Tonight I had the idea that one might be able to swap the regular dkong.zip for a Pauline dkong.zip and .inp files would be cross-compatible, since Pauline seems (to my knowledge) to just be a sprite-switch and there would be nothing to cause an .inp to lose sync with the RNG.
I tested by recording an INP in Pauline Edition and playing it back in standard edition. I ran through the first board, stopped the recording, then played it back. Success! All was copacetic.
Then I loaded up Dean's 1.16 WR. It was cool to watch a Dean-style L1 done in a dress!
I am sad to report, however, that the .inp lost integrity at the first monkey drop. Dean "died" soon after the beginning of 2-1. I tested another .inp and it happened on 2-1 again.
So, for whatever reason, something that Clay did to the level-end animation tweaks what's in memory and causes a branch in the RNG.
Oh well, woulda been fun!
The moral, just in case anybody was considering it: don't use a Pauline-ified dkong.zip to record your games. The .inps break after L1. Unless it's a 1-1 run! It seems that it will work fine for those...