Homebrew ROM Hack SNES - Fan-Made Prequel to Turrican II – Set Entirely Inside the Intro Ship

[SUPER-J11BIT]

Hi everyone!
I’m working on a personal project: a fan-made game that serves as a direct prequel to Turrican II.

The core idea is to show what actually happens during the intro of the original Amiga game—the attack on the Freedom Forces’ ship and the fall of the crew. My game will end exactly where Turrican II begins, so players will realize in the final scene that the first level of the classic game starts right after the events they just experienced.

The entire adventure takes place inside the large spaceship seen in the intro. I’m imagining it as a massive structure with multiple decks and sectors, giving me plenty of room to design varied and coherent levels.
Each area will have its own atmosphere, hazards, and narrative beats, gradually building up to the ship’s total collapse.

Project Goal
The goal is to show the fall of the ship from the inside, following the protagonist as he fights through the invasion and tries to survive. The ending will connect directly to the opening of Turrican II, creating a narrative bridge that the original game never showed.

In my version, Bren McGuire doesn’t wear the iconic battle armor. Instead, he appears in a more human form—agile, exposed, and equipped with a sleek futuristic rifle.

Weapon System: All Fire Modes at Your Fingertips
There are no weapon pickups or upgrades scattered throughout the level. Instead, each button on the controller triggers a different type of fire:

A fast, precise shot
A wide-range energy wave
An explosive projectile
A high-powered charged blast

Everything is built into the controls from the start, giving players instant access to a full arsenal.

Fast-Paced, Streamlined Gameplay

The goal is to deliver a fluid, action-packed experience where players can adapt quickly without pausing to manage inventory or switch weapons.

I’ve just wrapped up all the sprites and the entire graphics set for the game. It’s been a ton of work, but seeing everything come together has been amazing.Starting today, I’m officially moving on to the SNES coding phase — the most technical part, but also the one that will finally bring everything to life.Stay tuned, because things are about to get really exciting.

Let me know what you think, I’m excited to hear your reactions!

 

[Robert Newbie]

Hey, good luck to you. I've never played the Turrican games, but maybe I should. It sounds like you're really passionate about the originals, and I'm always intrigued by devs that choose to develop for retro consoles. I'll have to remind myself to keep watch on this topic.

 

[SUPER-J11BIT]

Hey, good luck to you. I've never played the Turrican games, but maybe I should. It sounds like you're really passionate about the originals, and I'm always intrigued by devs that choose to develop for retro consoles. I'll have to remind myself to keep watch on this topic.

Thanks a lot!
I’m really glad you’re interested in following the project. I’ll be sharing updates as development moves forward, so feel free to stick around — there’s a lot of cool stuff coming.

 

[Robert Newbie]

Thanks a lot!
I’m really glad you’re interested in following the project. I’ll be sharing updates as development moves forward, so feel free to stick around — there’s a lot of cool stuff coming.

I took a look at some Super Turrican 2 footage, and I was surprised by what Factor 5 did on the SNES. Clear voice samples and pre-rendered images, the game impresses right out of the gate. Looking at some stills of later levels, the game has some good imagination to it. I really should give it a full playthrough.

I hear the original Amiga game is different from Super Turrican, and Super Turrican 2 is more like Contra III, due to linear level design. Super Turrican 2 must have been considered one of the best-looking games on the SNES, but it's strange because I barely knew it existed.

Ok, I just did the research. In 1995, the following games came out on the SNES:
Chrono Trigger
Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest
Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island
Kirby's Dream Course
Killer Instinct
Mega Man X2
Earthworm Jim 2
Mega Man 7

 

[Jayro]

Would be super cool to add a patch option to tack it onto the original Turrican 2 game ROM, to play through both seamlessly.

 

[SUPER-J11BIT]

Would be super cool to add a patch option to tack it onto the original Turrican 2 game ROM, to play through both seamlessly.

I totally get the idea of adding a patch option to attach it directly to the original Turrican 2 ROM, but in my case the project works very differently.

After a lot of testing and experimenting, I took a more technical route: I deconstructed Super Mario World and rebuilt a custom graphics engine from the ground up. It’s a homemade system I spent about a year developing, and it turned out solid, flexible, and perfect for creating something completely new.

