# tmnt-recomp: porting the NES Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles game to C

> tmnt-recomp ports the 1989 NES Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles game to C from analysis of its 6502 code. It loads a user-provided European or American ROM at runtime, implements game logic and needed NES hardware behavior, and compares recorded runs with emulator traces.

- Type: Case study
- Targets: Game
- Category: Independent reconstruction cases
- Relationship: Independent reconstruction project
- Sources reviewed: 2026-11-06
- Added to the catalog: 2026-11-08
- Original resource: <https://github.com/naparuba-retro/tmnt-recomp>
- Primary source: <https://github.com/naparuba-retro/tmnt-recomp/blob/ebe212cbf7e8ef5fd1d9af82acbf066bc41e6f46/README.md>
- Catalog page: <https://awesomerea.org/resources/tmnt-recomp-case/>
- Record JSON: <https://awesomerea.org/resources/tmnt-recomp-case/record.json>
- Chinese version: [简体中文](https://awesomerea.org/zh/resources/tmnt-recomp-case/index.md)

## Requirements & limits

- **Prerequisites:** A user-provided European or American .nes ROM is required.
- **Prerequisites:** Windows builds use Visual Studio Build Tools and Python 3; Linux builds use gcc, SDL2 and Python 3.
- **Limits:** The author reports that unvisited paths still emit TODO messages and randomness follows a different sequence.
- **License:** MIT license covers the repository code.

## Primary sources

1. <https://github.com/naparuba-retro/tmnt-recomp/blob/ebe212cbf7e8ef5fd1d9af82acbf066bc41e6f46/README.md>
2. <https://github.com/naparuba-retro/tmnt-recomp/blob/ebe212cbf7e8ef5fd1d9af82acbf066bc41e6f46/tests/reference_game/README.md>

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## About this entry

The description was reviewed against primary sources.
Original editorial content: MIT. Linked projects, papers and assets retain their own rights and licenses.