Homebrew developer Andor (known online as @andorvogel4768) has published the first public demo of a fan-made port of Castlevania: Circle of the Moon for the Sega Genesis / Mega Drive.
The update, posted on Monday 8 June 2026, follows developer progress shared since January and delivers the complete first 'Catacombs' area, including the Cerberus boss encounter.
Background and context
Castlevania: Circle of the Moon originally launched as a Game Boy Advance release in 2001 from Konami.
Andor's project is an unofficial homebrew conversion targeting the 16-bit Sega Genesis / Mega Drive hardware; it is separate from any official Konami releases or modern reissues on platforms such as the Nintendo Switch eShop.
What the demo includes
The publicly available demo provides players with the full Catacombs segment, culminating in the Cerberus fight.
Andor cautions that this particular build has not been tested on original cartridge hardware, though earlier iterations of the project were tested on real Genesis/Mega Drive systems and reportedly ran correctly.
Development status and technical notes
Andor has been transparent about outstanding work.
The developer warned that the demo still requires tuning and that bugs remain possible, including potentially game-breaking issues.
Performance drops are present when many enemies are active, especially during the Cerberus boss fight; Andor said they have already reduced slowdown where possible and will revisit deeper optimization later.
Progress on save functionality and new content
In earlier updates published on Wednesday 28 January 2026, Andor detailed a week-long effort to enable SRAM-based save/load functionality and to implement a Data Select screen accessible from the title menu.
That work allows up to three independent save slots, though the in-game Save Room has yet to be implemented.
Andor also added a new enemy type, the Bat, noting the movement pattern was recreated to closely match the original game.
Community and media
Progress videos have been shared on YouTube and highlighted by community figures such as @St1ka, and recent footage is accompanied by music from @jorgerfm364.
The demo can be downloaded from the developer's release page for those interested in testing the conversion on emulators; users testing on original hardware should follow Andor's guidance until a hardware-verified build is published.
This release represents a significant milestone for a technically ambitious fan conversion and will likely shape priority fixes and optimizations for subsequent builds.
The update, posted on Monday 8 June 2026, follows developer progress shared since January and delivers the complete first 'Catacombs' area, including the Cerberus boss encounter.
Background and context
Castlevania: Circle of the Moon originally launched as a Game Boy Advance release in 2001 from Konami.
Andor's project is an unofficial homebrew conversion targeting the 16-bit Sega Genesis / Mega Drive hardware; it is separate from any official Konami releases or modern reissues on platforms such as the Nintendo Switch eShop.
What the demo includes
The publicly available demo provides players with the full Catacombs segment, culminating in the Cerberus fight.
Andor cautions that this particular build has not been tested on original cartridge hardware, though earlier iterations of the project were tested on real Genesis/Mega Drive systems and reportedly ran correctly.
Development status and technical notes
Andor has been transparent about outstanding work.
The developer warned that the demo still requires tuning and that bugs remain possible, including potentially game-breaking issues.
Performance drops are present when many enemies are active, especially during the Cerberus boss fight; Andor said they have already reduced slowdown where possible and will revisit deeper optimization later.
Progress on save functionality and new content
In earlier updates published on Wednesday 28 January 2026, Andor detailed a week-long effort to enable SRAM-based save/load functionality and to implement a Data Select screen accessible from the title menu.
That work allows up to three independent save slots, though the in-game Save Room has yet to be implemented.
Andor also added a new enemy type, the Bat, noting the movement pattern was recreated to closely match the original game.
Community and media
Progress videos have been shared on YouTube and highlighted by community figures such as @St1ka, and recent footage is accompanied by music from @jorgerfm364.
The demo can be downloaded from the developer's release page for those interested in testing the conversion on emulators; users testing on original hardware should follow Andor's guidance until a hardware-verified build is published.
This release represents a significant milestone for a technically ambitious fan conversion and will likely shape priority fixes and optimizations for subsequent builds.
