Xcavator 2025 is the resurrection of the unpublished NES game Xcavator, which had originally been designed back in 1991, but which was unable to secure a publisher.

The original XCavator game was designed by veteran games programmer Chris Oberth, and it has never been released until now, when it’s finally about to make its NES debut some 35 years later than originally intended.

The game will be a a fully functional NES title built from Chris Oberth’s original design, which was developed at Incredible Technologies Inc. (the company behind coin-ops such as Golden Tee Golf), which itself had a recent revival, on which we previously reported.

Xcavator was shopped around to several publishers but never found a home. However, the prototype’s source code was recently discovered and rebuilt by the Video Game History Foundation from Oberth‘s development archives, which were donated by his family after his sad passing. Incredible Technologies then donated the rights to the game to the Video Game History Foundation to use as a fundraiser for its charitable work. The Video Game History Foundation then worked with the prolific indie retro studio Mega Cat Studios to finish the game.

The NES cartridges for Xcavator 2025 are being manufactured by Retrotainment Games, with a new 14-page manual designed by Design by Max58, Lost in Cult and Kate Willaert to be included with the release. 100% of the profits made by the release of XCavator 2025 will go to the Video Game History Foundation.

XCavator 2025 is set for release on a physical NES cartridge in Q2 2026, with pre-orders open now, priced at $100 USD.