GCN So, I want to softmod my GC, I have a softmodded Wii, and I know nothing of GC homebrew etc.

nashismo

Well-Known Member
OP
Member
Joined
Jun 5, 2013
Messages
520
Trophies
1
Age
43
Location
Home sweet Home (Mi casita)
XP
1,244
Country
Chile
So like the title says,

I have a Gamecube (japanese version) on the mail, it includes a Gameboy Player, mostly because I want to play original GBA games on my CRT screen! I don't need to play GC games on it, as I can use Nintendont on my Wii for that.

So, what I will be having is: a Gamecube and a Gameboy player, and 1 gamecube controller, that's it. I have to buy the power adapter later and I can use my SNES s-video cable for the video. I also have a fully modded Wii with backwards compatibility.

So, what do I need to play my Gameboy Player? That's all I need to know guys. I know that using the Wii I can have access to a Gamecube memory card to upload files to it, what's next?

Do I need a modchip? Can I softmod just like this? Because if I need an original GC game plus whatever else, then it would be better to purchase a modchip as I know how to solder just fine. Please point me in the right direction guys, just a little push.

Thank you all!! ;)
 

Aarmastah

Member
Newcomer
Joined
Mar 9, 2020
Messages
6
Trophies
0
Age
24
Website
aarmastah.xyz
XP
124
Country
United States
So like the title says,

I have a Gamecube (japanese version) on the mail, it includes a Gameboy Player, mostly because I want to play original GBA games on my CRT screen! I don't need to play GC games on it, as I can use Nintendont on my Wii for that.

So, what I will be having is: a Gamecube and a Gameboy player, and 1 gamecube controller, that's it. I have to buy the power adapter later and I can use my SNES s-video cable for the video. I also have a fully modded Wii with backwards compatibility.

So, what do I need to play my Gameboy Player? That's all I need to know guys. I know that using the Wii I can have access to a Gamecube memory card to upload files to it, what's next?

Do I need a modchip? Can I softmod just like this? Because if I need an original GC game plus whatever else, then it would be better to purchase a modchip as I know how to solder just fine. Please point me in the right direction guys, just a little push.

Thank you all!! ;)
If you have a game with a save exploit, you can use your Wii to copy an exploited save file and Swiss to a memory card. Upon loading the game with the save exploit, your GameCube will boot into Swiss, and you can use that to load homebrew. Alternatively, you could install a modchip and burn Swiss to a mini DVD.
 

enarky

owls?
Member
Joined
Jul 31, 2003
Messages
1,238
Trophies
2
XP
2,309
Country
Afghanistan
Your options are a) an exploitable game, b) an Action Replay or c) a mod chip. If you don't have a) or b), your GC isn't a valuable special edition and you're capable of soldering that's pretty much a no-brainer. These chips are ~2.50 EUR on Aliexpress.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Alexander1970

tech3475

Well-Known Member
Member
Joined
Jun 12, 2009
Messages
3,618
Trophies
2
XP
5,980
Country
If you can solder, just get a modchip and be done with it.

I use AR and it can be annoying, although certainly safer.

Although there is another alternative in the form of the ODE, but it costs allot more.
 

nashismo

Well-Known Member
OP
Member
Joined
Jun 5, 2013
Messages
520
Trophies
1
Age
43
Location
Home sweet Home (Mi casita)
XP
1,244
Country
Chile
Your options are a) an exploitable game, b) an Action Replay or c) a mod chip. If you don't have a) or b), your GC isn't a valuable special edition and you're capable of soldering that's pretty much a no-brainer. These chips are ~2.50 EUR on Aliexpress.

Thank you guys! I think I will get the modchip! And one other question, those memory cards with SD cards, do they also work as "normal" memory cards? Believe it or not, is hard to find "original" Nintendo GC memory cards in my country, if not downright imposible.

Then I guess, with the Modchip installed, I could load Swiss and GBA Player through said SD card/mem card thing right?

Cheers and I thank you so much guys! You are awesome!
 
