''SuperTuxKart'' (''STK'') is a 2007

free and open-source Free and open-source software (FOSS) is software available under a Software license, license that grants users the right to use, modify, and distribute the software modified or not to everyone free of charge. FOSS is an inclusive umbrella term ...

kart racing game A kart racing game, also known as cart racing game or go-kart racing game, is a subgenre of Racing game, racing games. Kart racing games have simplified driving mechanics while including unusual racetrack designs, obstacles, and Vehicular combat ...

, distributed under the terms of the GNU General Public License, version 3. It features mascots of various

open-source Open source is source code that is made freely available for possible modification and redistribution. Products include permission to use and view the source code, design documents, or content of the product. The open source model is a decentrali ...

projects. ''SuperTuxKart'' is

cross-platform Within computing, cross-platform software (also called multi-platform software, platform-agnostic software, or platform-independent software) is computer software that is designed to work in several Computing platform, computing platforms. Some ...

, running on

Linux Linux ( ) is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an kernel (operating system), operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991, by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically package manager, pac ...

macOS macOS, previously OS X and originally Mac OS X, is a Unix, Unix-based operating system developed and marketed by Apple Inc., Apple since 2001. It is the current operating system for Apple's Mac (computer), Mac computers. With ...

Windows Windows is a Product lining, product line of Proprietary software, proprietary graphical user interface, graphical operating systems developed and marketed by Microsoft. It is grouped into families and subfamilies that cater to particular sec ...

iOS Ios, Io or Nio (, ; ; locally Nios, Νιός) is a Greek island in the Cyclades group in the Aegean Sea. Ios is a hilly island with cliffs down to the sea on most sides. It is situated halfway between Naxos and Santorini. It is about long an ...

(beta), Android systems and

Nintendo Switch The is a video game console developed by Nintendo and released worldwide in most regions on March 3, 2017. Released in the middle of the Eighth generation of video game consoles, eighth generation of home consoles, the Switch succeeded the ...

( homebrew). ''SuperTuxKart'' started as a fork of '' TuxKart'', originally developed by Steve and Oliver Baker in 2000. When ''TuxKart'' development ended around March 2004, a

fork In cutlery or kitchenware, a fork (from 'pitchfork') is a utensil, now usually made of metal, whose long handle terminates in a head that branches into several narrow and often slightly curved tines with which one can spear foods either to h ...

as ''SuperTuxKart'' was conducted by other developers in 2006. ''SuperTuxKart'' is under active development by the game's community.

Gameplay

SuperTuxKart - Gnu and Nolok in Story Mode

''SuperTuxKart'' game-play is similar to that of the ''

Mario Kart is a series of kart racing games based on the ''Mario (franchise), Mario'' franchise developed and published by Nintendo. Players compete in go-kart races while using various power-up item (game terminology), items. It features Characters in ...

'' series, but also has differentiating elements, such as collecting and using cans of Nitro and the use of presents and bananas on tracks. The game features the mascots of several open source projects. For example,

Mozilla Thunderbird Mozilla Thunderbird is a free and open-source email client that also functions as a personal information manager with a Digital calendar, calendar and contactbook, as well as an RSS feed reader, chat client (IRC/XMPP/Matrix (protocol), Matrix), ...

plays the referee, flagging the start of the race and saving players when they drive off the course. The game supports single player, local multiplayer, WAN multiplayer, and

LAN Lan or LAN may refer to: Science and technology * Local asymptotic normality, a fundamental property of regular models in statistics * Longitude of the ascending node, one of the orbital elements used to specify the orbit of an object in space * ...

multiplayer modes. Networking modes were introduced in version 1.0.

Characters

The official playable characters of ''SuperTuxKart'' are the mascots of free and open-source projects. The character Nolok does not represent a particular open source project, but was created by the '' SuperTux'' project as the

antagonist An antagonist is a character in a story who is presented as the main enemy or rival of the protagonist and is often depicted as a villain.Tux. Some other mascots from other projects are available as add-ons from ''SuperTuxKart'' "add-ons" website. The characters available in the base game are: * Tux, a

penguin Penguins are a group of aquatic flightless birds from the family Spheniscidae () of the order Sphenisciformes (). They live almost exclusively in the Southern Hemisphere. Only one species, the Galápagos penguin, is equatorial, with a sm ...

