Would it have been too obvious to call a game about soccer playing RC cars, Soc-Car? Well [Martin] thought so and opted to call his Nintendo GameCube homebrew game, Retro League GX. The game clearly takes inspiration from Rocket League developed by Psyonix, as it pits teams of cars on a pitch plus comes complete with boosts to boot. There are some impressive physics on display here, and according to Krista over at GBATemp everything is playable on original hardware. Though those without a GameCube can certainly get a match in via the Dolphin emulator.
There are a number of ways to boot homebrew on a Nintendo GameCube, however, the most essential piece of software would be Swiss. Swiss is a homebrew utility that interfaces with all the myriad of ways to load code onto a GameCube these days. Common ways loading homebrew include saving files onto an SD card then using a SDGecko device that plugs into the memory card ports, or a SD2SP2 device that plugs into one of the GameCube’s expansion ports located on the bottom of the console. Those who prefer ditching the disc drive entirely can load homebrew via a optical disc emulator device like the GC Loader.
Still on the roadmap Retro League GX are ports for 3DS, PSP, Wii, and Linux. LAN and Online multiplayer are in the works as well. So at least that way GameCube broadband adapter owners may get to branch out beyond Phantasy Star Online for once. Best of all, [Martin] stated that the code for Retro League GX will be open sourced sometime next year.
For more things GameCube, check out this mod of the beloved/belied GameCube keyboard controller.
Ooooh, a PSP port with multiplayer would be nice!
Also, Psyonix sucks. They sold out to Epic, they removed a bunch of features, and dropped Linux and Mac support completely. The game I spent money to buy so I can play on Linux and now I can’t play on Linux. This is the software as a service model. This is why people see the first steps happening to power tools and freak out about what’s coming next. It’s because things like this have shown us the end of that path.
Bravo to Martin for bringing a similar experience back and making it even more portable.
Impressive! Physics and “juiciness” aren’t quite there (don’t know how close you could get anyway, Psyonics spent years getting it just right), but this would be pretty damn close even if it wasn’t limited by 20 year old hardware.
Split-screen multiplayer would be fitting, instead of doubly anachronistic LAN play. I love “Programmer art lagoon”!
“doubly anachronistic LAN play” ?
Quite. The Gamecube had an official LAN adapter, supported by a small number of games. I believe Mario Kart Double Dash supported up to sixteen players (eight karts) across four consoles.
Having said that, I never owned a LAN adapter, and stuck to split-screen multiplayer myself.