It has occurred to me more and more that I should talk about emulators. Long story short, Dolphin is the current most robust emulator for GameCube and Wii games, and Mario Golf: Toadstool Tour falls in that category. The most recent updates (from 4.0-5XXX onward) have turned MGTT into a very playable game with only a few minimal graphical goofups. As far as I can tell, aside from those and the inherently faster loadtimes, playing using an ISO is essentially identical.

EDIT: Dolphin is now legal for RTA speedruns of this game. See the most recent post. However, while I barely condone the use of emulators and especially downloaded ROMs or ISOs from dubious sources (legalities aside, that's your own decision to make), I can understand the value in using Dolphin.

Should you decide to use it, it should work very well as a research tool. It works best if you're the kind of person capable of deciphering code and writing scripts to help break the game down further. It is also great in that you can create save-states so that you don't have to retry so often if you miss the mark you're trying to hit. These could be especially useful in teasing out Ace strats, dunks, and other optimal speedrunning strategies. If you would prefer to use Dolphin for these purposes, I have no qualms. In fact, I have used Dolphin to capture HD screenshots for the icons in my splits (You can make wallpapers if you play around with the camera in Free Mode and hold Start during your shot).

TL;DR: DOLPHIN IS LEGAL! It is also very useful for research.

BUMP!

Dolphin 5.0 is out now, which is a HUGE update to previous stable versions of the emulator. I can't confirm if there are any improvements to the emulation of Toadstool Tour, but I just thought I would let you know. You should upgrade to Dolphin 5.0 if you plan on using Dolphin for research purposes or TAS recordings (unless you've already started and need to use your current Dolphin build).

ANOTHER BUMP!

DOLPHIN IS NOW ACCEPTABLE FOR SPEEDRUNS!

Please use 5.0-1709 or later, which fixes every known graphical issue with Mario Golf: Toadstool Tour. Do note that your submission may be subject to more scrutiny than a console submission. If everything seems consistent, then your submission will most likely be accepted.

Do note that Dolphin is a highly demanding program and MGTT is a heavily resource-intensive game since a lot of textured objects are simultaneously rendered. You will need a VERY powerful PC to stream and speedrun this game via Dolphin at a consistent 60fps. If your system can handle it, then go for it!

I hope this offers an alternative to players who don't have capture cards and/or have PAL consoles since MGTT does NOT offer native 60Hz PAL support.

Similarly, forcing 60Hz using Nintendont (or similar softmod methods) on your Wii or Wii U console is fine, but will be treated with the same scrutiny as Dolphin.

Cool. I wondering if your looked into this already and you did. I agree with your decision here and I am glad that the community is still growing. It is awesome!. I see you allowing Nintendont as well. I wanted to make sure that you mean just loading the disc form a loader or are we allowing usb loading as well as a way of emulation as well. What type of loaders if not all would be a good thing to be aware of as well. The only reason I am asking is just to try to reduce the questions from new runners and others in the community that may want to be aware of what we allow in the future.

That is an excellent point you bring up. I'm honestly not that knowledgeable about softmodding because I don't practice it myself. I assumed the game would play virtually the same as it would through Dolphin, which I have seen as viable. I'm a diehard console player because it is the authentic experience. Maybe not optimal, but nonetheless the original experience that plays the games as they were meant to be played (I'm down with hard mods that improve the AV output of the console). If I'm not mistaken, the only way to use a USB loader to play GameCube games would be through the Wii-U; in the case of the Wii, games are generally written onto an SD card.

I would need to see if USB loaders/SD cards are significantly faster with loading and transitions between holes, because that could add up significantly (one second per hole is almost two minutes for any%). I had thought if anything Dolphin would speed up the game, but it apparently does not (kudos to the Dolphin team for accurate emulation). I don't think loading the disc speeds the loading up, but don't quote me on that.

It was difficult for me to decide to allow for emulators, but I have seen multiple cases were they prove a viable alternative. I, perhaps more than most, would like to honor the sanctity of the game. It would not be fair to send a message that a semi-legal means of playing the game is superior to doing the right thing and paying for the console, game, controller and capture card, if even solely due to speed. Plus, having variable speeds of the game would make competitive times difficult to compare.

It might seem weird, but I might have to draw a line. Until I have proof that USB loading would not adversely speed up the game, I will have to reject submissions with those modifications. This is why I have added a catch while allowing non-native gameplay - the verification process. It gives one of us mods who is familiar with the pacing of the game to scrutinize the submission. If it turns out the run seems legitimate and was USB, then so much the better. I'll throw this out to the Discord as well to spur further discussion.

TL;DR: Not sure if USB or SD loading adversely speeds up the loading of the game. Either way, we have the verification process for such occasions.

I have it set up if you would like me to record couple of runs in it to see. I know some usb loaders don't work well with some games. Like dios mios has slower loading times for this game for some reason. Like a lot slower for some reason. At least the version I was using. I can try Nintendont and if it seems somewhat normal I can record and show you a couple runs to see what you think.

I like that idea. It seems like everyone but me has softmodded their console (blame my ethos). I don't even know if Wii-U would be more efficient than Wii for these kinds of things, so it's good to be able to experiment. I'm as surprised as anybody else that the game doesn't seem to run adversely faster through Wii (via GCN disc) or Dolphin.

Inb4 Nintendo has the last laugh and releases the game for Switch VC with 960p60 visuals and near-zero load times.

Once again, I'm glad the community is largely supportive of the expanded support with verification decision. It is this last part that will help maintain some sanctity. Between three active mods, the verification should be fairly smooth.

EDIT: I remember 360Chrism speedrunning the game through Homebrew Channel. Load times did seem slightly reduced, but it's hard to tell.

Yea I mean certainly you would think like Dolphin would like make the game run more overall smooth by taking lag out. Making it faster that way as well. Which is kind of how some of these work. Some have faster loading times in some games. So just reduce all lag but keep the same loading times. But yea I will give you guys some things to look at. I post in it here or/ and discord.

As far as I know a USB/SD loader on the Wii will run the game the same as playing from a disc (it's using the same hardware emulation). However, there should be some difference in load times due to the data transfer being different or faster. I've not seen how or if this affects MGTT significantly as I have the NTSC-U disc and always use a region changer to play it normally. I can't say anything about how it would work on a Wii U though.

The comparison is here. The first is running from a wii on disc. the second is Nintedont running the actual disk and the third is the usb loader.