, the mascot of Linux who appears as the protagonist. *Nolok, an evil

dragon A dragon is a Magic (supernatural), magical legendary creature that appears in the folklore of multiple cultures worldwide. Beliefs about dragons vary considerably through regions, but European dragon, dragons in Western cultures since the Hi ...

from the game '' SuperTux,'' main villain *Gnu, a

gnu GNU ( ) is an extensive collection of free software (394 packages ), which can be used as an operating system or can be used in parts with other operating systems. The use of the completed GNU tools led to the family of operating systems popu ...

based on the mascot of the

GNU Project The GNU Project ( ) is a free software, mass collaboration project announced by Richard Stallman on September 27, 1983. Its goal is to give computer users freedom and control in their use of their computers and Computer hardware, computing dev ...

who rides a flying carpet * Adiumy, a duck, mascot of the

instant messaging Instant messaging (IM) technology is a type of synchronous computer-mediated communication involving the immediate ( real-time) transmission of messages between two or more parties over the Internet or another computer network. Originally involv ...

client

Adium Adium is a free software, free and Open-source software, open-source instant messaging client (computing), client for macOS that supports multiple IM networks, including XMPP (Jabber), IRC and more. In the past, it has also supported AOL Instant ...

*Gavroche, a

goblin A goblin is a small, grotesque, monster, monstrous humanoid creature that appears in the folklore of multiple European cultures. First attested in stories from the Middle Ages, they are ascribed conflicting abilities, temperaments, and appearan ...

, mascot of media hosting system MediaGoblin *Amanda, a panda, mascot of the window manager

Window Maker GNUstep is a free software implementation of the Cocoa (formerly OpenStep) Objective-C frameworks, widget toolkit, and application development tools for Unix-like operating systems and Microsoft Windows. It is part of the GNU Project. GNUste ...

*Emule, a mule, mascot of the file sharing app

eMule eMule is a Free software, free peer-to-peer file sharing application for Microsoft Windows. Started in May 2002 as an alternative to eDonkey2000, eMule connects to both the eDonkey network and the Kad network. The distinguishing features of eM ...

*Puffy, a

pufferfish Tetraodontidae is a family of marine and freshwater fish in the order Tetraodontiformes. The family includes many familiar species variously called pufferfish, puffers, balloonfish, blowfish, blowers, blowies, bubblefish, globefish, swellfis ...

, mascot of the OpenBSD project *Pidgin, a pigeon, mascot of the chat service

Pidgin A pidgin , or pidgin language, is a grammatically simplified form of contact language that develops between two or more groups of people that do not have a language in common: typically, its vocabulary and grammar are limited and often drawn f ...

*Sara, a wizard, mascot of the website OpenGameArt *Hexley, a

platypus The platypus (''Ornithorhynchus anatinus''), sometimes referred to as the duck-billed platypus, is a semiaquatic, egg-laying mammal endemic to eastern Australia, including Tasmania. The platypus is the sole living representative or monotypi ...

, mascot of Darwin *Konqi, an Asian dragon, mascot of the KDE project *Godette, mascot of the game design program Godot *Suzanne, a chimp, mascot of

Blender A blender (sometimes called a mixer (from Latin ''mixus, the PPP of miscere eng. to Mix)'' or liquidiser in British English) is a kitchen and laboratory appliance used to mix, crush, purée or emulsify food and other substances. A stationary ...

*Kiki, a squirrel, mascot of the art program

Krita Krita ( ) is a free and open-source software, free and open-source raster graphics editor designed primarily for digital art and 2D animation. Originally created for Linux, the software also runs on Windows, macOS, Haiku (operating system), Hai ...

*Wilber, mascot of the image editing tool

GIMP Gimp or GIMP may refer to: Clothing * Bondage suit, also called a gimp suit, a type of suit used in BDSM * Bondage mask, also called a gimp mask, often worn in conjunction with a gimp suit Embroidery and crafts * Gimp (thread), an ornamental tr ...

*Pepper, a

witch Witchcraft is the use of magic by a person called a witch. Traditionally, "witchcraft" means the use of magic to inflict supernatural harm or misfortune on others, and this remains the most common and widespread meaning. According to ''Enc ...

, from the webcomic Pepper&Carrot, who rides a broomstick *Xue, a mouse, mascot of

Xfce Xfce or XFCE (pronounced as four individual letters, ) is a Free and open-source software, free and open-source desktop environment for Linux and other Unix-like operating systems. Xfce aims to be fast and Lightweight software, lightweight whil ...

, who drives a

hovercraft A hovercraft (: hovercraft), also known as an air-cushion vehicle or ACV, is an amphibious craft capable of travelling over land, water, mud, ice, and various other surfaces. Hovercraft use blowers to produce a large volume of air below the ...

Plot

Unlike ''Mario Kart'', ''STK'' has a story associated with gameplay, similar to '' Crash Team Racing''. "Story mode" in ''STK'' is used to unlock tracks and characters for single and multi-player modes. At the beginning of story mode, Gnu, the leader of the free/libre and open-source world, is captured by Nolok, the villain in ''STK'', with his spaceship. Nolok then visits Tux and tells him that he has kidnapped Gnu; unless Tux and his friends can defeat Nolok, the 'King of the Karts', Gnu would become the meal for his next supper. After the player defeats Nolok in Fort Magma, the final track of ''STK'', Tux helps Gnu escape from his prison.

