Cowabunga Comeback: TMNT’s Infamously Brutal NES Classic Is Getting a Native SNES Port

In partnership with

Fun Fact: Nintendo started with playing cards. Founded in 1889, Nintendo made handmade hanafuda cards decades before entering video games.

In today’s email:

• Cowabunga Comeback: TMNT’s Infamously Brutal NES Classic Is Getting a Native SNES Port

• Namco’s 1996 Jet‑Ski Classic Aqua Jet Has Landed On Arcade Archives

• PS1 Clone ‘SuperStation One’ Will Run Sega CD And Saturn Discs — Here’s How

You Don’t Need to Be Technical. Just Informed

AI isn’t optional anymore—but coding isn’t required.

The AI Report gives business leaders the edge with daily insights, use cases, and implementation guides across ops, sales, and strategy.

Trusted by professionals at Google, OpenAI, and Microsoft.

👉 Get the newsletter and make smarter AI decisions.

Lead with AI—no coding needed

Cowabunga Comeback: TMNT’s Infamously Brutal NES Classic Is Getting a Native SNES Port

Coder Infidelity is suiting up to bring 1989’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles to 16‑bit hardware — no emulation, just pure turtle power.

Rom‑hacker infidelity (yep, the one who’s been quietly turning NES staples into silky‑smooth SNES builds) says his next target is the original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles — the one with the notorious dam stage that still makes veterans sweat. He’s “beginning work” now, joking that he’s bracing for that section while sharing an early research tease. This follows a July note teeing up three new SNES projects for 2025: TMNT, Super C, and Contra Force.

If you missed it the first time around, TMNT (1989) was a phenomenon, moving more than four million cartridges and searing its difficulty into our collective memory. It’s also still readily playable today via The Cowabunga Collection on modern platforms — but infidelity’s port takes a very different path.

What “native SNES port” actually means

This isn’t a wrapper or an emulator shoved into a shell. Infidelity recreates NES games on the SNES by painstakingly translating the original 6502‑era code and wiring it up to SNES hardware features — video, audio, memory, the works. In past breakdowns he’s described a two‑emulator workflow (FCEUX for NES, Mesen2 for SNES) and straight hex‑editing to move logic over, adjusting everything from NMI/PPU toggles to OAM DMA and palette conversion so sprites and backgrounds render through the SNES PPU. He also targets FastROM (3.58 MHz) for extra headroom and uses tricks like window masking when NES-era sprite hacks don’t behave under the SNES’s more generous sprite limits.

For the hardware nerds: the SNES’s CPU is a Ricoh 5A22 based on the 65C816, a 16‑bit evolution of the NES’s 6502 lineage — one reason these ports are feasible without rewriting the entire game from scratch.

Why TMNT could shine on SNES

Infidelity’s calling card is fixing the stuff the NES struggled with: slowdown and sprite flicker. We’ve already seen the benefits on other conversions — Life Force/Salamander’s SNES port wipes out both, and his Zelda and Metroid ports did the same while layering in optional enhancements. Expect similar wins for TMNT’s crowded screens and scrolling overworlds.

And he doesn’t stop at performance. Recent releases show a pattern of smart, opt‑in upgrades that keep the NES feel:

• The Legend of Zelda (SNES port): L/R quick‑swap, palette selection, and optional MSU‑1 audio.

• Metroid (SNES port): a full map, an item select screen, and multiple soundtrack options.

• Mike Tyson’s Punch‑Out!! (SNES re‑port): rumble support, FMV‑style intro, and a custom save engine. (Yes, rumble on SNES, with the right gear.)

None of that is confirmed for TMNT yet, but the track record suggests we could see QoL touches alongside the baseline “no flicker, no slowdown.” At minimum, the infamous dam stage should feel fairer when the hardware isn’t dropping sprites to keep up. Infidelity even name‑checked that sequence when announcing the project.

The tricky bits he’ll have to wrangle

Two big technical lifts are typical in these ports:

1. Sound: NES music/effects come from the 2A03 APU; SNES audio lives on the SPC700. Infidelity has posted about converting APU logic and buffer transfers to the SPC700, and his ports often ship in two flavors: one that recreates NES‑style audio on SNES silicon, and one with MSU‑1 hooks for CD‑quality tracks. Expect the same pipeline here.

2. Mappers & memory: The US NES TMNT cart uses MMC1 (SxROM). Infidelity has already shown he can tame trickier Konami mappers — remember the Contra Famicom VRC2 port? “Take THAT, VRC2!” wasn’t just a dunk; it’s a proof point that his tooling can bridge different bank‑switching behaviors cleanly on SNES.

So… when and how can you play it?

There’s no release date and no download yet — development has only just begun. Keep an eye on his socials for progress updates. Historically, infidelity makes public builds available (previous SNES ports like Metroid and Zelda are on Archive.org), and MSU‑1 features work best on a flash cart like FXPak Pro/SD2SNES, on MiSTer FPGA, or in emulators that support it. Rumble (if implemented) has worked in Mesen and ares in other projects.

