Chris Oberth and the Creation of Excavator
You probably haven’t heard of Chris Oberth, despite him being an early video game pioneer who had a significant impact on the industry. His career began in the late 1970s and stretched all the way into the early 2000s. During his lengthy career he worked on many well-known games including Out Run (Commodore 64 port), Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, Winter Games, and Boulder Dash (ColecoVision port). However, not all the games he worked on ever saw a physical release, which wasn’t uncommon in the industry at the time.
What is uncommon is that Chris actually kept copies of the source code for many of the games he worked on, one of which was Excavator for the NES. It was an arcade-style shoot ’em up that he developed while employed by Incredible Technologies, the company behind popular coin-operated arcade games such as Golden Tee and Big Buck Hunter. Excavator was completed in 1991 and the company sought a publisher to release it on the NES. Unfortunately, no publisher was found and the game was quietly shelved.
The Excavating of Excavator
Unfortunately, Chris Oberth passed away in 2012, leaving behind a legacy of video games and a treasure trove of projects in various stages of development. His family donated his archive to the Video Game History Foundation (VGHF), where the source code for Excavator was discovered. Better yet, the game was complete and ready for publication.
The VGHF decided to rescue the game from obscurity and enlisted Mega Cat Studios to finish preparing it for release. Using Oberth’s original source code, the team worked with the original development tools and hardware wherever possible to preserve the game as faithfully as they could.
Released under the name Xcavator 2025 by Retrotainment Games, the game was first offered as a pre-order in 2025 to help fund the manufacturing of cartridges, boxes and manuals. Copies began shipping to backers in June 2026. It was sold out for a period, but at the time of writing (23 July 2026), new stock is once again available from iam8bit.com.
A copy costs US$100, with 100% of the profits going directly to the Video Game History Foundation to support its ongoing efforts to locate, preserve and archive classic video games.
Xcavator 2025
Xcavator 2025 is an arcade-style space shooter. The player controls a mining ship operating in an area rich in mineral resources, collecting valuable ore while fending off hostile enemies and rival ships. Judging by the gameplay, it appears to be a very fast-paced experience, which is no surprise considering Incredible Technologies’ background in coin-operated arcade games.
The physical release includes a full-colour 14-page instruction manual and has been professionally produced by Mega Cat Studios. It also features a brand-new soundtrack composed by nocturnalplant and Inverse Phase. Stocks may be limited, so if you’re an NES collector, this is probably one release you’ll want to pick up.
Relevant Links
- Xcavator 2025 Product Order Web Page [https://www.iam8bit.com/products/xcavator-2025] Currently available for purchase at iam8bit.com
- Xcavator 2025 Trailer [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lIy3PwqGYOs] Game trailer on YouTube.com
- Xcavator 2025 Announcement Article [https://noisypixel.net/iam8bit-xcavator-2025-nes-cartridge-vghf/] Article by noisypixel.net