History

''SuperTuxKart'' is based on ''TuxKart'', a project initiated by Steve Baker in April 2000. Due to internal disagreements in the ''TuxKart'' project, development stalled. The project ultimately collapsed and was cancelled in March 2004. The project was forked as ''SuperTuxKart'', but remained in an unplayable and unmaintained state. In 2006 Joerg "Hiker" Henrichs resurrected the project and, with the help of Eduardo "Coz" Hernandez Munoz, released the game in a playable state. In 2008, Marianne Gagnon (aka. "Auria") joined the project and eventually replaced Coz as one of the project leaders after his retirement. Historically

licensed A license (American English) or licence (Commonwealth English) is an official permission or permit to do, use, or own something (as well as the document of that permission or permit). A license is granted by a party (licensor) to another part ...

under version 2 of the GPL, in 2008 the game's

source code In computing, source code, or simply code or source, is a plain text computer program written in a programming language. A programmer writes the human readable source code to control the behavior of a computer. Since a computer, at base, only ...

was relicensed to the

GPLv3 The GNU General Public Licenses (GNU GPL or simply GPL) are a series of widely used free software licenses, or ''copyleft'' licenses, that guarantee end users the freedom to run, study, share, or modify the software. The GPL was the first ...

. The game's assets (textures, models, sounds, music, etc.) are licensed under a mixture of

free content Free content, libre content, libre information, or free information is any kind of creative work, such as a work of art, a book, a software program, or any other creative content for which there are very minimal copyright and other legal limi ...

and DFSG conforming

licenses A license (American English) or licence (Commonwealth English) is an official permission or permit to do, use, or own something (as well as the document of that permission or permit). A license is granted by a party (licensor) to another part ...

GPL The GNU General Public Licenses (GNU GPL or simply GPL) are a series of widely used free software licenses, or ''copyleft'' licenses, that guarantee end users the freedom to run, study, share, or modify the software. The GPL was the first c ...

CC BY A Creative Commons (CC) license is one of several public copyright licenses that enable the free distribution of an otherwise copyrighted "work". A CC license is used when an author wants to give other people the right to share, use, and bui ...

CC BY-SA A Creative Commons (CC) license is one of several public copyright licenses that enable the free distribution of an otherwise copyrighted "work". A CC license is used when an author wants to give other people the right to share, use, and bui ...

, and

Public Domain The public domain (PD) consists of all the creative work to which no Exclusive exclusive intellectual property rights apply. Those rights may have expired, been forfeited, expressly Waiver, waived, or may be inapplicable. Because no one holds ...

. In 2010, ''SuperTuxKart'' switched away from using SDL and PLIB libraries (used through version 0.6.2) for graphics and started using the

Irrlicht Engine Irrlicht (pronounced in German) is an open-source game engine written in C++. It is cross-platform, officially running on Windows, macOS, Linux and Windows CE and due to its open nature ports to other systems are available, including FreeBSD, X ...

. This change was released in version 0.7. In 2013 and 2014, the game participated in

Google Summer of Code The Google Summer of Code, often abbreviated to GSoC, is an international annual program in which Google awards stipends to contributors who successfully complete a free and open-source software coding project during the summer. , the program is ...

as a mentoring organization. The migration of the code repository from

SourceForge SourceForge is a web service founded by Geoffrey B. Jeffery, Tim Perdue, and Drew Streib in November 1999. SourceForge provides a centralized software discovery platform, including an online platform for managing and hosting open-source soft ...

GitHub GitHub () is a Proprietary software, proprietary developer platform that allows developers to create, store, manage, and share their code. It uses Git to provide distributed version control and GitHub itself provides access control, bug trackin ...

was officially announced in January 2014, though the assets repository and downloads remain on

. In April 2015, version 0.9 was released which used a highly modified version of

Irrlicht Irrlicht may refer to: * Irrlicht, the German name for will-o'-the-wisp, the ghostly light sometimes seen at night over bogs and swamps * "Irrlicht", the ninth song in the ''Winterreise'' cycle by Franz Schubert * ''Irrlicht'' (album), by Klaus ...

, including an entirely new graphics renderer dubbed Antarctica. This enabled much better graphics with features such as dynamic lighting,

ambient occlusion In 3D computer graphics, modeling, and animation, ambient occlusion is a shading and rendering technique used to calculate how exposed each point in a scene is to ambient lighting. For example, the interior of a tube is typically more occlude ...

depth of field The depth of field (DOF) is the distance between the nearest and the farthest objects that are in acceptably sharp focus (optics), focus in an image captured with a camera. See also the closely related depth of focus. Factors affecting depth ...

, real-time

shadow mapping Shadow mapping or shadowing projection is a process by which shadows are added to 3D computer graphics. This concept was introduced by Lance Williams in 1978, in a paper entitled "Casting curved shadows on curved surfaces." Since then, it has b ...

