Speedbreaker: Carbon

An unofficial static recompilation of the Xbox 360 version of Need for Speed: Carbon (2006):
a native port, not an emulator.
Play your own copy on Steam Deck, Steam Machine and Steam Frame (SteamOS), Linux and Mac.

Download  ·  Quick start  ·  Website  ·  Report a bug  ·  SpeedBreaker for Most Wanted

_{The prologue: the M3 GTR at the edge of Palmont, rendered at 2560x1440.}

Contents: What it is · Highlights · Download · Quick start · Which copy do I need? · How to update · Setup by platform · Portable mode · Controls · Settings · Tips · FAQ · Known issues · What's next · For developers · Credits · License · Legal notice

What is SpeedBreaker: Carbon?

SpeedBreaker: Carbon is an unofficial static recompilation of the Xbox 360 version of Need for Speed: Carbon (2006): a native port, not an emulator. It runs as an ordinary app on your device (see how it works). It came out on October 29, 2026, for the game's 20th anniversary on October 31.

It is the second game on SpeedBreaker's engine. SpeedBreaker does the same for Need for Speed: Most Wanted (2005); the two are separate apps, with their own downloads, saves and settings, and you can install both side by side.

It is built from the Xbox 360 version of the game, not the PC version: it runs the Xbox 360 release's own code, translated ahead of time, and it installs only from the Xbox 360 disc of the USA Collector's Edition.

You bring the game: SpeedBreaker: Carbon installs it from a backup of your own disc and checks every file. Then you race through Palmont, with things the Xbox 360 couldn't do: sharper than 720p, ultrawide and tall screens, and a settings menu you can open mid-race.

Highlights

• Sharper than the console. The 3D scene renders above the Xbox 360's 720p. Auto picks a scale from your screen and your graphics chip.
• Any screen shape. On 21:9 screens the view gets wider instead of stretched. The 16:10 screens of the Steam Deck and many Macs, and other taller screens, show more above and below and fill the screen at their own resolution: a Steam Deck renders 1280x800, pixel for pixel.
• A steady 60 fps, locked to your 60 Hz display, with the game's movies paced as on the console.
• As on the 360: the nitrous light trails at the console's length, and the picture a real Xbox 360 sends to a TV (the game's own display gamma), so the game's own Brightness slider works. Anti-aliasing, sharpening, FSR 1 upscaling, a Brightness setting and up to 16x anisotropic filtering are also available.
• HDR. On an HDR display (a Mac with one, SteamOS and the Steam Deck OLED with HDR on, or a Windows or Linux PC in HDR) tail lights, street lights, lit windows and nitrous flames glow brighter than white, from the light Carbon's own scene holds, while the rest of the picture stays as it was. Off by default.
• A sharp rear-view mirror. The mirror renders at the Internal Resolution, like the rest of the scene, instead of the console's 320x240.
• Two-player split screen (Quick Race > Quick Race Options > Game Mode: Split Screen), with two controllers.
• A guided installer. It finds your disc image, checks that it is the right game and edition, and verifies all 78 files as it copies them. An interrupted install never leaves a broken game.
• Your controller, or the keyboard. Controllers work as an Xbox 360 pad, with hot-plugging and rumble. Every keyboard control can be reassigned in the settings.
• A settings menu that pauses the game. Open it with F1 or Back + Start. Every change applies at once, and Quit Game leaves the game from a controller too.
• One-button bug reports. Logs, settings and a screenshot go into one zip file. Nothing is uploaded, and you decide what to send.
• Check for Updates. One press in the settings asks GitHub whether a newer release is out, shows what changed and opens the download page (or shows it as a QR code for your phone). Nothing is checked online unless you press Check for Updates.

Nitrous at 143 mph: the light trails at the console's length.	Speedbreaker: slow motion past the neon chevrons, at 3840x2160.
The prologue's canyon road, from above.	16:10, the Steam Deck's shape: a Canyon Duel.
The finish at the neon chevrons.	First run: every file matched the known-good disc.

_{Screenshots: SpeedBreaker: Carbon v0.1.0 on a MacBook Pro (M1 Pro). They are unedited frames from the game's own output, except that the licence plates in the nitrous, Speedbreaker, Canyon Duel and finish images are blurred. The game content in them belongs to its owners.}

