A New Nintendo 64 Game? Presenting Donut Dodo

We’ve covered a lot of new games for the NES and Game Boy because those systems have GUI development kits — NESMaker and GB Studio respectively. These kits reduce development time and make the chore of assembling a homebrew game for a retro console much easier. Less common are homebrews for later, more complex consoles like the Nintendo 64…but the number may rise soon.

A new, free-to-download, open source development kit now exists for the N64. It’s called Pyrite 64 and the first version was released earlier this year on Github. This means we could be seeing a lot more N64 homebrews soon, but the first to arrive was too early to use Pyrite. Instead it was handcoded in C language, and it doesn’t really use the flashier aspects of the N64 (not a single polygon here). In fact it looks like it could easily run on an earlier console, but don’t sell it short. The important thing is that it’s fun.

Progrqmmer Sebastian Kostka presents DONUT DODO! In this love letter to early 80s arcade games, you play as a chef running around each candy-colored stage trying to collect all the donuts in each area, while avoiding enemies, hazards, projectiles, and the dreaded, gigantic Donut Dodo himself.

– 5 single-screen levels plus a bonus stage, each with their distinct game mechanics
– incredibly tight controls for frantic single-player arcade gameplay
– 4:3 screen ratio and pixel perfect graphics with a 16-colour palette
– an original chiptune soundtrack by the very talented Sean Bialo
– arcade style high-score tables, limited to 3-character initials

Even though Donut Dodo is by a European developer, and therefore was developed for PAL televisions, the game is region-free and should function on CRTs all over the world. The cheapest copy of the game is the pure digital tier that costs ten Euros, or $12 in American dollars. The physical N64 cart isn’t as cheap as an NES cart; it costs $82 to procure (as of this writing though, there is miraculously one Early Bird cart left at a reduced price of $70). For the collectors, there’s a “Dodo Red” limited edition for $291 that also comes with a holographic sticker, trading cards and all stretch goals.

Donut Dodo will only stick around until May 31. Support the Kickstarter by heading here.