Street Rod — SDL3 port

A faithful C reimplementation of Street Rod (1989, California Dreams / Logical Design Works), running natively on SDL3. It is not an emulator: the original program was reverse-engineered, documented and rewritten in C, and the port reads the original game's files at run time. The original data is not redistributed, and you need to get it yourself.

How to play (Windows)

You need the files of the original DOS Street Rod (SR.EXE, LIB1, LIB2, HOT_DATA), and for the data disk cars Street Rod SE (SRSE.EXE with its own LIB1, LIB2, HOT_DATA) in a folder named datadisk inside it, as in the usual GOG and eXoDOS copies. They are not included. You can get the game for free from the copyright owner here: https://www.streetrodonline.com/downloads/.

1. Open the latest release and download srport-…-win64.zip.

2. Put your original game files in a folder named Game (with datadisk inside it, if you have it).

3. Open the zip. Copy all of its files into the folder that holds Game, so that Street Rod.exe sits next to Game:

   Street Rod\
   ├── Game\                 <- your original game files (SR.EXE, LIB1, LIB2, HOT_DATA, ...)
   │   └── datadisk\         <- Street Rod SE (SRSE.EXE, LIB1, LIB2, HOT_DATA), optional
   ├── Street Rod.exe        <- the launcher
   ├── srport.exe            <- the game
   ├── SDL3.dll
   └── (the other files from the zip)
   

4. Double-click Street Rod.exe, choose the cars and options, and press Play. (srport.exe also starts on its own, with the original cars in Game.)

Keep the folder somewhere you can save files, such as Documents or the Desktop, not Program Files: the game saves your games (HOTROD1.SAV … HOTROD15.SAV) and the hall of fame (hall_dat) in the folder it runs in. If Windows says "Windows protected your PC", click More info, then Run anyway. Press Alt+Enter for full screen. The keys are listed under Controls and in the launcher.

Status

• The whole VGA version (320×200, 16 colours) with the PC speaker is ported: the title and credits, the driver's licence, the newspaper and its ads, used cars and auto parts, haggling and selling, the garage with the engine bay, gearbox, tyres, tune-up, paint and customising, the gas station, Bob's Drive-In with the opponents, bets and pink slips, drag and road races, the police and jail, breakdowns and repairs, the calendar of the summer of 1963, saved games, the hall of fame and the ending.
• This is a first release: please report any difference from the original in the issues.
• The CGA, EGA, Tandy and Hercules graphics are not ported (see PLAN.md).

The launcher

Street Rod.exe starts the game with the options chosen in its window (srport/launcher/README.md):

• Game files: the game folder and srport.exe (by default both beside the launcher), with a check that the game's files are there and how many saved games the folder has.
• Cars: the 25 cars of the Street Rod car data disks (Street Rod SE, the default when the datadisk folder is there) or the original cars. Each keeps its own saved games, in its own folder.
• The game's own switches: Demo (the game plays itself; Esc ends it), Races drive themselves (the hidden auto switch of SR.EXE) and No mouse.
• Window size and full screen.

Settings are remembered in %APPDATA%\Street Rod\settings.ini.

Requirements

• Your game files in a folder (by default Game beside the program): SR.EXE (packed or unpacked) or SRSE.EXE, LIB1, LIB2 and HOT_DATA. LIB1C, LIB2C (the CGA pictures) are not used.
• The folder must be writable (saved games, the hall of fame).
• To build: CMake 3.24+, a C11 compiler and SDL 3; for the launcher a C++17 compiler and wxWidgets 3.2.

Build

From the repository root, in Git Bash or an MSYS2 MinGW64 shell:

export PATH="/c/msys64/mingw64/bin:$PATH"
cmake -S srport -B srport/build -G Ninja -DCMAKE_C_COMPILER=gcc -DCMAKE_CXX_COMPILER=g++ -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release -DSR_LAUNCHER=ON
cmake --build srport/build

The build copies SDL3.dll with the libraries it loads (libiconv-2.dll) and the launcher's wxWidgets DLLs next to the programs, so they also start outside the MSYS2 shell. Leave out -DSR_LAUNCHER=ON to build only the game.

Run

./srport/build/srport.exe --game-dir Game

Option	Meaning
--game-dir DIR	Folder with the original game files (default Game); Game/datadisk for Street Rod SE
--scale N	Initial window size as a multiple of 320×240 (default 3)
--fullscreen	Start in full screen
--check	Verify that SR.EXE / SRSE.EXE loads, then exit without opening a window
demo, auto, nomouse, nouemem, 1	The original's own switches, passed on as they are: self-running demo, races that drive themselves, no mouse, no pictures cached in video memory, one floppy drive (no effect)

Alt+Enter toggles full screen. The window keeps the 4:3 aspect of the original monitor. The game captures the mouse and draws its own pointer; Alt+Tab leaves the window.

Controls

• Mouse: point and click. The arrow keys and the keypad move the pointer too; Space, Ins or keypad 0 click.
• Races: Up gas, Down brake, Left / Right steer. Space or Ins shifts (down when braking or off the gas at low revs, otherwise up). A / Z shift up / down (added by the port). With the mouse: right button gas, moving it down brakes, sideways steers, left button shifts. A gamepad works as the joystick.
• Esc skips the drive through town and ends the demo. M music on / off, Ctrl sound on / off.

Changes from original

• Added: A and Z shift up and down in races. The original's single shift control (Space, joystick button, mouse button) still works as it did.
• Removed: the copy protection (the game runs as after a correct answer), the video mode menu and all disk handling (drive letters, disk prompts). Files are found in the game folder whatever their case. SRSE.EXE is accepted in place of SR.EXE.
• Graphics: VGA only (BIOS mode 0Dh with the game's palette and the dashboard split screen).
• Speed: the game already paces itself by its 72.8 Hz timer (races draw a frame every 9 ticks, about 8 a second, and run the car physics every 12th tick), so it plays at its original speed. The start-up CPU speed test is replaced by a fixed "fast PC" result.
• Sound: the PC speaker is emulated, including the bit-banged noise effects, whose length on the original depended on the CPU; the port uses DOSBox timings.
• Mouse and joystick: the mouse driver and the analogue joystick are emulated (a gamepad acts as the joystick).
• Robustness: a few places where the original read uninitialised memory or could overflow a table are given defined values (marked PORT in the source).
• Everything else, including the original's quirks, is kept on purpose.

Layout

• Game/ — your game files (not in the repository).
• tools/ — reverse-engineering tools and data decoders (pictures, tables, sound), and srrun.py, the headless test runner (see srport/PORTING.md, "Developer aids").
• port/ — function index, specs (port/spec/) and the guide for writing them (port/RE_GUIDE.md).
• srport/ — the SDL3 port (srport/PORTING.md: architecture and rules) and its launcher (srport/launcher/).
• FORMATS.md — decoded file formats. PLAN.md — the plan, decisions and what is parked.

License

The port, launcher and tools are MIT licensed (see LICENSE). Street Rod is © California Dreams / Logical Design Works. Its files are not part of this repository or the releases.

Support

https://buymeacoffee.com/krzysztofkania