, and more. In early 2018, Antarctica switched to using PBR in the git version of the game. Antarctica Rendering Engine uses

OpenGL OpenGL (Open Graphics Library) is a Language-independent specification, cross-language, cross-platform application programming interface (API) for rendering 2D computer graphics, 2D and 3D computer graphics, 3D vector graphics. The API is typic ...

3.3+ (or OpenGL ES on suitable platforms) and

GLSL OpenGL Shading Language (GLSL) is a high-level shading language with a syntax based on the C programming language. It was created by the OpenGL ARB (OpenGL Architecture Review Board) to give developers more direct control of the graphics pipe ...

for most of the graphical work. In March 2017, ''SuperTuxKart'' was

greenlit In the context of the film and television industries, to greenlight is to give permission to proceed with a project. It specifically refers to formally approving its production finance and committing to this financing, thereby allowing the project ...

on digital distributor

Steam Steam is water vapor, often mixed with air or an aerosol of liquid water droplets. This may occur due to evaporation or due to boiling, where heat is applied until water reaches the enthalpy of vaporization. Saturated or superheated steam is inv ...

, but as of July 2023, ''SuperTuxKart'' is not yet downloadable on Steam. In May 2019, Joerg "Hiker" Henrichs stepped down as a lead developer of ''SuperTuxKart'', with "Benau" and "Alayan" taking over as the new project leaders. In September 2021, ''SuperTuxKart'' 1.3 was released, and has support for force feedback. Force feedback is extremely uncommon for

free software Free software, libre software, libreware sometimes known as freedom-respecting software is computer software distributed open-source license, under terms that allow users to run the software for any purpose as well as to study, change, distribut ...

games. in March 2025, CodingJellyFish announced the project was in the process of moving to the Godot Engine, citing age of the old Antarctica Engine and improving contributions to the project.

Reception

In 2004, ''TuxKart'' was selected by

The Linux Game Tome Linux, Linux-based operating systems can be used for playing video games. Because few games natively support the Linux kernel, various software has been made to run Microsoft Windows, Windows games, software, and programs, such as Wine (software) ...

to be their "Game of the Month" project. In 2007 '' Full Circle Magazine'' named ''SuperTuxKart'' as one of the top five racing games available for Linux, describing it as a game for gamers who are tired of realistic driving. ''

Linux Journal ''Linux Journal'' (''LJ'') is an American monthly technology magazine originally published by Specialized System Consultants, Inc. (SSC) in Seattle, Washington since 1994. In December 2006 the publisher changed to Belltown Media, Inc. in Hous ...

'' also praised the game, saying that the courses in ''SuperTuxKart'' are "fun", "colorful" and "imaginative". Although it did not make it into the '' APC Mag'' top five free games, it received an honorable mention in 2008. In 2009,

TechRadar ''TechRadar'' is an online technology publication owned by Future plc. It has editorial teams in the United States, United Kingdom, and Australia that provide news and reviews of tech products and gadgets. It was launched in 2008 and expanded t ...

cited it as one of the best games to put on a Linux

netbook A netbook is a small-sized laptop computer; they were primarily sold from 2007 until around 2013, designed mostly as a means of accessing the Internet and being significantly less expensive than regular-sized laptops. At their inception in l ...

. In 2016, OMG! Ubuntu! called ''SuperTuxKart'' "the best kart racing game to not feature

Mario Mario (; ) is a Character (arts), character created by the Japanese game designer Shigeru Miyamoto. He is the star of the ''Mario (franchise), Mario'' franchise, a recurring character in the ''Donkey Kong'' franchise, and the mascot of the Ja ...

Toad Toad (also known as a hoptoad) is a common name for certain frogs, especially of the family Bufonidae, that are characterized by dry, leathery skin, short legs, and large bumps covering the parotoid glands. In popular culture (folk taxonomy ...

Diddy Kong is a series of video games published by Nintendo since 1981 and created by game designer Shigeru Miyamoto. Donkey Kong (character), Donkey Kong and Mario have both had the roles of protagonist and antagonist in the series. Other characters ha ...

". Since August 2007 ''SuperTuxKart'' has been downloaded over 3.2 million times from SourceForge.net and has over 500 thousand downloads on the

Google Play Google Play, also known as the Google Play Store, Play Store, or sometimes the Android Store (and was formerly Android Market), is a digital distribution service operated and developed by Google. It serves as the official app store for certifie ...

store.

References

External links

* {{Tux games AmigaOS 4 games AROS software Kart racing video games Linux games MorphOS games IRIX games Multiplayer and single-player video games Open-source video games Freeware games Windows games MacOS games Racing video games Software using the GNU General Public License Video game clones Creative Commons-licensed video games Tux video games Video games with user-generated gameplay content