  • Like
Reactions: Alexander1970

Ryccardo

Penguin accelerator
Member
Joined
Feb 13, 2015
Messages
7,675
Trophies
1
Age
28
Location
Imola
XP
6,880
Country
Italy
No, an SD Gecko is a simple mechanical adapter and is not a substitute for a memory card (although you can use homebrew, currently limited to slots A and B, therefore excluding - like most homebrew - the slowly uptaking SD2SP2) to transfer saves between SDs and memory cards

Most 3rd party memory cards work decently on an actual GC, though

As an entrypoint, the most promising product on the market now (haven't tried it) appears to be a new chip which runs a homebrew from SD Gecko or SD2SP2

--------------------- MERGED ---------------------------

with the Modchip installed, I could load Swiss and GBA Player through said SD card/mem card thing right?
Yes! Once you have homebrew running, you can run any other one - the GC is the last Nintendo home console with no security after some software is running
 
Last edited by Ryccardo,

nashismo

Well-Known Member
OP
Member
Joined
Jun 5, 2013
Messages
520
Trophies
1
Age
43
Location
Home sweet Home (Mi casita)
XP
1,244
Country
Chile
No, an SD Gecko is a simple mechanical adapter and is not a substitute for a memory card (although you can use homebrew, currently limited to slots A and B, therefore excluding - like most homebrew - the slowly uptaking SD2SP2) to transfer saves between SDs and memory cards

Most 3rd party memory cards work decently on an actual GC, though

As an entrypoint, the most promising product on the market now (haven't tried it) appears to be a new chip which runs a homebrew from SD Gecko or SD2SP2

--------------------- MERGED ---------------------------


Yes! Once you have homebrew running, you can run any other one - the GC is the last Nintendo home console with no security after some software is running

Thanks, I have seen that SD2SP2, do you think I will be fine with only that and the Modchip, and memory card? Or I need the SD Gecko Mem card no matter what?

Ok, I answer my own question, you DO need the SD gecko card, and the SD2SP2 seems to be less compatible and mostly used for storing GC backups.

Thanks and sorry for all the questions!
 
Last edited by nashismo,
  • Like
Reactions: Alexander1970

Ryccardo

Penguin accelerator
Member
Joined
Feb 13, 2015
Messages
7,675
Trophies
1
Age
28
Location
Imola
XP
6,880
Country
Italy
Thanks, I have seen that SD2SP2, do you think I will be fine with only that and the Modchip, and memory card? Or I need the SD Gecko Mem card no matter what?

Ok, I answer my own question, you DO need the SD gecko card, and the SD2SP2 seems to be less compatible and mostly used for storing GC backups.

Thanks and sorry for all the questions!
Look at this sentence I wrote:
the GC is the last Nintendo home console with no security after some software is running
This also means the GC doesn't have an operating system - every software is responsible for supplying its own drivers; adding support to an SD connected to serial port 2 (an EXI bus connector) is fairly easy if that software already supports an SD in a memory card slot... the big deal is that a lot of GC homebrew is old (and therefore a pain to compile nowadays), closed source, or simply with nobody behind it anymore...

...so yes, I would recommend an SD Gecko (with a full size SD card) unless you'll need to use software with 2 memory cards

If you go for a regular modchip like XenoGC, you'll also need a boot disc - you can probably find complete kits (prerecorded Swiss disc, screwdriver, Xen8GC, SD Gecko...) on ebay; the new chip I mentioned connects to the motherboard and bypasses the optical drive entirely, so does the new ODE
 

nashismo

Well-Known Member
OP
Member
Joined
Jun 5, 2013
Messages
520
Trophies
1
Age
43
Location
Home sweet Home (Mi casita)
XP
1,244
Country
Chile
Look at this sentence I wrote:

This also means the GC doesn't have an operating system - every software is responsible for supplying its own drivers; adding support to an SD connected to serial port 2 (an EXI bus connector) is fairly easy if that software already supports an SD in a memory card slot... the big deal is that a lot of GC homebrew is old (and therefore a pain to compile nowadays), closed source, or simply with nobody behind it anymore...

