The Kartering

About

Mario Kart is Nintendo's kart-racing series in which players race go-karts on themed tracks while using power-up items, occasionally featuring guest characters from other Nintendo franchises. The Kartering is a kart-racing game built to be driven by networked clients rather than direct human input: a client connects to a local server on port 31337 and sends single-byte bitmask commands to control acceleration, turning, drifting, and powerups, receiving JSON state updates in return, with the first client to complete a set number of laps winning. It's written in C using SDL2.

How it differs from the original

Unlike Mario Kart, control is entirely via a raw TCP/JSON network protocol meant for AI clients rather than direct human input, though it includes similarly-themed powerups (bananas, colored shells, mushrooms, stars, oil, lightning) without any licensed characters or courses.

Getting started

Build it by installing the SDL2 development headers and running "make", producing an executable that listens for client connections on port 31337.

Media

Licensing & legal

• The codebase is mostly MIT-licensed, with some Windows compatibility headers under GPLv2+ and ISC licenses.