From there, I moved into the creative phase and started building entirely original games on top of this framework.That’s why the patch isn’t meant for Turrican 2 — it’s designed to be applied to Super Mario World, because that’s where all the underlying tech lives.

The project will be released as a patch for the original SMW ROM.Legally everything is clean, since only the patch will be distributed — never the full game.

 

[Jayro]

I totally get the idea of adding a patch option to attach it directly to the original Turrican 2 ROM, but in my case the project works very differently.

After a lot of testing and experimenting, I took a more technical route: I deconstructed Super Mario World and rebuilt a custom graphics engine from the ground up. It’s a homemade system I spent about a year developing, and it turned out solid, flexible, and perfect for creating something completely new.

From there, I moved into the creative phase and started building entirely original games on top of this framework.That’s why the patch isn’t meant for Turrican 2 — it’s designed to be applied to Super Mario World, because that’s where all the underlying tech lives.

The project will be released as a patch for the original SMW ROM.Legally everything is clean, since only the patch will be distributed — never the full game.

Interesting... Could it take advantage of an SA-1 patched Super Mario World? It reduces lag when too many enemies are on the screen at once.

 

[Lostbhoy]

I would say it looks cool but CONTENT NOT AVAILABLE IN MY FUCKING REGION

Would like to try this. Would also like to see it

 

[SUPER-J11BIT]

Interesting... Could it take advantage of an SA-1 patched Super Mario World? It reduces lag when too many enemies are on the screen at once.

I get what you mean, but I prefer not to use the SA‑1 patch in my hacks. A lot of the patches and custom codes I rely on aren’t compatible with SA‑1, so it would break too many things. As for lag, I usually avoid having too many sprites on screen at the same time, so it’s not really an issue for my projects.

Plus, without SA‑1 the hack stays fully compatible with real SNES hardware, while SA‑1 can cause problems on an actual console. That’s another reason I stick to the standard setup.

Post automatically merged: Jan 17, 2026

I would say it looks cool but CONTENT NOT AVAILABLE IN MY FUCKING REGION

Would like to try this. Would also like to see it

I get it! The game isn’t ready yet, so it’s not available to try.If you’re talking about the images showing up as “not available in your region,” you can still see all of them in the posts on my YouTube channel.

 

[Lostbhoy]

I get what you mean, but I prefer not to use the SA‑1 patch in my hacks. A lot of the patches and custom codes I rely on aren’t compatible with SA‑1, so it would break too many things. As for lag, I usually avoid having too many sprites on screen at the same time, so it’s not really an issue for my projects.

Plus, without SA‑1 the hack stays fully compatible with real SNES hardware, while SA‑1 can cause problems on an actual console. That’s another reason I stick to the standard setup.

Post automatically merged: Jan 17, 2026

I get it! The game isn’t ready yet, so it’s not available to try.If you’re talking about the images showing up as “not available in your region,” you can still see all of them in the posts on my YouTube channel.

Yeah the sweary part wasn't aimed at you, i know it's not your fault but I'm going looking for your YT... Had Turrican and loved it on my C64. It was my contra or metroid at the time!

 

[SUPER-J11BIT]

Yeah the sweary part wasn't aimed at you, i know it's not your fault but I'm going looking for your YT... Had Turrican and loved it on my C64. It was my contra or metroid at the time!

No worries, I knew you weren’t talking to me! And yeah, Turrican on the C64 was awesome.

 

[shadowflare7799]

The c64 is such an underrated computer for gaming. I think nowadays they go somewhere in the ballpark of $50-$150 or a few hundred.

 

[Jayro]

The c64 is such an underrated computer for gaming. I think nowadays they go somewhere in the ballpark of $50-$150 or a few hundred.

I just play the C64 games on my MiSTer.

 

[SUPER-J11BIT]

The bosses in my game… mutant giants!

I have to admit, I didn’t originally plan to include bosses in my game. But while I was working on a few ideas, a thought suddenly hit me: why not add mutant giants?

The idea clicked right away, and it feels like it gives the whole project a stronger direction. I’ve started integrating them into the game, and I really like how they’re shaping the overall atmosphere.

