A new fan project titled SpaghettiKart has been released, offering a modern PC port of Mario Kart 64 with a range of visual and gameplay enhancements.
Developed by a group called Harbour Masters, the port requires players to supply their own legally obtained ROM of the original game, but in return delivers a significantly expanded experience.
SpaghettiKart includes native support for ultrawide displays, 4K resolution, antialiasing, and unlocked frame rates up to 120fps. Players can also adjust level-of-detail settings and take advantage of a fully functional track editor, which opens the door for custom course creation. Other additions include a free camera mode, more challenging AI, and compatibility with modded content, such as high-resolution texture packs and user-made tracks.
The port is part of a broader effort by Harbour Masters to bring Nintendo 64 titles to PC via reverse-engineered code. The group has previously released unofficial PC ports of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, Majora’s Mask, and Star Fox 64.
These projects employ clean-room development techniques and do not distribute copyrighted Nintendo assets, instead relying on users to provide original ROM files, which places the work in a legal grey area that has so far avoided takedown notices.
While Nintendo has a history of aggressively pursuing fan-made projects and emulation tools, source ports that don’t include copyrighted content and require players to extract their game files have occasionally remained online.
Whether SpaghettiKart will follow the same fate as other unofficial ports remains to be seen, but for now, it offers PC players a new way to revisit and reimagine one of the Nintendo 64’s most iconic racing titles.
