Well, the Speedrun.com rules say "Do not post pirated commercially owned games or ROMs or links to those games or ROMs anywhere on the site." So I don't think anyone could really help you with that.

Not a mod myself, but I highly doubt the mods would go through the trouble of verifying a patch for such a niche problem. Also, why can't you just insert your cartridge into your 3DS and play the game as intended?

Mupen64PlusNext is a fork of Mupen64Plus. It isn't exactly the same, so it's probably not allowed.

Okay, so I'm completely new to speedrunning this game, haven't done a single run yet, but I would really like to get into speedrunning some kind of PC version. I've read multiple posts that tell you NOT to use steam version (which conveniently is the only one I have) because of slower loads and a slower framerate. If I understand correctly, the load thing isn't a big problem thanks to the timing system, but since experienced runners are still telling everyone not to use the steam version, I'll probably just have to accept that it's going to be significantly slower. But that makes me wonder: Why doesn't it have its own category if it's so clearly disadvantaged? I think this would make it way easier for newcomers like me since the steam version can be easily bought for a good price. If you want to (legally) obtain the disc version, you're at the mercy of the used market. And for me, I really don't want to pay money for a game I already own.