Unreleased NES Racing Game Discovered After 30 Years

After three decades, youd think weve found absolutely everything there was related to the Nintendo Entertainment System, one of the oldest home game consoles. And then there was Days of Thunder, NES racing game that only now, for the first time, is publicly available.

Days of Thunder was an NES game based on the 1990 film of the same name. The film featured Tom Cruise as a NASCAR driver. The game, however, never made it to production. Digital archivists at the Video Game History Foundation have recently discovered the game and its code and have both preserved it and released it to the public.



Originally, the game was produced by Chris Oberth (along with others). When Oberth passed away in 2012, much of his computer hardware was donated to the Video Game History Foundation. This included old computers, floppy disks, and other materials. After an extraneous process of going through the outdated data storage formats, the archivists managed to find the games source code.

This was no easy task. The data was often encrypted and spread between multiple disks. The team needed time-appropriate technology to access the information in a readable format, not to mention the process of transferring the data to modern computers.

But they prevailed, and now the game is built.

Days of Thunder NES allows players to race around on a virtual NASCAR track from a first person perspective. They can access a garage where their car can be fixed and modified. If youre interested in trying for yourself, the source code has been made available on GitHub. Building it isnt easy, though. There is word that a group of dedicated fans intend to produce physical NES cartridges with the game on it, with the proceeds going to Oberths widow. Though we have yet to see this launch.

Otherwise, you can enjoy a look back into a nearly-forgotten history with the video above. Want to know more? You can also visit the VGHF website, where they detailed the discovery process.