...so yes, I would recommend an SD Gecko (with a full size SD card) unless you'll need to use software with 2 memory cards

If you go for a regular modchip like XenoGC, you'll also need a boot disc - you can probably find complete kits (prerecorded Swiss disc, screwdriver, Xen8GC, SD Gecko...) on ebay; the new chip I mentioned connects to the motherboard and bypasses the optical drive entirely, so does the new ODE

You like your mistery ah! ;) What is that chip you mention that bypasses the optical drive?

--------------------- MERGED ---------------------------

If all you care about is GBA games then I would just get a SD Media Launcher and be done with it. No soldering, no laser tuning, no disc burning.. just pop a non-HC microSD in with Swiss and GBI on it and boot the included disc.

Sorry but for THAT price and in POUNDS! No thank you, I will happily install the Modchip. I can run games using mini dvd's too I imagine? And I am OK with a standard memory card to load swiss from and GBA games?, or do I need the SD gecko memory cards no matter what?
 
Last edited by nashismo,
  • Like
Reactions: Alexander1970

nashismo

Well-Known Member
OP
Member
Joined
Jun 5, 2013
Messages
520
Trophies
1
Age
43
Location
Home sweet Home (Mi casita)
XP
1,244
Country
Chile
If you install a Xeno you can get away with just a backup of the Game Boy Player disc.

And from the products I have seen only watching Ebay, it seems you can install Swiss on any memory card ( a laughable asshole asking 34 dollars for a Memcard with Swiss on it), not needing the Sd Gecko Cards, something I could easily do using my softmodded Wii. So, modchip and standard memory card for me.

By the way, I have heard both SD Gecko and SD2SP2 have bad compatibility playing GC ISOS? Sorry for asking so much stuff, but I am almost done ;) Could not find a decent tutorial honestly.
 
Last edited by nashismo,

Ryccardo

Penguin accelerator
Member
Joined
Feb 13, 2015
Messages
7,675
Trophies
1
Age
28
Location
Imola
XP
6,880
Country
Italy
What is that chip you mention that bypasses the optical drive?
I don't remember the name :(
Alexander probably knows... I think I saw it on this forum

it seems you can install Swiss on any memory card
Yes but the GC doesn't naturally boot from memory card, that offer is either useless or also includes exploit saves for major games, which you'll need one of to run homebrew without a boot disc or IPL chip (the Xen8GC, which runs non-original discs, is a drive chip; the one you asked about and the discontinued Viper, Qoob are IPL chips, which substitute the firmware with another)

both SD Gecko and SD2SP2 have bad compatibility playing GC ISOS?
The compatibility of backups running from those two things are the same, exactly because they're just a mechanical adapter to connect SD to EXI, and compatibility all comes from Swiss (which isn't perfect but is certainly still improving, in fact A LOT has changed in the last year)

Certainly it's still inferior to running backups from ODE or real optical disc; however, (IPL chip + SD Gecko/SD2SP2 + SD) or (Drive chip + Swiss miniDVD-R + SD Gecko/SD2SP2 + SD) are half the price or less :)
 

nashismo

Well-Known Member
OP
Member
Joined
Jun 5, 2013
Messages
520
Trophies
1
Age
43
Location
Home sweet Home (Mi casita)
XP
1,244
Country
Chile
I don't remember the name :(
Alexander probably knows... I think I saw it on this forum


Yes but the GC doesn't naturally boot from memory card, that offer is either useless or also includes exploit saves for major games, which you'll need one of to run homebrew without a boot disc or IPL chip (the Xen8GC, which runs non-original discs, is a drive chip; the one you asked about and the discontinued Viper, Qoob are IPL chips, which substitute the firmware with another)


The compatibility of backups running from those two things are the same, exactly because they're just a mechanical adapter to connect SD to EXI, and compatibility all comes from Swiss (which isn't perfect but is certainly still improving, in fact A LOT has changed in the last year)

Certainly it's still inferior to running backups from ODE or real optical disc; however, (IPL chip + SD Gecko/SD2SP2 + SD) or (Drive chip + Swiss miniDVD-R + SD Gecko/SD2SP2 + SD) are half the price or less :)

So then from what I understand is that Xen8GC is only an optical drive bypass/mod for backups, and you still have to run action replay or something like that (in this case burned) to activate homebrew like Swiss or the modified GBA Player, and that you need something like SD Gecko/clones to load these homebrew from. All of this because the standard Memory cards can only load exploit from retail games like Twilight princess and that's it, they cannot do much more.

