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It's 2025 and new Dreamcast ports are coming in hot and fast. After getting Doom 64 and WipeOut working on Sega's beleaguered system, JNMartin is now porting something truly sacrilegious: Mario Kart 64.
Yes, Mario's first 3D kart racer will be playable on the Dreamcast, a feat which seems ridiculous to even think about. But there's an early clip to prove it's already happening, though right now it’s not particularly appealing.
The footage comes from Flaco Girgis, who's involved in the Dreamcast homebrew scene (thanks, Time Extension). He shared a snippet, revealing some of the issues JNMartin is facing, and extolling all the progress that's been made.
FINALLY time for the big announcement everyone has been begging and waiting for... Here's a VERY EARLY direct hardware capture of Mario Kart 64... RUNNING ON THE SEGA DREAMCAST, of course!This game was literally just BARELY decompiled the other day, with a codebase that is… pic.twitter.com/h76glP2QGuJune 7, 2025
"There are all kinds of visual glitches and rendering artifacts, the framerate is all over the place, and there's no audio yet - which is totally typical of any ambitious DC port in the early stages," Girgis writes. "The [Dreamcast] build wouldn't even get past the menu screen without crashing or running out of RAM until just a few DAYS ago, yet here it is, every level playable WITH multiplayer support already on the DC!"
What's available is rough, with a stodgy framerate and a number of inconsistencies. But the Dreamcast and Nintendo 64 had very different hardware, making something from one run on the other is a feat, and there’s more than enough to suggest this’ll be running smoothly before we know it.
Imagine trying to explain to someone circa-2000 Mario Kart 64 would be running on a Sega console, never mind the Dreamcast of all things. What a world. Soon it'll be time to get reacquainted with the original Rainbow Road all over again. We'll keep you informed on progress.
