I would like to run DKR but don't have an actual console.Next best thing is an emulator, right? But they're banned, why is that? Why are they banned?

I don´t know it for this game, but in most N64/Rareware games Emulators are faster than the original game because of less lagging

Oh. Well if so, then why are there runs of people on an emulator? If they're banned, why do runs still use them?

I don´t know about that. I only know it from Banjo Tooie and DK64

Hello there! Like 7hornet said, most N64 games do not emulate proprely and DKR is not an exception. At this moment, it is banned because it does gives an unfair advantage over the N64 as in it removes almost all the lag, the acceleration is twice as fast and zipper/boost tends to give more high speed/consistent boost than what you would experience on the original hardware.

On the matter of the runs present on the leaderboard that are done on emulator, theses runs were done before the decision to ban emulators was taken. Therefore, we kept them on here because they were actually following the rules at the moment when they were submitted.

That being said, i do recommand that you try out the game and to join the discord if you do have interrest in this game. If you feel like DKR is the right speedrun for you after a while then we are all here to help you get the proper equipment for as cheap as possible.

Hope it anwsers the questions! :)

Ok. Thanks a lot for the reply! For now, I'll speedrun on the emulator, and when I feel like taking the game seriously, I'll invest in buying actual hardware for the game. Thanks a lot for the information!

If the main issue is that emulators are faster than N64, a solution that works for everyone would be to keep emulators in their own category. That prevents the console runners from having to compete with them while still allowing emulator runners to participate even without being able to afford real hardware. Win-win.

Maybe one day I'll set up a leaderboard just for emulated runs so us emulator players can compare our times.

I personally would love to speedrun this game as well! But can only do emulation if that happens. Setting up a category for EMU would allow me to run this as well!

Hi DrNitronio!

This would require to create an Emu category for ALL the current categories (Any%, 100%, ATR, Car%, Hover%, Plane%, etc).

Although the Emu times are banned from the main leaderboard, it is still possible to post your EMU times on it, but it will be hidden.

On the main DKR page on Speedrun.com, click on the "Filter" button at the top right, click "Emulators" and click on "Shown"

Please understand that Emu DOES give an unfair advantage over console players and therefore, a consensus has been decided between the mods of the game.

Nonono. I understand COMPLETELY why it's banned! But, you DO have a very good point. Making that many categories would overflow the number of categories there are for the game. I didn't know either about the show emulators button either so this also helps.

Thank you MorKs for the honest reply!

No problem DrNitronio. Don't let the fact that Emu times are hidden stop you from speedrunning the game. We're all having fun in the end :)

For sure! Me and buddies were planning on doing a speedrun race on this!

Making the N64/Emu sub-categories for this board is not difficult. You can apply those two sub-categories to every single full-game category all at once.

Here's the instructions on how the moderators can set it up.

1. Click on Edit Game
2. Click on Variables
3. Click on New Variable
4. Name the variable whatever you want (i.e. "N64 or Emu")
5. Click on New Value. Name it "N64"
6. Click on New Value. Name it "Emu"
7. Click on the Default checkbox in the N64 value.
8. Click the three vertical dots on the "N64 or Emu" variable. Click on "Set the default for all runs without a value.
9. Click on the three vertical dots on the "N64 or Emu" variable. Click on Edit Variable.
10. Set "Level" to "Full-game and all levels". Set "Category" to "All categories". Turn on "Use as sub-category".

The entire process should take any moderator no longer than a minute to set up. Once it's done properly, all the current runs will be set by default as N64 runs which will leave the Emu sub-category empty. If there are any emu runs on the board currently, keep track of them and maybe make a list of them so you can edit them and shift them to the Emu sub-category where they belong.

Easy peasy.

To clarify, the problem is not that our mods do not know how to make an Emu category. It's part of a larger discussion about whether or not Emu should be allowed on the leaderboard, one that's been taking place over a very long period of time. There's a myriad of reasons why we should or should not allow it, but at the end of the day it's up to the mods to decide.

If people want an emu board and you can make one that doesn't conflict with console runs, you make the board.

If the community has a problem with emu runs on this specific board, make a category extensions board and put them there.

If the mods think there's too many emulators to keep track of, just pick a couple of them and ban the rest.

If the mods can't be bothered to do any of it 'cause they're just not interested, find new mods who will take care of the emu board.

If you can't find volunteers to take care of the emu board, the community doesn't want it bad enough and you don't have to worry about it anymore.

Problem solved. It shouldn't take four years to make this happen. Whatever issues arise from this, a competent group of people can hammer out in a week tops. Anything more than that and there's something else going on.

I don't want my following comments to be reflecting what the DKR mods think

For someone who barely knows how Diddy Kong Racing's engine work, you sure seem to feel like you have to insult our intelligence by saying stuff like this : "It shouldn't take four years to make this happen"

Mods DID review the facts and all possible solutions in order to land on the decision of making emulator runs banned or at least hidden. This is not something they decided just to get rid of the problem, but because DKR works very differently on emulator and isn't trustworthy compared to other games like SM64.

Please do not talk to us like we're just trying to get rid of the problem. If you knew about the game as much as the senior members of the community do, you wouldn't be saying this in the first place.

We try our best to include everyone that wants to speedrun this game. As a matter of fact, having been in multiple different speedrunning communities for the past 8 years, I consider this one to be in a league of its own regarding welcomeness.

Having an active leaderboard or not shouldn't restrain people from speedrunning what they want. This is firstly about a community joining to the greater good of the game. Once we reach the point where top playing is performed, in a game where centiseconds matter, it would be quite unfair to compare it to an emulator that knowingly allows for better performance engine-wise.

Again, don't take my words as what mods think about the situation, but stop simplifying something you don't know shit about. Thank you and have a nice day

@CriscoWild, people with no insight on a community should not try to change things in said community. You coming in here and demanding emu board with absolutly no knowleadge of the game and how it works and how the community has a whole already feels about the topic is a waste of your time and mine. This topic has been discussed to death before between mods and members of the community and the current board setup will not change.