Download

Platform	How to get it	Tested on
Steam Deck and Steam Machine (SteamOS)	[Download][dl-steamos-x86_64] SpeedBreaker-Carbon-steamos-x86_64.tar.xz	Steam Machine (SteamOS 3.8) on a 3440x1440 ultrawide, and a Steam Deck.
Steam Frame (SteamOS, arm64)	[Download][dl-steamos-arm64] SpeedBreaker-Carbon-steamos-arm64.tar.xz	Steam Frame. It plays as a big flat screen in the headset; it is not a VR mode.
Linux (x86-64)	[Download][dl-steamos-x86_64] the x86-64 SteamOS build, SpeedBreaker-Carbon-steamos-x86_64.tar.xz, or build from source	Tested here on SteamOS. Other distributions: reports welcome.
Mac (Apple silicon)	[Download][dl-macos] SpeedBreaker-Carbon-macos.dmg	MacBook Pro (M1 Pro) on macOS 27. There is no Intel Mac build.
Windows (beta)	[Download][all-releases] SpeedBreaker-Carbon-0.1.3-windows-x64-beta.zip from its own pre-release on the Releases page; see Windows (beta)	A ThinkPad laptop with Intel integrated graphics (UHD Graphics, 60 Hz). SpeedBreaker for Most Wanted's Windows testers report NVIDIA and AMD graphics running fine; Intel Arc graphics and 120/144 Hz monitors haven't been tested yet: reports welcome.
iPhone and iPad (experimental)	Sideload the IPA, SpeedBreaker-Carbon-0.1.3-ios.ipa on the [release page][releases], or build it yourself with Xcode	iPhone 18 Pro Max (iOS 27) with a Backbone Pro. Not on the App Store. That was an Xcode-signed build: the IPA itself hasn't been installed on a device yet.

Each link downloads the newest release. Every file and its .sha256 checksum file are on the [latest release page][releases]. To check a download, put its .sha256 file next to it and run shasum -a 256 -c SpeedBreaker-Carbon-macos.dmg.sha256 on a Mac, or sha256sum -c SpeedBreaker-Carbon-steamos-x86_64.tar.xz.sha256 on SteamOS (with your file's name): it should say OK. What changed in each release is in CHANGELOG.md.

System requirements

• Everyone: a disc image of your own Xbox 360 disc of the USA Collector's Edition (see Quick start), about 6 GB of free space, and a display running at about 60 Hz.
• Split screen: two controllers.
• Steam Deck, Steam Machine and Linux PCs (the x86-64 SteamOS download): a 64-bit x86 CPU with AVX2 (x86-64-v3): Intel Haswell (2013) or newer, or AMD Excavator, Zen or newer. A Vulkan 1.2 graphics card.
• Steam Frame (the arm64 SteamOS download): SteamOS on the Steam Frame, kept up to date. The arm64 download is for the Frame only; it hasn't been tested on any other arm64 Linux device.
• Windows (beta): Windows 10 or 11, 64-bit; a CPU with AVX2 (Intel Haswell from 2013 or newer, or any AMD Ryzen; without it the game says so and closes); a Vulkan 1.2 graphics card with a current driver.
• Mac: Apple silicon and macOS 15 (Sequoia) or later. The app won't open on older versions of macOS, and there is no Intel Mac build.
• iPhone and iPad (experimental): iOS or iPadOS 17 or later, on an A15-class chip or newer (iPhone 13 and later, M-series iPads), and a controller or keyboard. So far only an iPhone 18 Pro Max has run it; other devices are untested.

Quick start

1. Back up your own disc. SpeedBreaker: Carbon supports one version of the game: the USA Collector's Edition for Xbox 360 (see Which copy do I need?). The standard edition and other regions aren't supported yet. The installer takes a full .iso, a trimmed XISO, or a folder with the extracted disc files. No title update is needed. SpeedBreaker: Carbon doesn't provide game files or disc images, or link to them.
2. Get SpeedBreaker: Carbon. Download it for Steam Deck, Steam Machine and Steam Frame (SteamOS), Linux, Mac or Windows (beta). On iPhone and iPad you sideload the experimental IPA or build it yourself. Then follow the setup for your platform.
3. Start it and install. On first run, SpeedBreaker: Carbon looks for your disc image, checks that it is the right game and edition, then copies and verifies every file. This takes a few minutes at most. Afterwards you can delete the disc image.
4. Race. Your saves and settings are kept apart from the game, so they stay when you update or reinstall the game. The settings open with F1 or Back + Start on a controller.

Which copy do I need?

The USA Collector's Edition of Need for Speed: Carbon for Xbox 360.

• How to tell: its case and cover say Collector's Edition. Its disc's media ID, which disc backup tools show, is 1F8BEB88.
• Not supported yet: the standard edition and other regions. The installer tells you when your copy is one of them.
• The standard edition: support for it is being considered, and depends on how many players want it. Say so on its tracking issue.

How to update

• Mac: drag the new SpeedBreaker Carbon into Applications, choose Replace, then allow it once more with Open Anyway (see Mac setup).
• Steam Deck, Steam Machine, Steam Frame and Linux: unpack the new download over the old folder (~/Games/SpeedBreaker-Carbon); your Steam shortcut keeps working.
• Windows (beta): extract the new zip into a new folder, run it from there, then delete the old folder.
• Everywhere: your saves, settings and the installed game are kept, and no disc image is needed. Settings > Advanced > Check for Updates says when there's a new release, and so does GitHub's Watch > Custom > Releases.

Setup by platform

Steam Deck and Steam Machine

1. Download and unpack (in Desktop Mode). Download the SteamOS build, [SpeedBreaker-Carbon-steamos-x86_64.tar.xz][dl-steamos-x86_64]. Make a Games folder in your home folder, move the file there, and choose Extract archive here. Or, in Konsole:

   mkdir -p ~/Games && tar -xf ~/Downloads/SpeedBreaker-Carbon-steamos-x86_64.tar.xz -C ~/Games
   

   This makes ~/Games/SpeedBreaker-Carbon, next to SpeedBreaker's own folder if you have it: neither replaces the other. Keep it on internal storage or on an SD card formatted by SteamOS, and don't use :, ; or $ in the folder names.

