Cave Story
2 ports
Cave Story (doukutsu-rs)
doukutsu-rs/doukutsu-rs
doukutsu-rs: a faithful reimplementation of the Cave Story engine written in Rust, which started as a project to learn the language. A single executable uses the data from the original freeware release, Cave Story+, and the Switch version. It decouples game logic from frame rate with motion interpolation for high refresh rate displays, has no fixed resolution (the widescreen camera is Clownacy’s code), lets you switch between 50 and 60 ticks per second to match the freeware release or Cave Story+, has two-player local multiplayer, lets you skip cutscenes like the Switch version, and adds lighting effects slightly fancier than that version’s. With Cave Story+ it’s a drop-in replacement for its executable, on the Mac too, where the original no longer runs on macOS 10.15 or later. Version 1.0.0 (June 3) dropped the beta label: according to its authors, the game has been complete since 0.99.0, and since then they’ve only been fixing bugs and refining accuracy. That release rebuilt the Android port on SDL2 and added native Wayland support on Linux. There are builds for 32- and 64-bit Windows, macOS (Intel from 10.14, and Apple silicon), and Linux (also on Flatpak), plus Android and Switch.
You needNo purchase needed: the original 2004 freeware release is enough; doukutsu-rs goes in the same folder as its Doukutsu.exe and, on first launch, extracts the resources embedded in it. The data from your own copy of Cave Story+ (Steam, GOG, Epic, or Humble; the Epic one needs a stray opengl32.dll deleted) or of the Switch version, dumped with its update, works too. The 2026 remastered Steam release isn’t supported yet. Plus Windows, macOS 10.14 or later, or Linux.
Cave Story (NXEngine-evo)
nxengine/nxengine-evo
NXEngine-evo: an extended and refactored version of NXEngine, Caitlin Shaw’s complete open-source clone of the Cave Story engine. It moves the engine to SDL2 and adds more resolutions with proper widescreen up to 1080p, animated character portraits, a new main menu, credits graphics specific to the Mimiga Mask ending, translations (Russian, Japanese, French, German, Polish, Italian, Chinese, Arabic, and Korean, among others), controller rumble, strafing, configurable OK and Cancel buttons, separate music and sound volumes, custom soundtracks (Cave Story+’s “New” and “Remastered” ones too), a more accurate Organya and Pixtone player, optional lighting effects, and basic mod support, such as Seriousface’s boss rush; it also fixes many gameplay, weapon, and AI bugs. The latest release is 2.6.5-1 (July 8, 2021), for 64-bit Windows, Linux (AppImage), and macOS, plus PS Vita and Switch; development continues at a slow pace, with the last commit on March 3.
You needNo purchase needed: it uses the original freeware release of Cave Story with the fans’ English translation, which the project’s wiki links in its translations repository; you copy the engine and its data folder into the game folder and run extract once, which pulls the resources out of the original executable. For the “New” or “Remastered” soundtracks, the Ogg or Ogg11 folders from your own copy of Cave Story+. Plus 64-bit Windows, Linux, or macOS.
Installs with
Questions
What projects are there for Cave Story?
The catalog has 2 ports for Cave Story, all on this page with their status.
What do I need to play it?
Your own copy of Cave Story (Windows). Recompendium only links projects that don’t distribute the game, and each entry says which version or region you need.
Which one is the most popular?
Cave Story (doukutsu-rs), with 1,321 stars on GitHub.