What Online Features Does OnlineCTR Offer?

Updated

OnlineCTR is a reverse-engineered, online-enabled rebuild of Crash Team Racing (the original 1999 Naughty Dog PlayStation game). Its online features are: dedicated servers in multiple countries supporting up to 8 players per race, a from-scratch networking layer designed to eliminate desyncing, full-screen/widescreen racing instead of split-screen, all tracks and characters unlocked from the start, custom usernames, and LAN hosting as an alternative. It runs under the DuckStation emulator, is free to play, and requires your own retail copy of the game plus the OnlineCTR patch.

Dedicated servers and player capacity

  • Up to 8 players per race, hosted on dedicated servers rather than peer-to-peer.
  • Servers in multiple countries, including the USA, Brazil, Spain, and Australia. The site's live server list also shows regions such as AUS1, BRZ1, EUR1, MEX1, SGP1, and USA1, each with an online/offline status and player count.
  • LAN hosting is also supported if you want to run a local game instead of joining a public server.

The server list on the site updates with current activity — for example, it displays a live count of players online and how many were seen in the past 24 hours, so you can check whether anyone is racing before you join.

Networking built to avoid desyncing

The networking code was written from scratch specifically so that the desyncing problems common to P2P setups like Kaillera don't occur. In practice, this means races stay synchronized across all players without the position "snapping" or disagreement between clients that plagues older peer-to-peer online setups.

Match setup and customization

Setting up a race follows a simple flow: find players, select a track, choose a character, race. Specifics:

  • All tracks and characters are unlocked by default — no progression grind required to race where you want with whom you want.
  • Choose your own username rather than being assigned one.
  • Full-screen and widescreen racing — no split-screen when racing others, and no reduction in polygon count to achieve it.

Performance and engine improvements

  • 60 FPS — the engine was boosted to run at 60 frames per second while keeping the original core gameplay intact.
  • The original Naughty Dog assembly/machine code was disassembled back to C and rebuilt for online play, so the underlying game is the original CTR rather than a remake or clone.

How to get online

  1. Own a retail copy of Crash Team Racing.
  2. Download and run the game through DuckStation, available on GitHub.
  3. Apply the OnlineCTR patch to your copy.
  4. Launch and join a dedicated server (or host over LAN).

OnlineCTR is free to play, and the full source code is available on GitHub, so anyone can fork it, submit fixes, or suggest improvements. There's also a Discord community for finding players, organizing races, and reporting issues directly to administrators.

What it does not include

The available material describes online racing, dedicated servers, LAN hosting, and the engine improvements above. It does not state anything about ranked matchmaking, cross-platform play, or in-game purchases, so those shouldn't be assumed.