While the entire industry is talking about handheld PCs, AI upscaling and 4K 120Hz, some people choose to go back and shoehorn a modern indie game back into the Nintendo 64 and Sega Dreamcast. The arcade-style platform game “Donut Dodo” owned by Pixel Games SARL-S is preparing for a true “retro return”. Not only the Xbox Series What’s even more cruel is that this is not a simple transplant, but a technical experiment that is almost redone from the engine level.
The new engine is not to show off its skills, it is to keep the old console alive
Sebastian Kostka, the creator of Donut Dodo, said as early as 2024 that he was building a new engine for his game, with a straightforward goal: to allow the work to run on both the latest platform and the oldest hardware.
The original “Donut Dodo” was made with Godot, but for the sequel “Donut Dodo Fantastico”, he simply wrote the engine himself and dismantled the entire first generation and redone it as a practical test of the new engine. Picture details, operation balance, sound effects resampling, and character navigation have all been re-polished. According to his own words, these changes may not be “feelable” to most players, but for developers, this is a technical base that can continue to produce works for the next ten years.
N64 is finished, Dreamcast is taking over
Officials have confirmed that the Nintendo 64 version is basically complete, and the next target is the Sega Dreamcast. This means that Donut Dodo will soon become one of the few indie games to truly span three generations of console architecture, from modern PC, Switch, Xbox, and all the way back to the days of cartridges and GD-ROMs.
This operation seems a bit crazy in 2026, but it is very popular in retro circles. Neither the N64 nor the Dreamcast are easy-to-get hardware, especially the cost of cassettes is prohibitively high. This is why the physical version will first use Kickstarter to test the water temperature to determine how many people are really willing to pay before deciding on the production quantity.
Not just transplanting, but also adding ingredients
This time the retro version is not moved over intact. Kostka has already named several new content, including a new marathon mode Endless Delights, an offline achievement system, perfect pass rewards, and an enhanced version of Attraction Mode that will automatically play demonstration screens and match new music produced by the original composer Sean Bialo.
This design is actually very old-school and arcade-like. There are no buttons to turn on, the screen runs by itself, and the music plays by itself, as if to remind you: this is not a modern service game, but a machine waiting for you to insert coins!
From Steam to cartridges, this game has been played on more consoles than you think
If you think “Donut Dodo” is just a small-circle thing, you may underestimate its spreading power.Now it’s out on PC (Steam, GOG), iiRcade, Atari VCS, Nintendo Switch, Evercade, and even a massive arcade version of exA-Arcadia.