is there a way to save your game progress? The1- 3 options(DK COUNTRY) are always blank, but I'd like to use them.

AFAIR you have to make a directory for saves, for some reason SNES9x doesn't create it automagically when a dir doesn't exist. Snoppium will tell you a proper name.

snoopium gave me this but not sure which I was lookin gor or what to do

[1] [snes9x] [Open] [input.ini] [Read] [Fail]
[2] [snes9x] [Open] [nikki:snes/donkeykongcountry.ips] [Read] [Fail]
[3] [snes9x] [Open] [PROGDIR:snaps/donkeykongcountry.ips] [Read] [Fail]
[4] [snes9x] [Open] [PROGDIR:snaps/donkeykongcountry.cht] [Read] [Fail]
[5] [snes9x] [Open] [PROGDIR:snaps/donkeykongcountry.srm] [Read] [Fail]
[6] [snes9x] [Open] [ENV:Sys/ahi.prefs] [Read] [Fail]
[7] [i2s.audio Config Process] [Open] [i2s.audio] [Read] [Fail]
[8] [snes9x] [Open] [PROGDIR:snaps/donkeykongcountry.srm] [Write] [Fail]
[9] [Shell Process] [Open] [shellppc.prefs] [Read] [Fail]

Create yourself a "snaps" directory in snes9x directory. Then the cartridge memory will be saved for games supporting it.

But there's even better: you can load/save the exact state of a game. 10 slots available with F1 to F10:
You save with Shift+F1-F10, and you load with F1-F10

You can also bring a requester to load/save any given state file with F11/F12.

Thanks Fab I'll I stumbled into the Fkeys, but now I know about Shift. and how to use it.