We have already had the chance to talk about remarkable ports on the Dreamcast, such as WipEout by developer JNMartin, an adaptation originally from the PlayStation that impressed with its fluidity and boldness. Today, another gaming landmark follows the same path: Mario Kart 64.

Everything started with the complete decompilation of Mario Kart 64's code, achieved in 2025, allowing a perfect reproduction of the original game and thus adaptation to other platforms. Building on his experience with WipEout and Doom 64, JNMartin embarked on this adventure. Three weeks after starting the project, the game was already running on the Dreamcast, menus included. Early screenshots showed a result surprisingly close to the original, despite some visual artifacts, occasional performance fluctuations, and initially no sound. Contrary to some rumors, Toad remains playable in this version, with no character replacements.

On tracks like Luigi Raceway, the framerate reaches 30 frames per second, with multiplayer operational. Such achievement confirms how fertile the Dreamcast remains for homebrew developers, even more than twenty years after production ended.

This port is not an end in itself. Even before Mario Kart 64 was fully completed, JNMartin had already started working on Star Fox 64, another classic from the N64. In just two days, a functional version was running on the Sega console, still marked by sound and graphical issues but already promising. These efforts illustrate the passion and creativity of an independent scene breathing new life into cult titles, while pushing the technical limits of machines long considered frozen in time.

Source: Time Extension