Diddy Kong Racing ROM Hacks

This page features a collection of Diddy Kong Racing ROM hacks that I've created. Due to copyright, hacks cannot be distributed directly; patches are provided instead. Patches can be applied to a base ROM here. All patches provided expect to be patched onto an NTSC-U v1.0 Diddy Kong Racing ROM (if you have the wrong version, then the patcher will report a "checksum mismatch" error).

Table of contents:

• Practice ROM
• Randomizer
• Miscellaneous

Practice ROM

Download latest version

The practice ROM supports a variety of features for ease of practicing and experimentation, available through a newly-added menu accessible when loading the dedicated PRACTICE adventure mode save file. Menu navigation:

• L: Toggle practice menu.
• Z/R: Move between menus.
• Joystick/D pad: Move within menu.
• A/Start: Apply changes.

Practice features include:

• Instant race warps for:
  • All tracks, minigames, and bosses
  • All vehicles
  • Adventure 1 and 2
  • Time trials, balloon races, silver coins, and trophy races
• Savestates
  • Start to save state, C left to load state.
  • Four unique save slots. Use D pad to change save/load slots.
  • Disabled for time trials.
  • Requires expansion pak.
• View position, speed, checkpoint, framerate, etc. live
• Disable CPUs
• Timer splits
• Endless races
• View invisible geometry
• Final time for IL races
• De-munging of in-game timer
• In-game sound menu
• Input display
• Toggleability of magic codes
• Toggleability of time trial staff ghost
• Toggleability of golden balloon cutscenes (allows for cutscene skips)

See the readme in the download for a full description of the practice ROM's features.

All Versions

Version 1.3 (download)
Current version; released 2024/11/1.

• New options:
  • Added trophy race as a race type option.
  • Added option to toggle adventure modes.
  • Added option to use the default vehicle of a track.
  • Added option to toggle the time trials staff ghost.
  • Added option to display the true race time.
  • Added option to display lap + final times of IL races.
  • Added option to play balloon races without AI.
  • Added option to print joystick position and pressed buttons.
  • Added option to print A tap timings.
  • Added option to warp to overworld.
  • Added ARNOLD to magic code menu.
• Practice menu cosmetic improvements:
  • The game now pauses when in the menu.
  • Added sound effects.
  • Menu titles use a larger font.
  • The joystick can now be used to navigate menus.
  • Minor reorganizations and renamings.
• Savestates additionally capture:
  • FM eggs.
  • Lasers.
  • Red balloon missiles.
  • Green balloon hazards.
  • Bubbler and Smokey hazards.
  • AL/JF/HTV/FM dinosaur.
  • SV/Bluey2 snowballs.
  • SdA/Wizpig2 asteroids and spaceships.
  • BC/DwB/Bubbler logs.
  • BC drawbridge.
  • WP/Smokey windmills.
  • WB whale.
  • Tricky boulders and pillars.
  • SmC banana spawners.
  • Taj and TT.
  • Wave positions.
  • Fog and weather.
  • Banana and silver coin animations.
• Bug fixes:
  • Vehicle select works for FM, DwB, and all boss races.
  • Changing between zero and nonzero sound settings now restarts the current race.
  • Restarting race now resets max speed/height values.
  • Fixed practice features breaking on SmC with more than three bananas.
  • Fixed using the menu after some races complete.
  • Fixed the car drifting sound getting stuck on or off when savestating.
  • Fixed bananas lost to hazards not despawning when loading a previous savestate.
  • Fixes various crash conditions, and likely introduced more.
• As an anticheat precaution, time trials PBs can no longer be saved.

Version 1.2 (download)
Released 2022/3/22.

• Added menu for specific Show State options.
• Show State options now include max speed, max height, and throttle.
• Added menu to control music/sfx.
• Added menu to control timer freezes on specific in-game actions.
• There are now 4 unique savestate slots.
• Savestates now work for bananas and silver coins.
• Miscellaneous bug fixes.

Version 1.1 (download)
Released 2021/12/24.

• Added option to allow for cutscene skips.
• Added global watermark.
• Triangle count being rendered per frame can also be printed.
• You have to try slightly harder to crash the game.
• Fixed endless races sometimes not working.

Version 1.0 (download)
Released 2021/11/19.

• Supports warps to any race, minigame, or boss in any vehicle, for time trials, balloon races, or silver coins.
• Supports stavestates.
• Supports endless races.
• Game data such as position, speed, checkpoint, framerate, etc. can be printed.
• Input display can be printed.
• Invisible geometry can be rendered.
• All magic codes can be easily toggleable.

Randomizer

Link to latest version

The randomizer features two main modes: 100% randos and ATR randos.

100% randos only allow playing in Adventure mode, and are designed to expect 100% completion of a savefile. All warps can be randomized (with the exception of Wizpig 2), where entering a warp will the player to a random location. Hub world exits are adjusted so they always take you outside of the warp that goes back to said hub world. With sufficient options enabled, the completion of a rando is effectively a puzzle. To aid in tracking progress of a playthrough, a completion tracker can be found here. Logic is set in place such that 100% completion is always possible, but it is possible to softlock a playthrough if things aren't completed in the right order. See the "Softlocks" section in the rando page for details.

ATR randos only allow playing in Tracks mode, and are designed for "All Trophy Races" playthroughs. Unlike in 100% randos, each track is reassigned a random world so that each trophy race can have a set of any 4 tracks.

Randomization options include:

• Races, minigames, bosses, and hub worlds
• Vehicles
• Race lap counts
• Balloon powerups
• Magic codes
• Adventure mode
• Rerandomizing silver coin races

Miscellaneous

All hacks with an available gameshark can be stacked. If stacking patches, be sure to enable "skip checksums" when patching. The resulting ROM checksum will no longer be valid, and some emulators may not be able to play the ROM.