Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Master System Port Is Still Alive and Its Demo Is Getting Closer

Homebrew developer xfixium confirms active progress on an 8-bit Sega Master System conversion of Konami's 1989 TMNT arcade beat-'em-up, with a demo nearing completion.

Sega Master System owners who spent the early 1990s wondering why everybody else seemed to have Ninja Turtles games may finally receive very delayed compensation. Homebrew developer xfixium has confirmed that work continues on an unofficial Master System conversion of Konami's classic Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles arcade beat-'em-up, despite the recent appearance of a separate Mega Drive project pursuing the same coin-op.

The eight-bit version has been in development for several years, and the latest update says a playable demo is planned 'soon.' Work is currently concentrated on completing the logic for the first stage, with development largely taking place during spare weekends — the glamorous production schedule behind a surprising amount of excellent homebrew. Compilation footage from earlier development builds shows how the Master System's comparatively generous colour palette can reproduce the arcade game's bright cartoon style rather effectively, while music work has also been underway.

Historically the situation was peculiar: the original arcade game reached NES and several home computers, while SNES owners later received Turtles in Time and Mega Drive players received The Hyperstone Heist. Sega's eight-bit console, however, received no dedicated TMNT title during its commercial life. More than thirty years later, homebrew developers are apparently unwilling to leave that injustice uncorrected. Whether the Master System itself has been patiently waiting since 1989 or simply forgot all about it is harder to establish.