General info

50Hz or 60Hz

Which Hertz am I?

You're 60Hz. I can say that because PAL players get to choose at start-up (between the red Nintendo logo and Lakitu), so if you're a PAL player, you'd know. Otherwise, you're an NTSC player, and then you play 60Hz automatically.

PAL and NTSC

There are two different framerates for TV's around the world. In America and Japan you have NTSC, which is 60Hz, which entails that you get 30 frames per second. In the rest of the world you have PAL, which is 50Hz, or 25 frames per second. The console and the games are adapted to this. Most (modern) PAL TVs can support 60Hz, so one can play 60Hz. However, not all TV's can handle it, so PAL players are offered the possibility to play in 50Hz. Unfortunately for time trialing, the gameplay is not adjusted: you get the same frames, but then less per second, hence the game runs slower. Even the clock goes slower! In fact, a race that gives you a time of 2½ min. would actually take you 3 min. in real time! Only the music is at the same speed.

The differences

The advantage of 60Hz is that, because it all goes faster, you get to "play more" in the same amount of time. Hence progress is expected to be faster if you play 60Hz. On the other hand, 50Hz means that you can do everything slower, and that you have more reaction time. This advantage overshadows the aforementioned one when going toward the top of the rankings. The opinions on how great an advantage 50Hz gives are very much divided. Some claim that today's 50Hz world records are out of reach for 60Hz players, while others say that it simply takes a little more effort. It also varies per course. The discussion is revived once every while on the message board.

Which Hertz to choose

So if you're a PAL player, and your TV supports 60Hz, you can do both. Since the start of 2007 it is possible to have time sets for both modes. Players can try to get the best times possible with 50Hz, while also maintaining a 60Hz set to enable comparison with NTSC players.
When starting out, it's probably not very interesting for you to keep up both time sets, especially since switching requires some time to adapt, and you'd have to play everything twice. So choose one. It doesn't matter much which one. If you want a suggestion from me, I'd say: play 60Hz. That will keep NTSC players and other 60Hz players happy. 50Hz becomes interesting if you get close to the top, progress becomes slow and you wish to see how far you can get. But in the end the choice is up to you. Do whatever makes you happy, because the priority is still that you have fun.

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The Waluigi Stadium short-cut

For the mkdd site, you are not allowed to submit times for Waluigi Stadium using the short-cut

What is the WS short-cut?

At the end of the lap, you make a jump, which brings you over an earlier part of the lap. When at this section, which is after the turn to the left following the section with the fireballs and the plant thingies, it is possible to launch yourself into the air and close enough to the jump part, that you can fool Lakitu (i.e. the game) into thinking you fell off at the jump. As a result, you'll see the screen go black accordingly and Lakitu puts you down right before the jump, thus further up the lap.

Here's a filmstrip made from this video of Julien Boisiaud:

Waluigi Stadium short-cut

For completeness: a similar short-cut exists for Bowser's Castle, but that requires a bomb or a blue shell: After the big room with the fireballs circling around, you have two turns to the left (followed by a U-turn to the left). At the second of those turns the barricade is absent, giving you a view of the finish line. When at the finish line, you can drive toward the left and blow yourself up with a bomb or a blue shell, so that you shoot up into the air. If you're close enough, Lakitu will think you've fallen off the track at the aforementioned turn to the left, and put you down up there.

Why is it not allowed?

This is the only thing (found so far) that is not allowed for Time Trialing. You may wonder why; would it not be easier to simply allow everything, than to exclude this one thing? I guess this is explained most easily by referring to Mario Kart 64. Here short-cut glitches have been found for 11 of the 16 courses (MKDD is much more glitch-proof). It's obviously no fun when courses like Wario Stadium, which normally takes over 3½ minutes, can be done within 15 seconds by jumping walls. So the decision was made that there'd be SC and non-SC racing (SC = short-cut), and that for non-SC one is not allowed to jump any walls, fences or barriers, or use Lakitu's assistance in any way. Although the WS short-cut at MKDD doesn't make lap times of 3 seconds, you could say that this rule is inherited from MK64 and that it's a matter of principle. The difference is however that for MKDD, the SC-times are not stored separately on the site. Hardly any of the top players have ever seriously indulged themselves into the short-cut.

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Characters and Kart

Characters

The best way to go is to select two lightweight characters. These are Baby Mario, Baby Luigi, Toad, Toadette, Koopa, Paratroopa, Diddy Kong and Bowser jr. Which ones you select doesn't matter a thing. Just choose your favorites ones (some karters think Toadette is cute for example), or two who do not make annoying noises when MT'ing.