2. Add it to Steam. Steam > Games > Add a Non-Steam Game to My Library > Browse. Set the file type to All Files and pick ~/Games/SpeedBreaker-Carbon/speedbreaker.sh, the launcher (the program itself is in lib/), then rename the shortcut in its Properties. Leave Compatibility (Proton) off: this is a native Linux game.

3. Put your disc image in Downloads, or in the top folder of an SD card. SpeedBreaker: Carbon also looks in your home folder, Desktop, Documents, Games and USB drives. Game Mode only sees SD cards and USB drives formatted by SteamOS; for a card formatted on a PC, copy the image into Downloads first.

4. Install (back in Game Mode). Start SpeedBreaker: Carbon from your library. It highlights the image it found (Ready to install; with several, pick yours with Up and Down): press A, then A again on Install. Use the images it finds rather than Browse for image..., which may not open in Game Mode. The game goes to the internal storage; to put it on the SD card or in another folder, press Up and pick with Left and Right before Install. Choose a folder... opens a folder picker in Desktop Mode only; from Konsole, the command-line installer takes --dest <folder>.

5. Check the screen settings.

   • Steam Deck OLED: set the refresh rate to 60 Hz (Quick Access > Performance). At 90 Hz the game's frames can't be shown evenly, and a note says so, once. Turn on Steam's per-game profile there and it keeps 60 Hz for this game. On any Deck, leave the Framerate Limit off.
   • Docked, or on a Steam Machine: in the shortcut's Properties > General > Game Resolution, choose Native.
   • The picture fills the Deck's 16:10 screen, with a slightly taller view. For the console's 16:9 picture with thin bars above and below, set Settings > Display > Aspect Ratio to 16:9.

Controls: the Deck's controls work through Steam Input (default Gamepad layout). Settings: hold View (two squares, left of the screen) and press Menu (three lines, right of the screen).

Uninstall: delete ~/Games/SpeedBreaker-Carbon/, ~/.local/share/speedbreaker-carbon/ (this deletes your saves too) and ~/.cache/speedbreaker-carbon/, and remove the shortcut from Steam. SpeedBreaker for Most Wanted's folders are never touched.

Steam Frame

The Steam Frame has its own download. You set it up on the Frame's desktop: open the Desktop app in your Steam library.

1. Download and unpack. Download the Steam Frame build, [SpeedBreaker-Carbon-steamos-arm64.tar.xz][dl-steamos-arm64], into Downloads (not the x86-64 one: that is for the Steam Deck, Steam Machine and Linux PCs). The Frame's file manager can't unpack it, so open Konsole and run:

   mkdir -p ~/Games && tar -xf ~/Downloads/SpeedBreaker-Carbon-steamos-arm64.tar.xz -C ~/Games
   

   This makes ~/Games/SpeedBreaker-Carbon. Keep it on the Frame's internal storage, and don't use :, ; or $ in the folder names.

2. Add it to Steam. In the file manager, open ~/Games/SpeedBreaker-Carbon, right-click speedbreaker.sh and choose Add to Steam. Or, in Konsole: steamos-add-to-steam ~/Games/SpeedBreaker-Carbon/speedbreaker.sh. Leave Compatibility (Proton) off: this is a native Linux game.

3. Put your disc image in Downloads. SpeedBreaker: Carbon also looks in your home folder, Desktop, Documents and Games.

4. Install. Start it from your Steam library. It highlights the image it found (Ready to install): press A, then A again on Install. Or install from Konsole: ~/Games/SpeedBreaker-Carbon/speedbreaker.sh --install ~/Downloads/your-image.iso (with your image's name; add --dest <folder> to put the game in a folder of your choice).

It plays as a big flat screen in the headset. It is not a VR mode.

• Settings: press Menu + View together.
• Frame rate: if the picture isn't smooth in the headset, set Display > Frame Rate to 30 fps. The VR compositor shares the graphics chip.
• Uninstall: as on the Steam Deck.

Linux

There's no separate desktop-Linux package yet. Try the x86-64 SteamOS download, [SpeedBreaker-Carbon-steamos-x86_64.tar.xz][dl-steamos-x86_64], which brings its own runtime libraries and is tested here on SteamOS, or build from source. Unpack it, put your .iso in your home folder, Downloads, Desktop, Documents or Games (or on a USB drive), and run speedbreaker.sh: always start the game with it, since it picks the libraries the program in lib/ needs (started on its own, the program fails on most systems with a message such as GLIBC_2.44 not found). The game starts in a window; Display > Fullscreen switches to full screen and decides how the game starts. The installer puts the game in ~/.local/share/speedbreaker-carbon/game, or on a drive, or in any folder you pick with Choose a folder... (it needs a file chooser portal or zenity; without one, use --dest).

On a laptop with two GPUs, SpeedBreaker: Carbon uses the dedicated graphics card; with NVIDIA's driver the launcher also turns on PRIME render offload. The