OpenRash — Complete 1996 Road Rash (roadrash.fun) Native Linux Desktop Edition

OpenRash brings the exact, complete roadrash.fun 1996 Road Rash game to Linux as a standalone native desktop application—no web browser, no Wine/Proton, and 100% playable offline out of the box.

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Highlights

• 100% Complete roadrash.fun Experience Offline (859/859 Verified Assets, 202.2 MiB):
  • All Game Modes: Quick Race (Thrash Mode), full 5-level Big Game Mode Career across The City, The Peninsula, Pacific Coast Highway, Sierra Nevada, and Napa Valley, Olley's Bike Shop, Jukebox, Leaderboards, and Mano-a-Mano online multiplayer.
  • Every Asset Bundled Locally in www/:
    • All 102 JSON data tables (text.json, bikes.json, cars.json, peds.json, sprite rects, and 19 track/scenery/building/hill/spline JSONs per course).
    • All 5 2048px scenery atlases, 76 road/cliff/rail/tunnel textures, 32 traffic car sprites, 163 pedestrian & roadside hazard sprites, 15 rider sprite sheets, police (cop) & flat ground shadow (shadow) sheets, and 5 sky horizons.
    • All 4 authentic cockpit dashboards (Rat, Sport, Super, and Big Meter), 24 character portraits, 33 Olley's Bike Shop photos, 13 postcards, 28 race outcome screens, and original Futura (FUTB, FUTD, FUTR) fonts.
    • All 48 WAV sound effects (engine loops, tyre skids, crashes, weapons, police sirens, and 26 voice clips), all 14 licensed grunge soundtrack tracks (.ogg + .m4a), and all 56 MP4 full-motion videos (15 bike showroom spin videos, 2 MTV music videos jessie.mp4 & duel.mp4, race intros, wins, losses, wrecks, busts, level promotions, and finalwin.mp4).
• Native C++20 Linux Desktop Runtime (src/):
  • Embedded Loopback HTTP + RFC 7233 Byte-Range Media Server (libsoup-3.0): Serves www/ from 127.0.0.1:<ephemeral_port> with 206 Partial Content streaming for instant MP4 cutscene playback, canonical path-traversal protection, and an asynchronous /api/* reverse proxy to https://roadrash.fun/api/* that degrades cleanly to immediate 503 JSON when offline.
  • Hardware-Accelerated GTK4 + WebKitGTK 6.0 Shell: Dynamically binds libgtk-4.so.1 and libwebkitgtk-6.0.so.4 (WEBKIT_HARDWARE_ACCELERATION_POLICY_ALWAYS), enables WebGL + WebAudio + gesture-free FMV/music playback, persists career saves in $XDG_DATA_HOME/openrash/webdata, and works even inside network-isolated (--unshare=network / Flatseal) Flatpak sandboxes.
  • Desktop Ergonomics: Native Fullscreen (F11 / Alt+Enter) and Quit menu integration, stripped web telemetry/Cloudflare/PostHog beacons and PWA install prompts, external link handoff via xdg-open, and native Linux gamepad support.

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Architecture Overview

openrash-linux/
├── src/
│   ├── main.cpp            # CLI entrypoint (--fullscreen, --check-assets, --smoke-test)
│   ├── app_paths.{hpp,cpp} # XDG data/cache & portable/Flatpak www/ bundle discovery
│   ├── local_server.{hpp,cpp} # Embedded libsoup-3.0 static, Range (206), & /api/* proxy server
│   └── desktop_shell.{hpp,cpp} # Native GTK4 + WebKitGTK 6.0 window, WebGL, & JS bridge
├── www/                    # Complete offline roadrash.fun ES-module engine & 202.2 MiB assets
│   ├── app.js              # Menus, Career/Big Game progression, Bike Shop, FMV & Jukebox UI
│   ├── race.js             # 60 Hz 1996 Road Rash Three.js/WebGL renderer, physics, AI & combat
│   ├── mano.js             # Mano-a-Mano WebRTC DataChannel + wss://roadrash.fun/mano signaling
│   ├── audio.js            # WebAudio engine pitch synthesis, spatial sirens, SFX & music mixer
│   ├── data/               # 101 course/physics/sprite JSONs, atlases, cars, peds, riders, tex
│   └── assets/             # Cockpits, portraits, 48 WAV SFX, 14 grunge tracks, 56 MP4 videos
├── tests/
│   └── test_main.cpp       # Automated asset completeness, path-guard, & HTTP Range test suite
├── tools/
│   ├── fetch_real_assets.py # Recursive manifest crawler & verifier (859/859 asset checks)
│   └── verify_clean_repo.sh # Repository integrity check
└── packaging/              # Flatpak (org.gnome.Platform//49) & portable Linux desktop files

