There is a trend developing in gaming where classic titles that were once console exclusives are getting native PC ports. This is done by reverse engineering, the original game, often via a decompiler and some VERY knowledgeable developers massaging the code to run on PCs without an emulator. The latest title to begin making waves with a native PC port is Mario Kart 64 from the Nintendo 64 console. It is called SpaghettiKart and it looks amazing.
The Original Was Fun, This Release Adds More
There is no denying that the original Mario Kart 64 was a fun game. It was the first game that made me want a Nintendo 64, though I wouldn’t get one until years later. I played the demo cart at Walmart A LOT, who remembers when Walmart had games on demo?
SpaghettiKart brings 120 frames per second at 4K resolutions with full widescreen support. On top of better graphics, you are no longer limited to the N64 controller, you can use any controller that your PC recognizes now.
According to Kotaku, SpaghettiKart also allows players to adjust the aggressiveness of the computer controller racers.
Custom Tracks
No, not music tracks, though those are probably easily changed, here I mean custom racetracks to run around on. SpaghettiKart allows the creation of custom racetracks.
This alone is an amazing addition and will add tons of hours of fun to the base game.
All in all, Nintendo is probably stuck on this as far as using it off the Internet. Considering you will need to provide any copyrighted assets to play, Nintendo really does not have much legal room to stand. They might be able to combat over reused game code but that may be shot down if the Sega vs Accolade case were to come into play (basically saying reverse engineering is legal).
It would be great to see someone create assets to replace the Nintendo ones using the SpaghettiKart engine. I understand that is a massive undertaking but it is fun to dream.
Either way, if you have even a mild interest in the Mario Kart 64 game world, grab SpaghettiKart, put it away somewhere. Just because it is here today, doesn’t mean it will be tomorrow.