Crash Team Racing: High Octane is the name of a new unofficial port that brings Crash Team Racing to both PC and PlayStation Vita, complete with 4-player local split-screen, 60 FPS support, and a feature list that puts several modern remasters to shame.
The port comes from Alessio Tosto, known across the PS Vita community by his handle Rinnegatamante, whose GitHub page hosts the project files. He has form here. In recent years he brought both Mario Kart 64 and Majora’s Mask to the PlayStation Vita, and Crash Team Racing represents his latest and arguably most ambitious effort on the platform.
What Crash Team Racing High Octane Actually Adds
The headline feature for PC players is split-screen support for up to 4 players in local multiplayer. PS Vita users can also access 4-player play, provided they are running a MiniVitaTV, while two PSVita units can connect directly via AdHoc Netplay without any need for a router. That AdHoc support is particularly welcome: no infrastructure, no fuss, just two Vitas and a copy of CTR.
Beyond multiplayer, the technical upgrades are considerable. The internal resolution of the renderer is bumped to 960×544, true widescreen runs without stretching, and anti-aliasing is handled by MSAA 4x on PSVita and FXAA on PC. Sixty frames per second is supported throughout.
Then there are the content additions. Penta Penguin’s stats are corrected to their PAL/NTSC-J values of 6/6/6. Nitrous Oxide becomes a playable character, unlockable via the original Spyro 2 Demo cheat code. A Boss Fight option lets players challenge Adventure mode boss fights on any track, and a Mirror Mode option runs any track in reverse. Super and Ultra Hard difficulty modes are available in Arcade mode for those who feel the original was insufficiently punishing.
Time Trial enthusiasts are well served too. Ghost Replay lets you watch any ghost run back as if it were live, complete with an inputs viewer overlay. The old global limit of 7 ghosts is gone: there are now 7 ghost data slots per track. Relic Race mode has been pulled out of Adventure mode and made accessible with any character, and it now carries full ghost support as well. An online leaderboard covers both Time Trials and Relic Race results.
Reverse Tracks, Multilingual Support and PC Extras
Reverse track variants are available in Time Trial and Relic Race for Crash Cove, Roo’s Tubes, Tiger Temple, Coco Park, Dragon Mines, Tiny Arena, Slide Coliseum, and Turbo Track. Multilingual support is included, with optional PAL voiceover support for those who want it. Visual tweaks include USF displaying as blue fire in the manner of CTR: Nitro-Fueled, and super turbopads rendered in cyan to distinguish them from standard ones at a glance. A stats viewer for characters appears on the character selection screen.
PC players get one additional touch: Discord Rich Presence support when playing with Discord open. Several vanilla game bugs are also corrected, including PVS-related glitches and the wrong mask power-up HUD icon for Penta Penguin.
Installation on PSVita requires the .vpk file from the GitHub page alongside a legally acquired US ROM of Crash Team Racing for the PS1, placed into ux0:data/ctr/assets and named ctr-u.bin. PC installation follows the same ROM step: drop your legally dumped ctr-u.bin into the assets folder and you are away.
The project files for Crash Team Racing: High Octane are available now on Rinnegatamante’s GitHub page, ready to download.