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Controls

Action	Keyboard	Gamepad (Xbox / Steam Deck / Linux Controller)
Accelerate	Up Arrow / W	R2 Trigger / A (South)
Brake	Down Arrow / S	L2 Trigger / B (East)
Steer Left / Right	Left / Right or A / D	Left Stick / D-Pad
Attack (Punch / Weapon)	Space / Enter / Z	X (West) / L1 / R1
Kick	X / Shift	Y (North)
Toggle Camera / Dashboard	V	Select / Back
Mute / Unmute Music	M	—
Pause / Back	Escape / P	Start / Menu
Toggle Native Fullscreen	F11 / Alt+Enter	Main Menu Fullscreen Button

(Classic 1996 cheats such as XYZZY, SPOON!, THWACK!, CHAIN, CLUB, and YES,OCCIFER are also fully supported during races.)

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Installation & Running

Option 1: Pre-Built Offline Flatpak Bundle (Recommended for Bazzite, SteamOS, Fedora, Ubuntu, Arch)

Requires org.gnome.Platform//49 runtime:

flatpak install --user -y dist/openrash-linux-x86_64.flatpak
flatpak run io.github.prashithshetty.OpenRash

Option 2: Portable Linux Tarball (.tar.gz)

Runs directly on any modern Linux desktop with GTK4 (libgtk-4.so.1), WebKitGTK 6.0 (libwebkitgtk-6.0.so.4), and libsoup-3.0:

tar -xzf dist/openrash-linux-x86_64.tar.gz
cd openrash-linux-x86_64

# Run directly in-place:
./bin/openrash

# Or install into ~/.local/bin and your Desktop Application Menu (no sudo required):
./install-local.sh
openrash

CLI Options

openrash [options]
  -f, --fullscreen      Launch directly in fullscreen mode (toggle anytime with F11)
  --www-dir <path>      Override path to bundled www/ game assets directory
  --check-assets        Verify offline game asset bundle & embedded server, then exit
  --smoke-test          Boot embedded server + GTK4/WebKitGTK shell, verify UI & WebGL, exit
  --require-gui         Fail --smoke-test if no X11/Wayland display is available
  -v, --version         Print version information
  -h, --help            Show help message

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Building From Source

Build Both Release Packages (.tar.gz + .flatpak)

./scripts/build_packages.sh

Compile & Run Automated Tests via Flatpak SDK (Bazzite / Silverblue / SteamOS)

flatpak run --system --filesystem=host --command=sh org.freedesktop.Sdk//25.08 -c "
  cmake -B build -G Ninja -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release
  cmake --build build -j\$(nproc)
  ctest --test-dir build --output-on-failure
"
./build/openrash --check-assets
./build/openrash --smoke-test --require-gui

Compile Natively with System Packages

Prerequisites: cmake >= 3.22, C++20 compiler (g++ >= 13 or clang++ >= 16), glib-2.0, libsoup-3.0 development headers, and runtime gtk4 + webkitgtk-6.0.

cmake -B build -G Ninja -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release
cmake --build build -j$(nproc)
ctest --test-dir build --output-on-failure
./build/openrash

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Credits & Attribution

• Original 1994/1996 Game: Developed and published by Electronic Arts Inc. and Papyrus Design Group (Randy Breen, Dan Geisler, Carl Mey, Walter I. Wright, and the original cast, crew, and soundtrack artists: Soundgarden, Paw, Swervedriver, Therapy?, Monster Magnet, and Hammerbox).
• Web Reverse-Engineering & Engine (roadrash.fun): Kayode (olucurious / Emmanuel O. Adegbite) — roadrash.fun / kayode.me.
• Native Linux Desktop Runtime & Packaging: See CREDITS.md and NOTICE.md. Native C++20 shell code is licensed under MIT.