Diddy Kong Racing: Recompiled

An experimental native port of the Nintendo 64 version of Diddy Kong Racing, built with N64: Recompiled and RT64.

[!IMPORTANT] This project is an early alpha. It is not affiliated with Nintendo, Rare, or Microsoft, and it is not an emulator. A legally obtained, unmodified game ROM is required. No ROM, extracted game asset, or other proprietary game data belongs in this repository or its releases.

Current status

The port boots, reaches the frontend and Adventure mode, and can complete normal races. The most thoroughly exercised targets are:

Platform	Status	Renderer
macOS on Apple silicon	Playable alpha	Metal
Steam Deck / Linux x86-64	Playable alpha	Vulkan
Windows x86-64	Inherited build support; not yet validated for DKR	Direct3D 12

Only Diddy Kong Racing USA (En,Fr) Rev 1, decomp version us.v80, is accepted. The normalized big-endian ROM has SHA-1 6d96743d46f8c0cd0edb0ec5600b003c89b93755.

Validated functionality includes:

• boot, attract mode, frontend menus, Tracks mode, and Adventure startup;
• the custom ABI3 audio microcode;
• the F3DDKR XBUS, FIFO, and DRAM graphics microcodes;
• eight-racer gameplay and post-race results;
• EEPROM save data;
• basic Xbox-compatible controller input and rumble;
• widescreen gameplay with automatic 4:3 presentation for authored menu and results pages;
• macOS application bundles and Steam Deck AppImage packaging.

Full Adventure progression, multiplayer, bosses, every vehicle, and every course have not yet been exhaustively tested. See Known issues and milestones before treating a build as release-ready.

Playing a development build

1. Start the application.
2. Choose Select ROM in the launcher.
3. Select an unmodified USA Rev 1 ROM matching the SHA-1 above.
4. Configure controls if desired, then choose Start Game.

The runtime validates the selected file and stores a normalized private copy in the platform user-data directory shown below. That copy remains local and outside the application bundle; it must never be included when sharing logs, saves, or configuration archives.

Default Xbox-style controls

N64 input	Default modern input
Control Stick	Left stick
A	A / south face button
B	B or X / east or west face button
Start	Menu / Start
Z	Left trigger
R	Right trigger
L	Left shoulder
C buttons	Right stick, with selected D-pad alternatives
Recomp menu	View / Back

All mappings can be changed in the launcher. Steam Input should use a normal gamepad layout rather than a keyboard-emulating Desktop layout.

User data and logs

Platform	Default directory
macOS	~/Library/Application Support/DiddyKongRacingRecompiled
Linux / Steam Deck	~/.config/DiddyKongRacingRecompiled
Windows	%LOCALAPPDATA%\DiddyKongRacingRecompiled

The Steam Deck AppImage writes runtime.log, runtime.previous.log, and last-exit.log to that directory. Native crash handling may also create crash.log there. Save and configuration data should be backed up before testing experimental builds.

The directory also contains the locally stored verified ROM used for later launches. Treat the entire directory as private unless its contents have been inspected carefully.

Documentation

• Building from source
• Architecture and patch boundaries
• Testing and release checks
• Known issues
• Contributing and upstream strategy
• Upstream contribution map
• AI-assisted development disclosure
• Release history
• Compatibility milestones

Relationship to the decompilation

DavidSM64/Diddy-Kong-Racing is the matching decompilation and the source of symbols, structure information, and essential reverse-engineering knowledge. This native recomp is a separate application: most retail CPU instructions are translated automatically from the user's ROM, while selected hardware-facing behavior is implemented by the native runtime.

Corrections that improve the matching decompilation should be submitted there as focused changes. Runtime, renderer, and packaging work belongs in this project or its respective upstream dependency.

The complete native port is intentionally maintained as a separate project. See the upstream contribution map for the pieces that can be proposed to the decompilation, RT64, N64Recomp, N64ModernRuntime, and Plume without asking any maintainer to review a monolithic conversion.

Development provenance

This codebase began as a GPLv3-derived adaptation of Dinosaur Planet: Recompiled, which itself builds on Zelda64Recomp, N64Recomp, N64ModernRuntime, and RT64. The DKR conversion has been developed with substantial assistance from OpenAI Codex under human direction and gameplay testing. See AI-assisted development for the disclosure and review policy.

Credits

• DavidSM64 and DKR decomp contributors for the matching decompilation and documentation.
• Dinosaur Planet: Recompiled for the application/runtime foundation used by this fork.
• N64: Recompiled for static recompilation.
• N64ModernRuntime for libultra and host-runtime services.
• RT64 and Plume for graphics translation and platform rendering.
• Zelda64Recomp for the project lineage and UI/runtime foundations.
• RmlUi, SDL, FreeType, lunasvg, SDL_GameControllerDB, and the other third-party projects retained in the source tree.

License

The native project code is distributed under the GNU General Public License v3.0; see COPYING. Submodules and bundled third-party components retain their own licenses. The license does not grant rights to Diddy Kong Racing, its ROM, or its assets.