Xianfeng Cartoon (先锋卡通, literally Pioneer Cartoon), in full Beijing Xianfeng Cartoon Company (北京先锋卡通公司) was a game developer active from 1991 to 1994. [1]
Xianfeng Cartoon was established as a subsidiary of Beijing Xianfeng Company in 1991. They invested 3 million yuan establishing a development team with the aim of becoming "China's Nintendo", collected 20 game ideas but ultimately found they did not have the technical ability or design experience to realise them. [2]
Instead, they turned to translating foreign games into Chinese. Their first finished product (and also mainland China's first Chinese-translated game) was "赌神" in late 1993, a translation of Technos' "Sugoro Quest". They produced 25,000 copies but after 3 months had sold only 3,000 due to lack of established game sales channels, lack of marketing and piracy. [3]
Also in 1993, Xianfeng Cartoon founded China's first electronic game magazine, GAME集中营 ("GAME concentration camp"), which entered official publication in 1994, and survived until 2012 independently from Xianfeng after changing its name to GAME风景线 ("GAME landscape") and later 电子游戏软件 ("electronic game software").[4]
In 1994 they sold their technology to Subor for 200,000 yuan.
Games[]
Chinese translations[]
Du Shen (赌神, literally God of Gamblers), a translation of Sugoro Quest
Metal Max
Super Robot Wars 2
Tenchi wo Kurau 2
Original games[]
Tuxing Tuili & Zhili Pintu (图形推理、智力拼图), a 2-in-1 cartridge released by Subor but crediting design to Xianfeng Cartoon.
Zhili Pintu from the Subor 2-in-1 compilation reappeared on a later Russian cartridge credited to "Suman Game".
Suman Game is additionally credited in a Chinese-English dictionary program found on the XBK (小百科, xiao bai ke) Study Cartridge, which also uses similar fonts to those used by Xianfeng Cartoon in the Subor 2-in-1.
Gamesoft[]
Further games using the same sound engine have appeared on products by BBK Electronics and Bung, credited to "Gamesoft".
