ReCarbonby RetroNativealpha

Unofficial fan portRetroNative

ReCarbon: an unofficial native port of Need for Speed: Carbon

The Xbox 360 game, running natively on Apple Silicon Macs.

Early Development — Playable in Parts. Not released.

Get started

No download Build from source

  • Apple Silicon Mac
  • macOS 27 or newer
  • Your own Xbox 360 disc

Illustration — not gameplay

Under the hood

How it works

  1. Static recompilation

    XenonRecomp translates the game's PowerPC code into C++ ahead of time. That C++ compiles to native arm64: there is no emulator, no Wine or CrossOver, and no CPU emulation while you play.

  2. A native runtime

    A runtime adapted from SpeedBreaker stands in for the Xbox 360: its kernel, the Xenos GPU on Vulkan (Metal through MoltenVK), XMA audio through FFmpeg, and controllers and keyboard through SDL3.

  3. Your disc, your files

    ReCarbon ships no game code or assets. Its installer copies the game from an image of your own Xbox 360 disc and checks every file against a manifest.

Telemetry

Native on Apple Silicon

  • 58.5fps

    Average in a career race

    Hand test 4, MacBook Air M5, 720p internal, about 4 min · 2026-10-23

  • 72,864fns

    Functions recompiled to native code

    0 recompiler errors or warnings · 2026-10-22

  • 15:00min

    Free-roam without a crash or hang

    Hand test 3, MacBook Air M5 · 2026-10-23

  • 4s

    To copy and verify 5.3 GB from a disc image

    78 files, alpha packaging check · 2026-10-23

Season progress

What works now

  1. M0–M2Passed

    Recompiled & native

    The whole executable translates to C++ and links into a native arm64 app.

  2. M3–M4Passed

    Boots & renders

    Kernel, GPU bring-up, the EA logos and the movies, through MoltenVK on Metal.

  3. M5In progress

    Audio, movies, input

    Music, lip-sync and keyboard menus pass by hand. A physical controller is next.

  4. M6Evidence in

    Saves & free-roam

    A career profile saves and reloads; 15 minutes of free-roam ran clean.

  5. M7In progress

    Racing

    A career race finished in 1st, with AI racing. Controls and physics are next.

  6. M8Not yet

    Release

    App packaging started; a release still needs libraries built from source.

See the full development progress →

Garage

Know your controls

Keyboard or controller, in a race, the menus or ReCarbon's own Settings: every default, where it comes from, and how it was verified. Actions not yet tested in a race say so.

Open the Garage
escF1F2F3F4F5F6F7F8F9F10F11F12del ⌦`1234567890-=delete ⌫hometabQWERTYUIOP[]\pg upcapsASDFGHJKL;'returnpg dnshift ⇧ZXCVBNM,./shift↑endfn⌃ ctrl⌥ opt⌘ cmdspace⌘⌥←↓→

Grid

Get started in 3 steps

  1. Your disc

    Make an image of your own Xbox 360 disc. ReCarbon includes no game files.

  2. Install

    The first-run installer copies and verifies the game. Or, in Terminal:

    ReCarbon --install <image.iso>

  3. Race

    Start ReCarbon. Press F1 (Fn+F1 on a Mac) for its Settings.

Installation guide → · No public release or download:build from source

Pit wall

Known issues

  • Occasional stalls of about a second while driving.
  • Shorter GPU-idle stalls (250–600 ms), cause unknown.
  • No physical controller tested yet.
  • Current builds need macOS 27 or newer.

All known issues →

Built on

SpeedBreaker by project(u) · XenonRecomp by hedge-dev · Unleashed Recompiled · Xenia · SDL3 · MoltenVK · FFmpeg · Dear ImGui

Credits and licenses →