Long-Lost NES Game Xcavator Announced At Day Of The Devs

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Long-Lost NES Game Xcavator Announced At Day Of The Devs

https://retrohandhelds.gg/long-lost-nes-game-xcavator-announced-at-day-of-the-devs/

You know that feeling when you spend years trying to get your side hustle noticed… only for the world to ignore it? Meet Chris Oberth, 1991’s OG indie dev who made a clever little NES puzzle game called Xcavator—and got zero bites from publishers. His prototype? Boxed up. Source code? Dusty. Dreams? Deferred.

Fast forward 34 years: Oberth passed away, his family donated the code to the Video Game History Foundation, and a ragtag crew of retro heroes—Mega Cat Studios, Retrotainment Games, and iam8bit—decided it was time to resurrect this forgotten gem. Using 1991-era tools to stay true to the original vision, they finished what Oberth started. No modern polish. Just pure, unfiltered NES charm.

Now, Xcavator 2025 is real—and it’s not just a game. It’s a museum piece you can play. For $100, you get a gray NES cartridge, a 14-page doc detailing its wild journey, and the knowledge that every dollar after costs goes straight to saving other lost games from digital oblivion.

Frank Cifaldi of the foundation summed it up: “The world wasn’t ready in 1991.”

Turns out, we are now. And maybe—just maybe—we owe it to the pioneers to finally press play.

Pre-orders close Jan 10, 2026. Don’t let history stay buried.