Big picture

Whether you bounced off TMNT in 1989 or wear that dam‑level trauma like a badge, a native SNES build is more than a novelty — it’s a preservation‑minded rebuild that lets a classic breathe on hardware that can actually keep up, while leaving the door open for tasteful enhancements. It won’t replace the arcade brawlers or your Cowabunga Collection, but it just might become the definitive way to revisit the original platformer. Cowabunga, indeed.

Notes for purists: This is a community project, unaffiliated with Konami or Nintendo. If and when a patch/ROM is released, use it responsibly and within your local laws. If you’re new to MSU‑1 or SNES flash carts, RetroRGB has good explainers and gear recs in the linked write‑ups above.

Namco’s 1996 Jet‑Ski Classic Aqua Jet Has Landed On Arcade Archives

29 years after it soaked arcade floors (and egos), Namco’s bright‑blue jet‑ski racer Aqua Jet is finally cruising onto modern hardware via Hamster’s long‑running Arcade Archives label. The game landed on August 14, 2025—as a standard Arcade Archives release on Nintendo Switch and PS4, and as an Arcade Archives 2 release on Switch 2, PS5, and Xbox Series X|S.

This is a big deal for preservation nerds and ’90s arcade heads alike: Aqua Jet has never had a home release until now. It’s the latest in Hamster’s push to bring early‑polygon Namco showpieces into the living room following Ridge Racer and Air Combat 22.

What’s Aqua Jet again?

Originally released in 1996, Aqua Jet is a sun‑drenched time‑attack racer built on Namco’s System Super 22 hardware—the same high‑performance family that powered mid‑’90s stunners. The arcade cabinet literally put you on a jet‑ski‑style platform and let you carve across checkpoints and choppy water like a vacation brochure came to life.

If you’re getting Wave Race vibes, you’re not alone; the track‑to‑track, checkpoint‑driven flow is very much that flavor of arcade racing.

Two labels, slightly different vibes

Hamster’s splitting this one across its two lines:

• Arcade Archives (Switch, PS4) – The faithful emulation package with Original Mode, Hi‑Score Mode, and Caravan Mode, plus online rankings, save states, button remapping, difficulty tweaks, and a rewind option. Price: $14.99 USD.

• Arcade Archives 2 (Switch 2, PS5, Xbox Series X|S) – Adds Time Attack Mode (race to finish the full game as fast as possible). Some AA2 titles also add extras like VRR support; features vary by game. Price: $16.99 USD.

Good news if you double‑dip: owners of the Switch or PS4 release can upgrade to the Switch 2 or PS5 AA2 version for $2.99. (Heads‑up: save data isn’t shared across the two labels.)

Multiplayer? Leaderboards? What’s included

Aqua Jet is a single‑player title here. You still get the global leaderboards through Hi‑Score and Caravan, but there’s no Network Mode for this specific release. It’s all about shaving seconds and posting times in Time Attack on the AA2 side.

Why this matters

Namco’s mid‑’90s polygon era defined an arcade look and feel—clean textures, bold color, slick framerates—and a lot of it never left the arcade floor. Aqua Jet finally making the jump (pun very intended) keeps that slice of history playable and accessible instead of locked to a rare motion cabinet.

Release details (at a glance)

• Launch date: August 14, 2025

• Platforms:

  • Arcade Archives: Nintendo Switch, PS4

  • Arcade Archives 2: Nintendo Switch 2, PS5, Xbox Series X|S

• Price: $14.99 (AA); $16.99 (AA2); $2.99 owner upgrade (Switch→Switch 2, PS4→PS5)

• Players: 1

• Modes: Original, Hi‑Score, Caravan (all); Time Attack (AA2)

• Notes: No Network Mode for this title

If your heart still lives in a seaside arcade circa 1996, this is the exact kind of sunny, scoreboard‑chasing time capsule Arcade Archives was built for. Put on the virtual life jacket and go set some splits.

PS1 Clone ‘SuperStation One’ Will Run Sega CD And Saturn Discs — Here’s How

If the SuperStation One already had your retro senses tingling, here’s the power-up: the FPGA-based PS1 “clone” will spin Sega CD and Sega Saturn discs straight from the tray. No dumps. No BIOS gymnastics. Just pop the disc in and go. That promise comes via fresh firmware work from creator Taki Udon, who also says PC‑Engine CD support is up next.

What the SuperStation One actually is

SuperStation One isn’t emulation in a cute shell; it’s an open, MiSTer‑compatible FPGA console designed to recreate PlayStation hardware behavior at the circuit level. The base unit carries modern niceties—HDMI plus analog outs for CRTs, Wi‑Fi, Bluetooth, an NFC reader, dual PS1 SNAC ports for original controllers, and it’s region‑free for PS1 games. It ships with a 64GB microSD and aims to be “open source from day one.”

