Cathode Quest

Cathode Quest is a homebrew game by HailToDodongo where you play as a CRT TV exploring and repairing a platforming world. It was released on 2 Feb 2026 for the 2025 64brew Game Jam.

You can get the ROM from its download page by using the password crtislovecrtislife. You can also get it from Drive. There is also source code available on Github under the Pyrite64 repo.

About Cathode Quest

It begins out with a large disembodied head of what appears to be Hercules telling you that his kingdom is in shambles, and if you would kindly help him. You do, and the game starts proper.

You’re dropped into a 3D world where you play as a footed CRT television that jumps around in Abstract Geometry Land collecting coins. Once you collect enough of these coins, you can unlock (‘repair’) certain sections of the level to explore further. Once you collect enough, you can unlock the final object and make it to the next level.

There are three levels in total, but the third one is trivial to complete.

• A Broken World
• Cardboard Course
• The End

Within each level there are a series of objects that move around like in any other platformer, they translate horizontally and vertically, and they rotate around as well. Sometimes you have to wait around for the object to rotate so you can get to the coins on the other side.

It’s also important to rotate the camera with the C buttons as I missed some coins because they were on an object that were under the camera’s initial position. Specifically, the blue icosahedron to the left of level 1’s starting point.

You don’t need to collect every coin as I found that there is 1 spare on the first level and 25 on the second. The third has no coin requirements so you don’t need to collect any.

Also worthy of note is that this game was made using Pyrite 64, HailToDodongo’s own 3D game dev system for the N64. It’s still in pre-release though.

Credits

Cathode Quest was made by HailToDodongo (Max Bebök).

Review and conclusion

This is a lovely little game. The graphics are clear and well-defined, there are enough challenges to keep things interesting, and it isn’t too long that it gets tedious and overstays its welcome.

The platforming in Cathode Quest is tight, there is never a moment where I felt that any fall was unfair. Though I must say that there wasn’t any punishment as you spawn back at the start of the level and recoveries are never more than 10 seconds or so.

There are some recycled assets from HailToDodongo’s previous game, Coin Rush. The coins are the same, and Level 2’s music and cardboard level design is also the same. Is it a time-saving practice, or could it be part of a buildup to the HailToDodongo expanded universe?

If I had to give Cathode Quest some criticism, it would be that the story doesn’t really have any closure. The game starts with the head telling you to restore the kingdom, but there is no resolution besides the vague and abstract Level 3.

I really enjoyed playing through this game. I was a little bit disappointed at its length since Level 3 felt like a promise of weird and abstract levels to come, but it was cut a little short. That said, if you want to have some fun, Cathode Quest is a blast for about 15 minutes.