DKC Warp Glitch History

How the Warp Glitch was found in Donkey Kong Country:

ArneTheGreat and I, Tompa, were playing some Donkey Kong Country while talking on Skype. Testing weird things in order to find some glitches. We previously knew about the Invisible Barrel Glitch, a glitch where you throw a barrel, pick it up, or ride on a steel barrel and pick it up, and walk into floating barrel. It will look like you are holding nothing, but you are basically holding the next spawned sprite (Enemies, barrels, bonus rooms etc.) that spawns in the game's memory. Once the sprite will despawn, you'll hold the next one.

Arne had previously done this in the level Elevator Antics. Though when he tried to get to the end of the level, the game kept crashing. We then challenged eachother to see how far we could get. After a lot of testing, I eventually reached the end of the stage. At the end of the stage is a bonus level, which I entered after throwing away my Invisible Barrel. The bonus was loaded normally, but when I exited the bonus, the game warped me back to the first level in the game, Jungle Hijinx. This was very confusing to the both of us and lead to the research to start!

Arne looked into the game's memory accessable with an emulator to see what was going on. Basically, when you hold a bonus level with the Invisible Barrel Glitch and throw the barrel, the bonus will blast open (If it was a closed wall) and the value where the bonus will take you will be changed. You can alter this value depending on which Kong you are using, if you throw the barrel, if you put it down etc. Arne then found out that the furthest warp you could do was to Torchlight Trouble, level 4-5, which you could do from the first level in the game. I later made a Tool Assisted Speedrun using this warp. But we weren't satisfied...

A lot of the warp values will crash the game. You can technically warp to the second to last boss, Master Necky SNR. though you can't do it without it crashing. Arne kept researching the game. Last on discovering that if you would exit the bonus with both Kongs at once, you are able to warp to the level Manic Mincers, level 6-2. Exiting with both Kongs requires them both to be playable characters at once, something normally not possible. Though an old glitch called Split Up will let you do just that!

Split Up is a glitch you can do by entering a completed level with one Kong, throw a DK-barrel, Start + Select out of the level before the barrel breaks, enter a level, die and have the Kong fall down a pit (Otherwise you'll freeze), reenter a level and break a DK-barrel. You are now able to control both Kongs at the same time! Though to exit a bonus at the same time with both Kongs, it has to be done the very moment when you break the DK barrel, as it's just one frame (1/60 second) where you can actually exit with both of them. The only bonus in the game where this can be done is the second bonus in Orang-utan Gang. Which you can quickly warp to from the World Map after completing Jungle Hijinx and press a button in the corner between the first and second level.

What you do is to set up the Split Up glitch, warp to Orang-utan Gang and then open up the bonus with the Invis Barrel. Though there is one problem... You are unable to reach the bonus while carrying a barrel, the gap is too wide. So we combined it with a glitch where you can ride an animal friend with a barrel, as luckily, Expresso is in the level. So the result became the following: Throw the Steel Barrel, ride it, mount Expresso while riding it, destroy the barrel using the Midway Barrel (You are now riding while holding the Invis Barrel), fly to the bonus, enter it by throwing the barrel, destroy the DK barrel inside the bonus and exit the bonus with both Kongs: You have now warped to Manic Mincers!

A lot of text, but I hope this explains the history on how this glitch was found and how it works. More technical details can be provided, though it will just confuse most people!

//Tompa