Emulator: Mupen64 0.5
Plugins: Jabo 1.6 (video), TAS Input Plugin (input), Jabo 1.6 (audio), RSP (RSP)
For input, make sure that controller 2 is set to "active".
This run beats Diddy Kong Racing by abusing a "wrong warp" glitch. It finishes the game in 2-player mode, after creating the file which will be finished in 1-player mode.
The desired effect is only possible on the 1.1 release of the USA version of the game. 1.0 and the Japanese version both crash when trying to do this.
The glitch happens because the game draws certain things from the tracks mode section of the game, such as the fact that Future Fun Land is open (and this is the case because a file on the cart has already been to FFL once), and using the wrong warp, transfers them over to the fresh file that's created at the start of the run. It's done by creating the new file, exiting it, starting up 2P mode, and going to Hot Top Volcano, where an out-of-bounds glitch can be used to reach a small loading zone by the finishing line which warps the player to the main arena, which normally is never accessible in 2P mode.
The out-of-bounds glitch is done by doing a barrel roll with a speed boost at certain parts of the lava. Once OoB, it's just a matter of locating the small loading zone.
At this point in the run, it's actually faster to play as player 2 to get to Future Fun Land, because he spawns closer to it than player 1 does. Inside the FFL lobby, player 1 is in a better spot. Since you're never meant to have a plane in here, the top of the door wasn't programmed in, meaning we can simply fly over it. The reason I grind very slightly against the right side of the door is because the loading zone for the race can be touched quicker from there.
The race itself has a long cutscene at the start because the game is in 2P mode, which looks like a softlock but isn't. Once the race starts, another out-of-bounds glitch is used to beat the level really quickly, at which point the game is over and the credits roll.
Drumstick is chosen over T.T. because he's faster than T.T. in the plane.
Additional Notes
This run starts from a savefile. It's the only way to do this kind of run, which could be considered "newgame+" or "glitched" or a combination of both. As it requires a completed file to do, it's also acceptable to have Drumstick and T.T. unlocked, which is handy because they're the fastest racers in the game. This is an acceptable category in the DKR speedrunning community due to the fact that the unlocked characters are part of the cart's saves, and not the individual files' saves.
With many thanks to Toufool31, Fasch, Stacy, 0xwas, and malkieriking for critiquing my WIPs and helping to break this game to the point it's at today.
Nahoc: Delaying until author or someone else provides a verification movie.
Nahoc: This is a great TAS, well-planned and optimized. Sadly, its situation ressembles the
Stafy run. This game doesn't really deserve a NG+ category. All this TAS does (mainly according to
ais523's post) is take the information of a secondary completed file and glitch to the final boss, which is cool, but doesn't warrant publication (not in the vault or moon tier). There is also the fact that the author didn't provide a verification movie, which goes against the publication rules and doesn't help judging the authenticity of this run.
I am looking forward to a new any% TAS of this game if you ever make one, though. Thanks for the submission!