A recent post by scene dev ChrisPVille, who has been delving into GameCube hardware for a long time, says they are currently working with TeamOffBroadway and trevorrudolph on what is said to be a $5 solderless ODE for the Nintendo GameCube. They claim that the modchip will feature loading games from either an SD card or local WiFi connection, a built-in configuration menu, and faster loading times than the majority of storage adapters such as the SD2SP2 and SD Gecko. A teaser video was uploaded, followed by a few photos of the device in action. Its supposed release date is at the end of 2023



QUICK UPDATE: Macho Nacho has recently posted a video review on the FlippyDrive emulator. It is now in the final production phase, where review units have been shipped off to many creators to try it before its release date. In other news, they are working on an ethernet add-on for the FlippyDrive.

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GitHub page

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[Foxi4]

Yeah I already bought the GCLoader a couple years ago and love it and even if it was $ at least it wasn't $$$. Have you seen how much Saturn ODE's cost?!?! These guys need to tackle that console.

ODDE’s and flashcarts for retro consoles are generally quite expensive because a lot of times it’s easier to just use an FPGA for a very limited run item like this and charge accordingly. Even if it’s a CPLD you’re still making a custom board for the thing. Anything more dedicated is off the table, nobody uses custom ASIC’s spun in a Chinesium factory unless it’s something mass produced, like an R4 - the market just doesn’t justify the cost. If the board is off-the-shelf and all you’re selling is an adapter and some software, you can cut that price tag down to the absolute minimum. In all fairness, a Fenrir will set you back around a hundred buckazoids and you don’t *really* need one since the Saturn has security measures easily defeated by a piece of tape. That’s really not that far off the cost of a GCLoader for a significantly more niche product that less people are likely to buy. I get the pricing, but if we can throw a Pi at the problem then I’m all for it.

 

[Darkspade]

Would be something if it had a USB instead of SD.. Picoboot is just as easy

 

[Ryccardo]

How different the wii and gc dvd drivers are from a technical standpoint? The wii ones can read gamecube mini DVDs (or whatever it was called), so a fully functional opensource ODE may help the community to develop a wii ODE?

(not that we need a wii ODE, but it would still be awesome)

Yes, in fact (we have imperfect but pretty good and available Wii ODEs, they're called CIOS, and) you can use a Wii drive on a GC, it's just a matter of adapting connectors, exactly because the Wii is a major but incremental upgrade on the GC including on that point!

...and that's what some people actually did when the WODE was "cheap" surplus and the GC scene about as active as the DSi scene in 2015

 

[tech3475]

In all fairness, a Fenrir will set you back around a hundred buckazoids and you don’t *really* need one since the Saturn has security measures easily defeated by a piece of tape.

I'd still go for an ODE for Saturn since the lasers will eventually die. At some point I'd like to switch all of my retro consoles to a driveless method for this reason alone, main reason I haven't is either due to cost (MCD), lack of skill/compatibility (PS1) or a mixture (GC).

 

[The Real Jdbye]

How different the wii and gc dvd drivers are from a technical standpoint? The wii ones can read gamecube mini DVDs (or whatever it was called), so a fully functional opensource ODE may help the community to develop a wii ODE?

(not that we need a wii ODE, but it would still be awesome)

Similar enough that Wii ODEs work on GameCube. Literally the one thing they changed was the password used to unlock the DVD read commands. People were using WiiKey Fusion and Wode ODEs on GC before the GC had its own ODE.

 

[Chambers09]

it justifies this contribution of forces and resources

 

[Alagara]

Well this looks like fun! I wonder why we don't see stuff like this for the WiiU though. Would be nice since the 'cube games run on it.

 

[Israelssiivaq1999]

Great news, i Love this kind of mods, The Way it "preserves" The original hardware

 

[SylverReZ]

EDIT: supposed release date is the end of 2023.

 

[impeeza]

GameCube rocks!!

 

[AkikoKumagara]

Trying to keep my eyes on this project so I don't miss preorders if/when they become available...
Hard to do since I've stopped using Twitter but hopefully I don't miss out.

 

[SylverReZ]

Trying to keep my eyes on this project so I don't miss preorders if/when they become available...
Hard to do since I've stopped using Twitter but hopefully I don't miss out.

Don't worry, you won't miss out on anything.
I'll try to keep this thread updated with any news that come out.

 

[SylverReZ]

Quick update: A review unit has been sent to Macho Nacho Productions.

 

[SodaSoba]

Now that is a very unique method, I hope they bring over more Swiss features, patching would be great.

Price is perfect compared to other ode solutions

 

[AkikoKumagara]

I am very excited for this. They've done so many cool things both on hardware and software side.

 

[Deleted member 194275]

Now that is a very unique method, I hope they bring over more Swiss features, patching would be great.

Price is perfect compared to other ode solutions

as far as I know, the thing is swiss compatible out of the box, so makes sense use swiss and not the stock OS, this is especially true for those on LED panels that rely one way or another on things that use GC Video.

 

[SodaSoba]

as far as I know, the thing is swiss compatible out of the box, so makes sense use swiss and not the stock OS, this is especially true for those on LED panels that rely one way or another on things that use GC Video.

The software/loader is a runtime patching framework like swiss is judging from what I've read up on X.

the ODE and the way it functions feels a lot more OG than how Swiss feels that has an appeal to me, but seeing there is a button on power on to load GC firmware over the ode I guess there will be a way to load various ipls like picoboot.

Chrispville was working on a IPL boot/mod chip before the picoboot dropped if my memory serves me correctly, so I assume (possibly incorrectly) that project mutated into this.

 

[linuxares]

I mean this seem to be one of the best methods for running homebrew and backups. Since it's cheap and plug n play. Hopefully they make an FTP plugin or Samba so you can access the sd card to upload more to it. Or I guess booting Swiss works to do that?

 

[SodaSoba]

I mean this seem to be one of the best methods for running homebrew and backups. Since it's cheap and plug n play. Hopefully they make an FTP plugin or Samba so you can access the sd card to upload more to it. Or I guess booting Swiss works to do that?

They have a discord which I guess they're taking suggestions.
In the nacho video he mentioned a front end/web selfhost? that works with the onboard esp

 

[linuxares]

They have a discord which I guess they're taking suggestions.
In the nacho video he mentioned a front end/web selfhost? that works with the onboard esp

I mean it have a esp32 so wifi. Would be surprised if it won't have some kind of server function later.