Try it in DOSBox and crank up the cycles.

I think the same. Try fixed cycles, maybe. "Auto" uses higher cycles for Protected-Mode stuff, I vaguely remember. Like Windows 3. 1 or DOS games using DOS4GW.
Skunny Kart or Whacky Wheels are Real-Mode, though. Maybe with 32-Bit i386 instructions mixed in.

Try typing cycles=fixed 9000 at DOSBox prompt. Or any higher value
- Just don't overdo, or else the CPU goes down to its knees. 😉

I think that's not what Good_Punk ask guys. The frame rate is locked to a quite low value so once you reach that you can't go smoother regardless of dosbox cycles or real hardware power.

yeah... the game is something like 15~20fps?
I often wished for a patch to bring it at least to 30~35fps , it would be way more enjoyable on capable systems

konc wrote on 2023-05-27, 13:17:

I think that's not what Good_Punk ask guys. The frame rate is locked to a quite low value so once you reach that you can't go smoother regardless of dosbox cycles or real hardware power.

Well, that's a different story. OP didn't mention this.

Yeah, sorry for not clarifying this in the first place, my bad. 😅
The game is "meant" to run so slow, it's not down to any performance issues.

I measured the actual framerate in this game and it's 12 FPS (even with a fast CPU).
There might be a possibility to hack around and make it faster (eg: 2X or 3X FPS). It all depends how the game is coded and how that locked down framerate has been implemented (eg: it might be a variable (easy) or constant spread out in the entire game code (hard)).

Developpers should have think that someone will probably run it on something faster than a 386 and would like to enjoy a faster framerate.
Maybe some smart guy will publish a C decompile on github or there will be a leak. Then increasing framerate should be trivial. Let's dream about it.

Whacky Wheels and Skunny Kart were being, uh, inspiried by Super Mario Kart on the Super Nintendo, I think.
So it makes sense that both have same FPS as SMK, which had about 10 FPS or so.
If the game was any smoother, it wouldn't have same feel anymore, maybe.
It's like with Star Fox (Star Wing), maybe, which was most dramatic in low FPS.
The fan patched version for more FPS doesn't feel right to me, at the very least.

Jo22 wrote on 2025-10-01, 23:55:

Whacky Wheels and Skunny Kart were being, uh, inspiried by Super Mario Kart on the Super Nintendo, I think.
So it makes sense that both have same FPS as SMK, which had about 10 FPS or so.

Super Mario Kart was a full, constant 60 from two years earlier.

The next immediate DOS kart racer with a decent framerate (as in 60) would be Super Karts (Manic Media, published by Williams / Virgin in early 1995)

Frame rate and FPS isn't exactly same, though, to my understanding.
Star Fox ran at 60 Hz refresh, too, though the actual frame rate was about 7 to 15 FPS, depending on how many objects there had been rendered.

Frames per second or Frame rate is the same. The internal speed of how fast full images are rendered. Refresh rate is screen related how fast full images can be displayed. Both can be in sync or async.

Keep in mind that it may not be as easy as "unlock" faster rendering... some race game locks some parameters to frame rate (i.e.: collision detection, key inputs, engine behaviour, game physics, those things) so altering frame rate may lead to unintended consequences.

So there are three things to watch when patching:
- Screen refresh.
- Frame rendering rate.
- Physics? processing rate.

Jo22 wrote on 2025-10-02, 02:12:

Frame rate and FPS isn't exactly same, though, to my understanding.
Star Fox ran at 60 Hz refresh, too, though the actual frame rate was about 7 to 15 FPS, depending on how many objects there had been rendered.

Starfox did run at such a low framerate, but SMK runs at full rate - meaning every 50/60 frames going to TV has never any repeated frames. That game is as smooth as it can get.