We may only be several days into 2026, but we already have an exciting new project for Neo Geo fans to look forward to in the future.
h0ffman (who you may know from his Neo Geo ports of Shinobi and Golden Axe) has revealed that he is currently working on an unofficial port of Toaplan's 1989 side-scroller shooter Zero Wing to Neo Geo systems, and that it is now "nearly complete."
According to h0ffman, this version of the game features 6 layers of parallax backgrounds, 2 layers of sprites, and all levels complete and working, with some final bugs and Neo Geo CD support being all that now apparently stands in the way of release.
Since originally hitting the arcades back in the late '80s, Zero Wing has appeared on a few different home platforms officially, but was never officially released for SNK's Neo Geo systems.
In 1991, it was ported to the Sega Mega Drive for the Japanese and European markets, with the PAL release including a notoriously clumsy localization for the game's newly implemented introduction that later famously spawned the early internet meme, "All your base are belong to us". Following that, a PC Engine CD-ROM² version of the game was then produced in 1992, though this specific port would end up being exclusive to Japan.
In 2020, the independent publisher Retro-Bit released a cartridge version of Zero Wing Mega Drive / Genesis for the North American market. This has also been followed by a series of emulation-based reissues for platforms such as Steam/GOG, Nintendo Switch (via the Nintendo Classics service), Evercade, and Antstream Arcade (Xbox One/Xbox Series X|S, PS4/PS5, and more).
As h0ffman states, one of the unique features of this port will be the option to select between the Mega Drive and PC Engine CD-ROM², something he has demonstrated in a recent video on his YouTube channel.
We'll keep you posted on when the port is available to play.