These ports of Nintendo 64 titles to other consoles and PC without the use of emulation are all being done by decompiling the game. This gives the programmer access to the code that makes the game so they can modify it to work on other consoles or back on PC/Mac. Mario Kart 64 is one of the latest to get this treatment for the Sega Dreamcast. This is a continuation of my article from about a month ago where Mario Kart 64 was ported to PC. If you read that article, you have a good idea how this is one is going to go.
Sega Fans Do What Fans of Nintendon’t
Mario Kart 64’s port to Sega Dreamcast saw a release a while back but it didn’t feature sound, so I ignored it. I waited for it to improve in frame rate as well.
Now the development of this port is getting interesting. Not only can you play Mario Kart 64 on your Sega Dreamcast, without the use of an emulator, but it has sound now AND a special guest is coming soon.
Over on Time Extension they covered a tweet by Falco Girgis, prolific retro programmer that I first met covering their Elysian Shadows project and Kickstarter.
Girgis mentioned the addition of Sonic the Hedgehog in the Sega Dreamcast port of Mario Kart 64. Apparently, Sega’s mascot will take the place of Toad in the lineup.
Sorry Toad fans.
The Wait is Strong
The video embedded above from Segaguru on YouTube shows off Mario Kart 64 on Sega Dreamcast running with sound. This is awesome because it is a great way to compare the underlying power of the Nintendo 64 to the Sega Dreamcast (slightly unfair but can be fun).
Much like similar ports, you will have to provide your own assets from your copy of Mario Kart 64 to make this work. That could be dubious at best and possibly illegal depending on how you obtain those assets. I cannot offer any assistance in that.
Unfortunately, there is no demo available, no release, nor release date announcement in sight. That means more waiting.
While I prefer to cover things that my friends here on Hive, and those reading this elsewhere, can check out firsthand via at least a demo, I had to cover this Mario Kart 64 port. I do my best to keep these limited access pieces to a minimum on purpose.
Let me know what you think in the comments below. Are you a fan of Mario Kart 64?
I love Mario Kart but I didn't start playing it until Double Dash on the Gamecube. Back in the SNES days F-Zero was the racing game i was obsessed with and I didn't have a Nintendo 64 at the time it was out as I had moved to the PlayStation.
I played the original on Super Nintendo, was not impressed and went back to Star Fox but when I played Mario Kart 64 at a Walmart I was working nights at, I was hooked.
F-Zero on SNES was amazing. I played that so much and even discovered a lot of the places where you could glitch the game and jump over like half of the track. I have no memory as to why and how that was possible but it worked. I liked the green racer the most even though for the truly good drivers I believe it was the pink one that was the best because of the higher top speed.
I think those were designed short-cuts vs. glitches. They were hard to see but once you knew where they were they were pretty easy to hit...though if you didn't hit them just right or with enough speed you could plummet to your death.
Those kinds of ports on the sega Dreamcast always amaze me, I heard that they did something similar with GTA III.
Yes! I covered the GTA port here on Hive, I believe, and it is apparently only getting better as they work on things. Crazy to think what was ultimately the cause of the Sega Dreamcast failing is what is keeping it alive now.
There are so many Dreamcast ports and new games coming that it is simply amazing.
Really interesting to see this Dreamcast port! I had no idea they'd been releasing these types of ports for other consoles!
I was just as surprised as you were. Then on top of that, they are modding it to give Sonic a shot in the Mario Kart 64 world is just icing on the cake.
How interesting. Sonic released a pretty good title I think called Sonic Racing for Wii U, very much in the style of Banjo-Kazooie.
This is nice, I was only aware of Super Mario 64 fan port for several classic systems and PCs. It would be nice to see more ports of N64 exclusive titles.