And an IPL modchip would save you from loading an action replay disc or exploit game, so you could boot straight into the homebrew like Swiss.

If I am mistaken, please tell me so, because I seem to be connecting all threads here :) Cheers and thank you very much Ricardo.
 

Ryccardo

Penguin accelerator
Member
Joined
Feb 13, 2015
Messages
7,675
Trophies
1
Age
28
Location
Imola
XP
6,880
Country
Italy
Xen8GC is only an optical drive bypass/mod for backups, and you still have to run action replay or something like that
Correct! Of course, the smartest disc to burn if you want to run stuff from SD is the iso version of Swiss :)



And an IPL modchip would save you from loading an action replay disc or exploit game, so you could boot straight into the homebrew like Swiss.
Yep!
 

nashismo

Well-Known Member
OP
Member
Joined
Jun 5, 2013
Messages
520
Trophies
1
Age
43
Location
Home sweet Home (Mi casita)
XP
1,244
Country
Chile
Correct! Of course, the smartest disc to burn if you want to run stuff from SD is the iso version of Swiss :)




Yep!

Ok, thank you very much Ricardo, gracie mile friend, now the problem I am facing is that those dumbasses at aliexpress all sell these things, but only separately! (very good prices). Chinese are so very good at producing and copying products, but they are such lousy business men!

And of course, the problem with that is that I can get one thing 2 weeks from now, another 2 months from now, and so on.

Cheers! :)
 
Last edited by nashismo,

nashismo

Well-Known Member
OP
Member
Joined
Jun 5, 2013
Messages
520
Trophies
1
Age
43
Location
Home sweet Home (Mi casita)
XP
1,244
Country
Chile
OK, I will update this post, in case anyone is interested in the info, or is in the same boat I am.

Finally got all the tools I needed to do all the modding process:

Xeno Chip: I soldered directly to the board, as it is suppossed to, DID NOT WORK. So, I then removed it (dangerous because you can erase traces on the MB) and simply soldered using wires to each point in the motherboard. Works perfectly, burned a full sized DVD of Zelda, worked great without the need of moving the pot.

Bought "one" of those Mini DVD at like 5 dollars, (those with the banana logo): Burned a copy of Swiss to it, it did NOT work, these Mini DVD's are CRAP. Burned Swiss to full size Verbatim DVD, worked right away (but my gamecube is opened... not ideal).

SD2SP: Formatted to FAT32, worked first time, no problem loading anything from it (some SD cards where uncompatible though, Toshiba SD did not work with it, Sandisk SD's seem the most compatible).

Japanese Gamecube: I "bridged" R6 2 points underneath the heatspreader, turned into USA Gamecube, done.

Memory Card 128MB: I bought one of these white 128mb cards in aliexpress, after continuous reading, these are actually 64mb cards, but nonetheless, for 6 dollars, they work great, are cheap, and are plenty of storage for a lifetime of games.

Gamecube PSU: Bought a chinese PSU from ali, worked, but created this ridiculous amount of image noise on the TV! I opened a dispute for my money back, made video, won it. I kept the cable that goes from Gamecube to the PSU and then took that and soldered inside my Wii original PSU, with the positive and negative backwards. Works PERFECTLY, no noise in the image (making sure not having the Wii and GC connected at same time).

IPL Modchip: I did not find any chip that does this, BUT I did find something similar that does the SAME damn thing (boot to swiss or other homebrew without the need of Xeno or any other mods), it is called HYPERBOOT. It costs 25 dollars and it seems that it also works as a drive to storage games on, but don't quote me on that.

In summary... I should've bought the Hyperboot!! But I did NOT KNOW about all these things. Hope someone learns from my experience.

Now to the never ending mission to find a good quality Mini DVD in my city near the antartic, would I be lucky? Cheers to all.
 
