The Simpsons arcade game was produced by Konami in 1991. It was released in North America on March 12 and in Japan on August. The game began development in February 1990 and underwent location testing in the Chicago, Illinois area (where the Konami's U.S. subsidiary was located) in December of the same year, a few months before its full release. The Japanese game developer had prior success with the 4-player Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles arcade game and attempted to reproduce the same success with a game based on The Simpsons.