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Ancient MS-DOS kart racer Wacky Wheels is out now in HD and wackier than ever

Wacky Wheels HD

Wacky Wheels HD revives the MS-DOS kart racing game in high definition for today’s newfangled computery devices and it is incredible. Disclaimer: I am old.

For more classic PC games without the installation woes and launch parameters, click here.

I distinctly remember playing the ever-loving excrement out of Wacky Wheels on the family Packard-Bell Pentium, having dug a floppy of it out of some bloke’s car boot down at the motorcycle museum car park one Sunday morning. Extra disclaimer: yes, that old.

Now, instead of having to back out of Windows 3.1 into DOS to launch the closest thing you can get to Mario Kart without owning a fancy Super Nintendo Entertainment System, you can get it on Steam or Itch.io.

Sure there’s not the same memorable cast of characters as Red Plumber or Green Dinosaur or Green Plumber, but the charming animals behind the wheels of this racer perfectly recapture that 90s aesthetic of everything being a slightly worse knock-off of everything else.

Originally developed by Apogee Software (which would then become 3D Realms, of Duke Nukem, Commander Keen and Wolfenstein 3D fame) the HD remake is being resurrected by dead game connoisseurs Ferocity 2D. Adding to the game’s four-player split-screen co-op, the team are also adding up to eight player online multiplayer. The future is incredible.

The 22-year-old game’s in early access, which is impressive, really, but will feature 20 all-new tracks inspired by the original when it is freshly finished. What a time to be alive. Final disclaimer: I am old, but not dead.

My eternal infantile thanks to RPS for tipping me off.