SuperTuxKart

SuperTuxKart (STK) is a free and open-source kart racing game, distributed under the terms of the GNU General Public License, version 3. Its initial version was released in 2007. It features mascots of various open-source projects. SuperTuxKart is cross-platform, running on Linux, macOS, Windows, iOS (beta), Android systems and Nintendo Switch (homebrew).

SuperTuxKart started as a fork of TuxKart, originally developed by Steve and Oliver Baker in 2000. When TuxKart development ended around March 2004, a fork as SuperTuxKart was conducted by other developers in 2006. SuperTuxKart is under active development by the game's community.

SuperTuxKart's game-play is similar to that of the Mario Kart series, but also has differentiating elements, such as collecting and using cans of Nitro and the use of presents and bananas on tracks. The game features the mascots of several open source projects. For example, Mozilla Thunderbird plays the referee, flagging the start of the race and saving players when they drive off the course. The game supports single player, local multiplayer, WAN multiplayer, and LAN multiplayer modes. Networking modes were introduced in version 1.0.

The official playable characters of SuperTuxKart are the mascots of free and open-source projects. The character Nolok does not represent a particular open source project, but was created by the SuperTux project as the antagonist of Tux. Some other mascots from other projects are available as add-ons from SuperTuxKart "add-ons" website.

The characters available in the base game are:

Unlike Mario Kart, STK has a story associated with gameplay, similar to Crash Team Racing. "Story mode" in STK is used to unlock tracks and characters for single and multi-player modes. At the beginning of story mode, Gnu, the leader of the free/libre and open-source world, is captured by Nolok, the villain in STK, with his spaceship. Nolok then visits Tux and tells him that he has kidnapped Gnu; unless Tux and his friends can defeat Nolok, the 'King of the Karts', Gnu would become the meal for his next supper. After the player defeats Nolok in Fort Magma, the final track of STK, Tux helps Gnu escape from his prison.

SuperTuxKart is based on TuxKart, a project initiated by Steve Baker in April 2000. Due to internal disagreements in the TuxKart project, development stalled. The project ultimately collapsed and was cancelled in March 2004. The project was forked as SuperTuxKart, but remained in an unplayable and unmaintained state. In 2006 Joerg "Hiker" Henrichs resurrected the project and, with the help of Eduardo "Coz" Hernandez Munoz, released the game in a playable state. In 2008, Marianne Gagnon (aka. "Auria") joined the project and eventually replaced Coz as one of the project leaders after his retirement.

Historically licensed under version 2 of the GPL, in 2008 the game's source code was relicensed to the GPLv3. The game's assets (textures, models, sounds, music, etc.) are licensed under a mixture of free content and DFSG conforming licenses: GPL, CC BY, CC BY-SA, and Public Domain.