Pricing has been one of the big hooks. Founders Edition preorders started at $149 and quickly sold out; the standard unit was offered at $179 (MSRP $225) with the company targeting shipments in Q4 2025 or earlier.

Discs without the dump: the SuperDock

The disc magic doesn’t happen in the base console—it happens in the SuperDock. This under‑slung add‑on brings a tray‑loading optical drive, four extra USB‑A ports, and an M.2 2280 bay. Retro Remake’s targeting roughly $40 for the dock (there’s a $5 preorder deposit SKU listed), which is absurdly approachable if it sticks. Crucially, the dock is the pathway for reading physical CDs for PS1… and now Sega CD and Saturn.

Early coverage painted the dock as a disc‑dumping accessory, but that’s changed. Time Extension reports—and Taki’s own post corroborates—that firmware now enables direct‑from‑disc loading on Sega CD and Saturn cores. Translation: you don’t have to rip your game first. It’s labeled preliminary and still needs polish, but it’s real. PC‑Engine CD is “next.”

How it works (the short version)

Because SuperStation One rides the MiSTer platform, each console is recreated as an FPGA “core.” What Taki’s team is doing is adding the plumbing for those CD‑based cores to pull sector data straight from the dock’s optical drive in real time—subchannels and all—rather than only from an image file on SD. That’s a non‑trivial lift, especially for Saturn, whose infamous copy‑protection and disc timing made life hard for clone drives back in the day. But the upshot for collectors is huge: keep your library intact and play it as‑is. (The specific implementation details haven’t been fully documented publicly yet; this section summarizes what the dev has announced and what the outlets have verified.)

If you want proof‑of‑life for physical discs on SS1 generally, the MiSTer community has already shared clips of the system reading PS1 discs without dumping. That was the canary; Sega CD and Saturn support are the follow‑through.

Why this matters

• Preservation & convenience: Optical drives fail. If SuperStation One lets you exercise your legitimate discs on modern displays without ripping or modding old hardware, that’s preservation with training wheels.

• One box, many ‘90s libraries: With PS1, Sega CD, and Saturn spinning on the same platform, SS1 graduates from “PlayStation clone” to a disc‑friendly hub for multiple CD ecosystems—still with proper analog output for CRT diehards.

• Price pressure: A $179 console and a dock targeting ~$40 undercut the cost/complexity of rolling your own MiSTer with optical drive support, and it applies pressure on boutique competitors to keep up.

Specs snapshot (base unit)

• FPGA: Intel Cyclone V with 128MB SDRAM

• Video: HDMI up to 1536p/1440p, plus VGA, DIN10, composite, and component (digital and analog can be active simultaneously)

• Audio: 3.5mm analog + TOSLINK

• I/O: 3× USB‑A, Ethernet, USB‑C power, NFC; expansion slot for SuperDock

• Compat: MiSTer cores; original PS1 controllers & memory cards; region‑free PS1

• Box: 64GB microSD, HDMI cable, USB‑C cable in the package
  These are straight from Retro Remake’s spec sheet.

Release timing, preorders, and the fine print

Retro Remake says Founders units are still shooting for Q3 2025, while later batches list Q4 2025 or earlier. As always, hardware timelines can slip, but the team publicly reaffirmed the window alongside the disc‑support news.

A few practical notes before you slam preorder:

• Shipping & duties: Orders ship via DHL or 4PX; the store’s policy calls out that listed prices exclude VAT/duties and even references Chinese holidays in its shipping cadence—so budget time and taxes accordingly, especially if you’re in the EU or UK.

• Dock pricing: The dock’s ~$40 goal is a target, not a final MSRP. It’s reserved via a $5 deposit product page; expect the remainder to be due closer to ship.

• “Preliminary” means preliminary: Saturn and Sega CD disc loading are in early firmware. Expect rough edges until the cores and disc stack mature. (That’s the nature of FPGA development out in the open.)

The takeaways

SuperStation One started life as a sleek, approachable way to get MiSTer‑grade PS1 on your TV without a weekend of forum spelunking. With Sega CD and Saturn disc support now in play, it’s quietly morphing into the most interesting disc‑centric FPGA box of the moment. If the team sticks the landing on compatibility and the dock stays affordable, SS1 could become the default recommendation for anyone who still treasures shiny ‘90s circles—and wants to keep using them in 2025 and beyond.

We hope you tune back in for our next issue, where we'll dive deep into more retro gaming news!

Start learning AI in 2025

Keeping up with AI is hard – we get it!

That’s why over 1M professionals read Superhuman AI to stay ahead.

• Get daily AI news, tools, and tutorials

• Learn new AI skills you can use at work in 3 mins a day

• Become 10X more productive

Sign up and start mastering AI