Introducing Snowboard Kids: Recompiled
TL;DR Snowboard Kids: Recompiled is available for Windows, Mac and Linux!
Following the decompilation of Snowboard Kids, I’ve been working on recompiling the game for modern hardware. Today I’m pleased to announce the release of Snowboard Kids: Recompiled!
This was far from a solo effort. I’d like to thank the members of the community who helped make this release possible.
- Moz Lunsford from the Snowboard Kids Discord for his amazing launcher image.
- Darío for his help and advice throughout the recompilation effort.1
- Everyone who helped with the decompilation, particularly inspectredc, Bl00D4NGEL, and queueRAM.
- Everyone who tested the pre-release builds, especially McGyna, who sent me dozens of videos and screenshots showing in exquisite detail all the places I’d screwed up.
Launcher artwork by Moz Lunsford.
Features
Snowboard Kids: Recompiled supports widescreen and ultrawide displays, high frame rates, configurable controls, mods and so much more.
There are also a few smaller quality-of-life improvements. The recompilation handles saves directly, avoiding the hassle of managing a virtual Controller Pak and letting us simplify the game’s save menus.
The game also includes a few simple mods to serve as inspiration:
- Mod Example: available as a template on GitHub, this is a great starting point if you’re looking to create your own mod. It gives you unlimited parachutes and fans for good measure.
- Quick Start: at some point I got tired of watching the opening credits while testing the recomp. Skip straight to the title screen.
- Nepo Kids: takes place in an alternate reality where the kids had wealthy parents. Start the game with all content unlocked.2
- No Rubber Banding: there’s no worse feeling than building a massive lead only to have the AI inexplicably catch up and overtake you.
The bundled example mod keeps player one supplied with parachutes and fans. Perfect for multiplayer.
Local Multiplayer
Up to four players can race locally, with high frame rates and a choice of vertical or horizontal splits for two-player races.
Two-player races default to a vertical split.
Behind the scenes, both Snowboard Kids recompilations share a fork of RecompFrontend. This provides the launcher, settings, and controller configuration, with some additional work on theming and (in my opinion) a smoother multiplayer controller assignment flow.
Each player presses a button on their controller to claim a slot. The keyboard can also be assigned to a player.
I’d like to upstream some of these changes eventually. Multiplayer support is a relatively new RecompFrontend feature, though, and I think it’ll take more projects using it before we know what works best.
If, like me, you’re more of a Snowboard Kids 2 person, its multiplayer support is also available as an alpha release.
What Next?
There’s plenty more to say about building and testing the recompilation. Projects using N64Recomp seem to encounter many of the same problems, and I think some of what I learnt could help other recompilation efforts. When I started writing those thoughts down, though, this post quickly ran over 3,000 words. I’ve decided to cover the development process in a separate series. Stay tuned!
If you love Snowboard Kids, please do join us on the Snowboard Kids Discord.
Download Snowboard Kids: Recompiled