototype version. Thus we corrected the “seemingly impossible” bug by learning how the prototype overcame it.

Sega Nerds: According to our research, it appears that Beggar Prince is now on its third production run. How happy are you with the success of the game, and are there any plans for any future production runs?

Cobb: In a past interview I had stated that Beggar Prince didn’t need to sell a million copies, but that it just needed to exist, both for me and for the fans. This is still true: It’s all about how happy it makes people, in giving them a new game of high commercial quality to play and enjoy for a system they love which is otherwise unsupported by game companies.

The fact that Beggar Prince is doing so well gives me an overwhelming feeling of joy and accomplishment; people love classic gaming and they’re happy to embrace it. As has been my goal from the start, we will do our best to ensure that everyone who wants a copy of the game (within reason) will be able to get one. I shudder to think of a fan having to pay double the cost of the game on eBay, just so they can try it out.

Sega Nerds: One of the things I was personally impressed with even before actually playing the game is the quality of the game’s box and manual. It appears that you guys went to great lengths to provide gamers a game on the same level as a traditional commercially released title. How important was it to you to do that, and how much of the game’s success do you attribute to that?

Cobb: It was absolutely integral that the product be presented in the same high-quality manner as what one could expect to see on the shelves from Sega themselves back in the heyday of the Genesis. We’re a devoted game company working up a commercially produced English language edition of one of our business partners’ titles. To bring anything to the market which is less than our best effort would be insulting to both our business partners and to our customers and fans.

Sega Nerds:We always like to find out how much developers like the game they helped create. How often do you play Beggar Prince today?

Cobb: After having played completely through Beggar Prince over thirty times during its development, turning over every rock and encountering every last enemy and NPC each time, I’ve admittedly and understandably become a little burnt out. Even so, I do sneak it into the Genesis every once in a while, to play through one of my favorite parts, or listen to a favored music track. I’m still in love with the game, no question.

Sega Nerds: Looking back, is there anything you wish you could have done differently with the game?

Cobb: Nothing I’d lose any sleep over, no. I’m proud of what we accomplished.

Sega Nerds: Could you explain what it’s like developing for the Genesis?

Cobb: While modern advancements like the USB cable make it quick and painless to shoot your code over to the Genesis for testing, the debugging process can still be difficult due to the lack of more sophisticated tools that exist for other systems. The system also has its limitations, such as how many colors can be displayed on screen at once, but often times it’s an interesting challenge to create digital art within the restrictions of the hardware. Beggar Prince, for example, is often compared graphically to Super Nintendo RPGs, which have far more colors available to them on the screen. In the end it comes down to how much creativity, determination and drive your team has.

Sega Nerds: In December, you guys announced that you acquired Oldergames.com. Can you elaborate on the plans you have for that project?

Cobb: As a known, established source of support for classic consoles, the OlderGames name and domain just needed someone new to re-ignite the spark that the original owners had lost somewhere along the way. Under the management of Super Fighter Team, oldergames.com will now be given the chance to be a fount of positivity and the stuff of which dreams are made.

Sega Nerds: Your Wikipedia page says that you guys are currently developing Super Fighter Block Battle for the Symbian OS. Can you tell us what we can expect from that, and what actual version of Symbian will it support?

Cobb: Super Fighter Block Battle is a great little game that I designed myself, and worked up some of the graphics for. It’s a hectic action - puzzle game with gameplay rules similar to Tetris, in which the characters attack each other, doing damage, with each successful move. Thus the player can win (or lose) depending on two factors: Their screen being filled to the top with blocks, or their health being completely depleted. Bluetooth wireless play is also available, because no game like this would be complete without it. The game has been tested and will be compatible with a long range of the finest Nokia handsets, starting with the older models (3650, N-Gage) to the present ones.

Sega Nerds: Do you think Super Fighter Team will ever develop software on any other Sega platforms, like the Dreamcast for instance?

Cobb: I’ve at least fantasized about working with the Game Gear and the Saturn (if we could work up a cost-effective cartridge design, as I’d never want to go the CD route), because I’ve always been very enthusiastic about and comfortable with both systems.

Sega Nerds: If we snuck into your house in the middle of the night, what games would we find inside your consoles that you’ve been playing recently?

Cobb: These days, I can only find the time to play videogames while I am over visiting my nephew. Together with my brother, we face off against each other in such games as Mario Kart Double Dash, Halo 3 and Call of Duty 4, among others. It’s a good time.

Sega Nerds: Lastly, is there anything you’d like to say to your fans?

Cobb: They’re brilliant. They are brilliant and they have made all of this possible. Something like this, the success of a 16-bit videogame in the 21st century, is proof that the constantly evolving hardware and fast-paced release of lemming software titles is obtuse and definitely not swallowed by the entirety of gaming enthusiasts. The major software houses tell you that your favorite games console isn’t good enough anymore? We think different. Dig it.

If you’re interested in purchasing Beggar Prince, you can buy it for $46 directly from Super Fighter Team here. Look for Sega Nerds’ Beggar Prince review in the next few days.

Tags: Beggar Prince, Independent, Super Fighter Team

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POSTED IN: Chris, Interviews