We've seen a bunch of classic NES titles get natively ported to the SNES, and now it's the turn of Konami's Life Force / Salamander, an offshoot of the Gradius series.
Rumbleminze has leveraged FastROM/HiROM to create a 1:1 conversion of the game on Nintendo's 16-bit console. The developer has confirmed that it works on Mesen2 emulator, MiSTer and on original hardware (via FxPak Pro), as well as via a physical cart, using a MouseBite Labs board.
The big bonus of playing this game on the SNES is that the sprite flicker and slowdown, which plagued the NES version, have been eradicated. Another plus is that Rumbleminze has included five CD-quality soundtracks, eight colour palettes, a difficulty option selector and the ability to adjust your stock of lives.
Launched in arcades in 1986, Salamander (known as Life Force in the West) borrows elements from 1985's Gradius, but introduces vertically-scrolling stages and two-player co-operative gameplay. The NES port arrived in Japan in 1987, and the game was also ported to the PC Engine, MSX, X68000, C64, ZX Spectrum and Amstrad CPC.
The game would be followed by Salamander 2 in 1996. A third title in the franchise will be released as part of the upcoming Gradius Origins collection, developed by M2.