When Mario Kart: Double Dash!! made its debut at the tail end of 2003 it brought players a totally new way to experience the franchise. Karts now held 2 different characters who could swap back and forth from driver to item thrower. This system also made possible some very fun co-op moments where you and a friend could share a single kart and switch positions on the fly. The drift system also saw a significant overhaul from the previous 2 games in the series resulting in a more skilled approach. Possibly one of the craziest things about Double Dash!! though is that it included a LAN mode where you could hook up multiple GameCube systems to one another for larger multiplayer races!
With the advent of tunneling services like Xlink Kai that would allow LAN mode games to be played with other users over the internet, Double Dash!! seemed like a perfect game to benefit. Unfortunately, the games LAN code was designed in a way that has made playing remotely with others pretty much impossible. If a certain ping isn’t hit the game will just close down the network connection. In the rare instances where it will connect and function, the game speed is slowed to a crawl due to the increased ping. Because of these issues, a new bounty has been made to fix the games LAN code so players around the world can hop into matches together!
The bounty was started by Sir-LoLz of the GameCube Online Discord server. Yes, there is an entire community to the few online capable GC games! With the recent update to the Dolphin Emulator to directly support Xlink Kai, the timing is right to try and find a solution to this age-old problem. It wouldn’t be unheard of to patch games to have proper netcode. Just recently, a custom build of Dolphin was released that has matchmaking for Super Smash Bros. Melee after all! When the problem finally does get patched, players around the world might finally be able to experience Double Dash!! in a way they never have before!
If this project interests you, be sure to spread the word or even contribute to the bounty!
