Diddy Kong Racing

This page details pre-release information and/or media for Diddy Kong Racing.

Early Development#

According to director Lee Schuneman, Diddy Kong Racing began development as a "caveman/time-travel RTS for N64, for which [he] did an initial design and Lee Musgrave did some art. But this didn't last long." Soon the concept shifted to a platforming/adventure/racing hybrid game with working titles "Wild Cartoon Kingdom" and later "Adventure Racers", where it seems the playable characters would have been able to wander around outside of their vehicle in a theme park-inspired hub world. Some of the visual assets from the game's prehistoric time-traveller phase were retained after this concept revision, for example its wooly mammoths. Around this time, Kev Bayliss and Chris Tilston worked on a The Lion King-inspired adventure game prototype that had a very early quadruped version of Timber clambering around over terrain - this idea may have overlapped with or been folded into the Adventure Racers design concept.¹²

The small size of the development team resulted in this game concept soon being scaled back to focus on vehicular player movement. At one point, the game's name was changed to "Pro-AM 64", marking it as a sequel to Rare's R.C. Pro-Am titles, with Timber as its main character. However, after successfully demoing the game to Shigeru Miyamoto at E3 1997 he suggested rebranding the game around a widely-recognized Nintendo character - the Rare-designed Diddy Kong. It seems Banjo, Conker, and Krunch (then named Krash) were also added to the character roster around this time.

Although difficult to read from the sole low-resolution design document image available, early names for the game's worlds appear to have been Dino Domain, Icicle Island, Sherbet Beach, Underwurlde, and Future Fun Land.

It seems the team were keen to revisit their scrapped prehistoric tiger adventurer concept, considering they went on to develop Dinosaur Planet immediately after finishing Diddy Kong Racing.

Concept Art#

Kevin Bayliss uploaded these two sets of early Maya NURBS models for DKR on his Artstation, since removed.

• Drumstick is lacking any clothes, save for a badge with the number 3 on it. His tail is also white instead of red and feathered, making him look more like a hen than a rooster.
• The vehicles are undecorated yellow versions of the racecar and hovercraft.
  • The racecar is rounder in shape and has no spoiler; the final game's frame more closely resembles real racecars. The tires are smooth with no treads and are black rather than red.
  • The hovercraft doesn't have an underside or ridges and, with the patched hole, looks more like a repurposed tire.

Early Track#

Kev Bayliss shared this screenshot of an early track, also featuring earlier HUD graphics. The track resembles parts of Ancient Lake and Jungle Falls, but is distinct from either of them. The unused dinosaur model can be seen here, watching from the sides of the track!

German VHS Preview#

Watch on YouTube

A German promotional VHS released shortly before the game's release contains footage from an earlier version of the game. This build appears to be close to the final, only containing a few differences with the most notable one being a larger hub world.

Early	Final

• The game's logo is different - "Racing" part is colored dark blue as opposed to blue-green gradient in the final, "Diddy Kong" part's layout is different, the ™ symbol is not present yet and there are racing flags, which don't appear in the final.
• A version number is displayed on the title.

Early	Final

• Krunch is named Krash. He was most likely renamed either because of there already being a type of kremling in Donkey Kong Country named Krash, or in order to avoid confusion with a certain bandicoot.
• When Banjo hits Krunch in the intro, the camera is more zoomed in.
• The yellow sparkles that fly around Krunch's head aren't present.

• Diddy and Wizpig's names aren't shown in the intro.

Early	Final

• The camera angle when Taj greets the player at the beginning of adventure mode is different.

Early	Final

• The area in front of Dino Domain is much larger. It was reduced to a short tunnel in the final game.

Early	Final

• The area in front of Snowflake Mountain was originally a grassy area containing a bridge leading to Dino Domain and a tunnel leading to Snowflake Mountain's entrance. In the final game, Dino Domain was moved to the central area of the hub world along with the bridge and the tunnel leading to Snowflake Mountain was replaced with the entrance.

Early	Final

• The map for the main hub world shows that it was a lot more complex.

• The nests in Fire Mountain look different.

Early	Final

• At the beginning of the race against Trickytops, the camera's starting point is different.

Early	Final

• In multiplayer matches, the sky in Fossil Canyon is blue. It was changed to orange in the final game.

Early	Final

• The bananas were originally Rare coins.
• The minimap for Snowball Valley is blue. It was changed to red in the final game, likely to make it more noticeable.

Early	Final

• The boost powerup icon was different.

Early	Final

• When placing first, it would show a small 1ST icon. It was changed to a larger, different-looking icon in the final game.

Early	Final

• The bell that raises the drawbridge in Boulder Canyon isn't present.

Early	Final

• The magnet powerup icon is different.

Early	Final

• The shield powerup is a red/orange glow. In the final game, it was changed to an electric forcefield.

Early	Final

• One of the arches in Greenwood Village has a couple of Diddy Kong Racing logos on it. While it doesn't have these logos in the final game, the graphic remains in the ROM.

Gamefan October 1997#

Gamefan published a preview of the game with a large collection of screenshots.

• Krunch is again called "Krash" in the article text.

Diddy Kong Racing Nintendo Debugging Tape#

This needs some investigation. Discuss ideas and findings on the talk page. Specifically: Investigate whether the Haunted Woods music is different in the debugging tape.

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In one of the leaked Nintendo debugging tapes, there are a few differences between what was shown and what appeared in the final game.
Segment 1 at 3:48:

• The missile powerup graphic appears different.
• The player as Pipsy gets stuck and can't move on the Walrus Cove loop, then gets hit by Banjo, which launches both of them out of bounds with the minimap player icon all the way in the upper-left corner.
• Banjo falls out of bounds in Hot Top Volcano and gets stuck, then the game freezes. There is usually a failsafe that drops the player back into the map when this happens in the final game.
• The game crashes during the credits and a crash handler appears on screen. Some of this text is still left over in the final game.

Segment 2 at 8:35:

• The player 1 coordinates debug cheat code is shown in use.
• Bug where the player can be ejected out of bounds by exiting a bubble at the right spot inside the first tunnel in Greenwood Village.

Segment 3 at 12:58:

• Something wrong with the magnet powerup?

Segment 4 at 16:51:

• Taj leaves two glitched gold balloons behind when he disappears after giving the hint about Wizpig's mouth.
• If the player talks to TT and then leaves Dino Domain when Taj is going to challenge the player to a race, Taj's text gets obscured by TT's menu.
• NPC racer Krash veers off course in Whale Bay in a horizontal line away from the track, his minimap icon leaving the screen, and then eventually changes direction and returns. When he gets back to the normal track bounds, he then snaps to the AI path on the other side of the track. A few characters' AI patterns can misbehave in the final, but not usually as drastically as this.

References#