Last edited by nashismo,

duwen

Old Man Toad
Member
Joined
Sep 6, 2013
Messages
3,176
Trophies
2
Location
Bullet Hell
Website
www.exophase.com
XP
4,257
Country
United Kingdom
Hey, thanks for the update!
I was following this thread because I ordered some similar bits for my GC from Aliexpress more than a month ago (still waiting for them to arrive). I ordered an SD2SP2 and a Xeno chip along with a "Bitfunx" GC2HDMI (all from the same seller for convenience)... I'm in a slightly different position to you though as I've been using homebrew on my GC for quite a while thanks to the SD Media Launcher (which I picked up a long while back when they weren't so desirable - clearance priced, so probably only 20% of what they go for now). So, I've already got a fully loaded SD card working and ready to go with the SD2SP2, along with a multiboot disk which contains Swiss, GB Player, GBI, some Action Replay images and a few other handy tools.

I bought a pack of mini-dvdr's a long while ago which seemed to be ok - I believe they're Maxell branded, but I could be wrong.
 
  • Like
Reactions: nashismo

DjoeN

Captain Haddock!
Member
Joined
Oct 21, 2005
Messages
5,489
Trophies
0
Age
54
Location
Somewhere in this potatoland!
Website
djoen.dommel.be
XP
2,857
Country
Belgium
One thing you need for sure :)

The Disc that belongs to the GBA player.
If your GC is modded, you can burn a copy
OR you can use Game Boy Interface (GBi) the alternative GBA player (better one), I think it's included in the Swiss disc image


Below is my Qoob Pro modded GC (Custom case to fit normal dvd's) with a Swiss disc that came with my SD2SPD2 adapter
(Got another modded gamecube somewhere around :unsure: )
IMG-20200528-123320474.jpg
 
Last edited by DjoeN,

Site & Scene News

Popular threads in this forum

General chit-chat
Help Users
  • BigOnYa @ BigOnYa:
    He said he had 3 different doctors apt this week, so he prob there. Something about gerbal extraction, I don't know.
    +1
  • ZeroT21 @ ZeroT21:
    bored, guess i'll spread more democracy
  • LeoTCK @ LeoTCK:
    @K3Nv2 one more time you say such bs to @BakerMan and I'll smack you across the whole planet
  • K3Nv2 @ K3Nv2:
    Make sure you smack my booty daddy
    +1
  • LeoTCK @ LeoTCK:
    telling him that my partner is luke...does he look like someone with such big ne
    eds?
  • LeoTCK @ LeoTCK:
    do you really think I could stand living with someone like luke?
  • LeoTCK @ LeoTCK:
    I suppose luke has "special needs" but he's not my partner, did you just say that to piss me off again?
  • LeoTCK @ LeoTCK:
    besides I had bigger worries today
  • LeoTCK @ LeoTCK:
    but what do you know about that, you won't believe me anyways
  • K3Nv2 @ K3Nv2:
    @BigOnYa can answer that
  • BigOnYa @ BigOnYa:
    BigOnYa already left the chat
  • K3Nv2 @ K3Nv2:
    Biginya
  • BigOnYa @ BigOnYa:
    Auto correct got me, I'm on my tablet, i need to turn that shit off
  • K3Nv2 @ K3Nv2:
    With other tabs open you perv
  • BigOnYa @ BigOnYa:
    I'm actually in my shed, bout to cut 2-3 acres of grass, my back yard.
  • K3Nv2 @ K3Nv2:
    I use to have a guy for that thanks richard
  • BigOnYa @ BigOnYa:
    I use my tablet to stream to a bluetooth speaker when in shed. iHeartRadio, FlyNation
  • K3Nv2 @ K3Nv2:
    While the victims are being buried
  • K3Nv2 @ K3Nv2:
    Grave shovel
  • BigOnYa @ BigOnYa:
    Nuh those goto the edge of the property (maybe just on the other side of)
  • K3Nv2 @ K3Nv2:
    On the neighbors side
    +1
  • BigOnYa @ BigOnYa:
    Yup, by the weird smelly green bushy looking plants.
  • Xdqwerty @ Xdqwerty:
    Water park was quite fun
    Xdqwerty @ Xdqwerty: Water park was quite fun