A Terminator game for the NES platform had been in development since 1989. Sunsoft's game, Journey to Silius (1990), was originally conceived as a game based on James Cameron's film The Terminator (1984). However, the license expired during production and the final game altered its graphics and created its own storyline. Mindscape then acquired the licence and gave it to Radical Entertainment to develop resulting in this game which was released in December 1992.