 

[SUPER-J11BIT]

New Level Inspired by STRYX Thanks to principekento!

I wanted to share a cool update about the project.
A few days ago, principekento left a comment that really stuck with me:

"I’ve been following your work with interest, and as a parting tip I’d love to see something inspired by my old Amiga memories: for some reason your creation reminded me of Psygnosis’ STRYX. I could totally imagine a zero‑gravity section with a jetpack, handled just like in that Psygnosis game!!"

That reference instantly sparked something.
So I’ve decided to take his suggestion and add a brand‑new level inspired by exactly what he described: a zero‑gravity area, complete with jetpack controls, capturing the vibe of STRYX while adapting it to the style of my game.

 

[Robert Newbie]

New Level Inspired by STRYX Thanks to principekento!

I wanted to share a cool update about the project.
A few days ago, principekento left a comment that really stuck with me:

"I’ve been following your work with interest, and as a parting tip I’d love to see something inspired by my old Amiga memories: for some reason your creation reminded me of Psygnosis’ STRYX. I could totally imagine a zero‑gravity section with a jetpack, handled just like in that Psygnosis game!!"

That reference instantly sparked something.
So I’ve decided to take his suggestion and add a brand‑new level inspired by exactly what he described: a zero‑gravity area, complete with jetpack controls, capturing the vibe of STRYX while adapting it to the style of my game.

I like that your design concept is so fluid. Bosses, zero-gravity areas, it's going to add more challenge and variety to the whole thing.

 

[DaFixer]

I took a look at some Super Turrican 2 footage, and I was surprised by what Factor 5 did on the SNES. Clear voice samples and pre-rendered images, the game impresses right out of the gate. Looking at some stills of later levels, the game has some good imagination to it. I really should give it a full playthrough.

I hear the original Amiga game is different from Super Turrican, and Super Turrican 2 is more like Contra III, due to linear level design. Super Turrican 2 must have been considered one of the best-looking games on the SNES, but it's strange because I barely knew it existed.

Ok, I just did the research. In 1995, the following games came out on the SNES:
Chrono Trigger
Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest
Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island
Kirby's Dream Course
Killer Instinct
Mega Man X2
Earthworm Jim 2
Mega Man 7

Turrican started on the C64, Turrican 1/2 on the C64 was made by Manfred Trenz. A brilliant programmer, mainly on 8 bit computers. Turrican 1/2 where remade for the Amiga 500, both versions are the best on that platform. There is a another 16bit port on the Atari ST, but that one is not that good. Turrican 2 was planned to port to the mega drive/genesis, but changed to a Universal Soldier themed game, because the movie just came out.

Turrcian is known for the good gameplay and the good music made by Chris Hülsbeck, mainly the soundtrack off Turican 2 is so good, I have good memories when playing those games on the Amiga back in the day.


There is a Turrican 3 on the Amiga, but is was released in the end life off the that platform, development was not so good.
The MegaDrive/Genesis got Mega Turrcian in my option is that the better version.

 

[TVL]

Can he roll up into a ball in your game? The walk cycle is spot on.
One of the best soundtracks ever on the Amiga version of Turrican 2.

 

[shadowflare7799]

You know who else was a quality developer? Compile. They made a hidden gem that was a top down shooter/shmup hybrid by the name of The Guardian Legend. You could always stylize your game by making it a lot of eye candy such as was the case with gunforce 2 the game we got before metal slug 1 super vehicle.

 

[SUPER-J11BIT]

Can he roll up into a ball in your game? The walk cycle is spot on.
One of the best soundtracks ever on the Amiga version of Turrican 2.

If you're talking about the rolling ball move like in Turrican, my character can’t do that. He doesn’t wear any armor, so he can’t turn into a rolling ball — he’s just a regular human.

Post automatically merged: Feb 3, 2026

You know who else was a quality developer? Compile. They made a hidden gem that was a top down shooter/shmup hybrid by the name of The Guardian Legend. You could always stylize your game by making it a lot of eye candy such as was the case with gunforce 2 the game we got before metal slug 1 super vehicle.

Thanks! The Guardian Legend and Gunforce 2 are great references. Glad my project gives you those vibes — I'm definitely aiming for tight gameplay with a strong visual identity.