Jazz Jackrabbit is making its way to the Super Nintendo, more than 30 years after its original PC release. An unofficial port from developer Happy-Ferret brings Epic MegaGames’ 1994 DOS platformer to Nintendo’s 16-bit console, complete with its familiar run-and-gun gameplay and colourful environments. The project is still in development, but a playable ROM is already available, offering an early glimpse of Jazz running on hardware he never officially visited.
Jazz Jackrabbit finally reaches the Super Nintendo
Jazz Jackrabbit arrived on MS-DOS in 1994, bringing a console-inspired platform game to PC players at a time when Sonic the Hedgehog and Super Mario dominated the genre on home consoles. Developed and published by Epic MegaGames, the company now called Epic Games, the original game came from programmer Arjan Brussee and designer Cliff Bleszinski. It mixed fast movement, shooting and platforming with large levels, secret areas and a steady supply of enemies.
The story follows Jazz, a green rabbit armed with a blaster, on a mission to rescue Princess Eva Earlong from Devan Shell, an evil turtle with plans of his own. Players travel across different planets, collecting ammunition and weapon upgrades, avoiding hazards and shooting enemies along the way.
Jazz Jackrabbit remained a PC release during its early years. A sequel followed in 1998, and a separate Game Boy Advance game appeared in 2002, but the original never received an official Super Nintendo conversion. Happy-Ferret’s new project addresses this missing version with an independent port built for Nintendo’s 16-bit hardware.
How the SNES port works
The conversion doesn’t start directly from the original DOS executable. Instead, Happy-Ferret is using an existing Sega Genesis port developed by haroldo-ok as the foundation for the SNES release.
The Genesis version uses SGDK, a development kit for creating software on Sega’s 16-bit console. Moving the game to Nintendo’s system requires adapting the code to PVSnesLib, a library used for Super Nintendo development.
It’s more involved than changing the graphics and controller inputs. The two consoles use different processors, graphics systems and memory arrangements, so parts of the existing code need to be rewritten for the SNES. Developer Happy-Ferret has already converted some performance-critical routines into assembly language, with further work planned for the console’s 65816 processor.
The current approach retains the existing gameplay implementation from the Genesis project and adapts it for Nintendo’s hardware. It’s a separate version of Jazz Jackrabbit rather than a direct conversion of the DOS engine.
Graphics and gameplay receive SNES-specific changes
The port aims to recreate the original game’s platforming and shooting mechanics, including Jazz’s fast movement through side-scrolling levels. Developer Happy-Ferret has introduced several graphics changes for the SNES version, including background priorities, dithered transparency effects and expanded colour handling. Palette animation has received attention too, allowing colours within the environments to change during gameplay.
The developer plans further work on colour extraction and palette optimisation, alongside improvements to the heads-up display. These technical changes matter for a game originally built around the capabilities of DOS-era PC hardware. The SNES has its own methods for displaying backgrounds, sprites and colours, requiring the conversion to handle familiar visual effects differently. The project remains an early release, so its current graphics and gameplay shouldn’t be treated as representative of a finished conversion.
Where to get Jazz Jackrabbit for SNES
Happy-Ferret published Jazz Jackrabbit SNES on 18 September 2026 as a downloadable ROM, distributed through a name-your-own-price model. The current download comes as a 2 MB SFC file, a standard format for Super Nintendo ROM images. It’s an unofficial digital release, with no official retail cartridge announced.
For now, the focus remains on Jazz Jackrabbit itself. The available build provides an early version of the 1994 PC platformer running on Nintendo’s 16-bit console, with audio, graphics and performance improvements still on the development list.
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