Kart

The Barrel Train (BT) is the fastest kart, at the very least at intermediate level and higher. Donkey Kong Mountain is a different story though: it's very bumpy and the Barrel Train doesn't cope too well with that. Toad's Kart (TK) is a very good alternative, as the bumps do not slow it down as much (Toadette's Kart is also used). The very top players can avoid the bumps consistently and put the Barrel Train to good use. The overall consensus is that the Barrel Train is the best, but Toad's Kart is only marginally worse but so much more forgiving. So Toad's Kart is the advice for most.

Barrel Train

Toad's Kart

Note: both karts need to be unlocked. For the Barrel Train, win the Star Cup in 150cc. For Toad's Kart, win the Special Cup in 100cc. (For Special Cup, win the Star Cup in 100cc.)

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3-lap (course time) and f-lap (fastest lap)

For the time for the entire course the abbreviation 3-lap (or 3lap) is often used. For Baby Park it's of course 7-lap and 2-lap for Wario Colosseum, but 3-lap is the general term and often also used when referring to BP or WC.
The game also stores the fastest lap (f-lap or flap), and this is also stored and required for the MKDD-site. Note that this is not necessarily a normal lap in a 3-lap, but can (and should) be done using both mushrooms in one lap. Note also that the first lap is not appropriate for f-laps, since the start makes the lap time approximately half a second slower than a normal lap. Also, you can optimize the way you start or end the lap. For instance, f-laps of good players practically always start with a mini-turbo released on the finish line.

Very important: a new f-lap record is announced by a flashing lap time in the top corner of the screen, the so much by karters appreciated "ping ping ping ping ping!"-sound and a cheer from your characters. However, the f-lap is not immediately stored on your memory card and you need to finish the race. You then get the screen with your top times, and thén if you press A, your record is stored. A new 3-lap top-5 time is also stored only after pressing A at that screen!

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(Staff) Ghosts

What is a ghost?

A ghost of a race is like a replica of that run, which you can race against. It's like a replay during your race, as if you're playing against a second player, who does exactly what you did in the aforementioned race. Obviously, you cannot hit the ghost to affect its driving line. Instead, you go through it, hence the name "ghost".
If you finish a race, the ghost of it is automatically stored and will appear in your next race. Whenever you beat it, the ghost is "refreshed". It disappears if you quit or select "change course".
You can save a ghost to your memory card by selecting "save ghost" in the menu after the race. Note that this option is not available if you were racing a ghost but didn't beat it!
Note: if you take longer than approximately 4'55 the ghost data cannot be stored (too much data).
Note 2: the options menu (at start-up) contains an option to disable ghosts completely.

The staff ghosts (SGs)

The staff ghosts are ghosts of races done by members of the staff themselves. There is one for each course. You have to unlock it by beating a time which is 2 seconds slower than the SG, rounded upwards. Note that, instead of the automatically saved ghost mentioned above, the SG doesn't disappear if you change course. However, if you restart the GameCube, you have to unlock them again to get them. There's no reward though (only spiritual) for unlocking or beating them all.
Here are the times of the SGs and the times required to unlock them:

Unlock SG time

Luigi Circuit 1'29"000 1'26"277

Peach Beach 1'23"000 1'20"404

Baby Park 1'14"000 1'11"108

Dry Dry Desert 1'53"000 1'50"755

Mushroom Bridge 1'34"000 1'31"458

Mario Circuit 1'44"000 1'41"384

Daisy Cruiser 1'55"000 1'52"207

Waluigi Stadium 2'02"000 1'59"658

Sherbet Land 1'28"000 1'25"904

Mushroom City 1'53"000 1'50"663

Yoshi Circuit 2'02"000 1'59"886

Donkey Kong Mountain 2'15"000 2'12"639

Wario Colosseum 2'24"000 2'21"106

Dino Dino Jungle 2'03"000 2'00"908

Bowser's Castle 2'47"000 2'44"690

Rainbow Road 3'19"000 3'16"476

Note: I've copied the SG times from elsewhere, and I don't know if they are completely correct. At the very least they are very accurate.

These will be your first targets. If you manage to beat them all, then you definitely have some skills. It's still a long way to the top though. These times all rank in the range Intermediate (PB is Beginner A). This is only the beginning!

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