Hacking What are the possible mods you can do to a GameCube?

[VictorMoreno015]

I've been incredibly interested in getting a GameCube and doing all kinds of mods to it, I just feel like theres more to do with it than what I see at the moment.

All I know what I can do with it as installing a Xeno modchip, GC Loader Disc drive replacement, SD2SP2, a region switch, and modifying the Digital Port to be replaced with a HDMI port. I know other various cosmetic and performance mods I can do like custom LEDs or installing a stronger and more quieter PC fan instead of the factory one.

Is there more I can do with that or that is the extent to what I can do to a modded GameCube?

 

[pedro702]

the best mods is to use a wiiu and nintendont or just a wii with gc ports sadly the gc has very little going for it imo, the wii and wiiu run gc games better than the gc.

 

[FAST6191]

As far as commonly seen/done things then other than heading down the portable console route (for which most would point you very much at the Wii for, should be able to still have it do GC) then those are pretty much it. Not sure what goes for the likes of https://wiibrew.org/wiki/USB_Gecko these days.
If you are bolting things on then you will also want to source a network adapter, and there are a few nice games that support network comms there (probably some homebrew too) with most probably starting with 8 player Mario Kart Double Dash.
The GB player is also of some interest in this, especially with the alternative boot loaders that can do fun things for speedrunners and whatnot. https://www.retrorgb.com/gameboyinterface.html for a start on what goes there.

Its audio was generally OK and not being a headphone sporting device we tended not to see the sorts of things seen either on old consoles or things complying with French law (later European stuff, today mostly worldwide as nobody is going to complain about not having deaf kids) where people replace DACs with better ones, remove restrictions or add amps. It is a potential option though, don't know if you could do something like make a surround sound setup in the console and have it come out in the bunch of ports normally seen coming out of an amp to go to the 5.1 setup (presumably externally powered speakers but you might get fancy). More simply a headphone port might be something some want.

Control mods would also be a thing. You have your basic remaps, macros and turbo press controls. Smash Brothers competitive also has endless debates here on things that can be done to either cut away bits of a controller (easier to be sure you are exactly diagonal if resting in a small notch there) or replicate what is technically a bug (some call it a factory bonus) that allows for certain frame accurate techniques and why some controllers found to be within that regime (especialyl legitimately) are the silly money.

 

[VictorMoreno015]

Yeah I would assume there's definitely a good chunk of mods purely just for the controller so I'll definitely look into it, I've actually stumbled a few trying to research what kind of mods I can do for the GameCube in the first place. As for the USB Gecko I think I'll stick with the SD Gecko due to it being far more scarce than the SD variant.

Does GBI remove any restrictions that certain games have like GBA Video and still has the support some games do like SMB3 with its rumble? Also probably safe to assume that the EZ Flash works perfectly on it regardless.

 

[FAST6191]

Should have linked the GBA videos on GB player thing last time (saw it when searching for one of the links even)
https://www.caitsith2.com/gba_video_arv3.htm

By and large no GBA flash cart ever did not work with the GB player saving that it did not fit for some reason (there are some things that curl around a given model of GBA and not the others).
For GBI then I don't know what will happen with the supercard stuff; they used slow memory which means all the slowdowns and necessary speedpatches you get with that where everybody else was more "find the save type, replace with our flavour of SRAM" (a procedure able to be done in seconds) plus whatever anti piracy/weird hardware is present ( https://gbatemp.net/threads/buying-a-gba-flash-cart-in-2013.341203/page-18#post-4756995 ). Said slowdowns might be at odds with some of the more frame level stuff of GBI.
Similarly I imagine it does the hardware detection such that compatible games do what they want.

 

[Plazorn]

The only good thing you could do with one is by replacing the optical drive with a drive emulator that has an SD Card slot, then the GameCube would believe that isos you put on the SD card were actual discs. Otherwise pull out your old Wii and use that, as it plays GameCube games better.

 

[Extrems]

Should have linked the GBA videos on GB player thing last time (saw it when searching for one of the links even)
https://www.caitsith2.com/gba_video_arv3.htm

This is completely unnecessary.
https://www.gc-forever.com/wiki/ind..._Edition#Can_I_play_Game_Boy_Advance_Video.3F

 

[notimp]

I agree, the best mod you could do is to buy a Wii (non mini, non Wiiu), and an OSSC - and call it a day.

Price of Both 160 USD inkl. shipping. Thats including two controllers, two wii motion plus, your choice of color, ... maybe add 30 USD on top for a shielded component cable, and 20 for a SD card. (And then 50 for a USB drive if you also would want to play Wii games from SD media (also buy a y cable.) ).
See: https://gbatemp.net/threads/why-is-a-flash-drive-in-a-wii-softmod-not-good.594272/#post-9581439

Two positives - every emulator for the wii can output 240p, which the OSSC can scale 5x. (Thats the reason to go with a Wii instead of a WiiU - which has an HDMI out and wouldnt require the OSSC.)
See: https://gbatemp.net/threads/tut-quick-240p-emulation-guide.589987/

Wii (or WiiU) can force most GC games to be played in 480p. (The main weakness of the OSSC is deinterlacing quality. So if you can feed it p (progressive) signals, you do.) Same for most Wii games.

That covers everything up to - but not including PS1 and DC for emulation. (Also not PS2, and not OG XBOX and later generations of course.). GCN and Wii through Nintendos native downwards compatibility.

With only two emulators on the wii installed.
Retroarch (for the exact version look into the 240p thread linked) and mGBA (official wii version). (Because the standalone version of mgba is faster than the core included in Retroarch and therefore doesnt stutter in demanding GBA games like Final Fantasy VI).
Three - if you are a fan of old adventures, because the Wii version of Scummvm can run all Scummvm games up to Bladerunner, and the Wii Motion plus input scheme actually is great on Scummvm standalone.

Also - there is PS1 emulation on the Wii - but its hit or miss. (Use different solutions for that).

Thats your entry into everything, if you are ok with emulation of older systems. Which by now is pretty darn good.

OSSC will scale 240p up to a very good quality 1080p signal (linedoubling), will allow you to play with scanline options (on the OSSC) which are quite good, and a few color adjustment settings - touched on in this thread:
https://gbatemp.net/threads/gbs-con...did-recently-and-think-it-is-worth-it.600330/

If you buy a XCM multi-console component cable, its also your entry point towards PS2, Xbox, and so on in the future, at no extra cost.
-

Is the image as "pristine" and sharp as with a digital signal out? No - but its pretty darn close -

(you are looking at the OSSC example)

and the option to add (low intensity scanlines), and some blur (See 240p thread, GBS control thread, and this thread: https://gbatemp.net/threads/tut-cheating-yourself-to-16-9-glory.590082/) imho is better, than having the cripest of signals - on pixel art games.

All newer systems are at 480p component signal quality, with a very good analog to digital converter (OSSC).

Only downside is, that the OSSC doesnt handle 480i that well (blurring and combing artifacts with bob deinterlacing, I usually use passthrough mode on the OSSC for 480i signals, and let my TVs scaler (decent enough) handle it.), and that you can fix for 45USD - see GBS control thread.
--

So far you still only have 160USD spent. And a great image on your TV. (Look into the 240p and "cheating yourself to 16:9 glory on PS2" threads linked, example images are in there.).

And in terms of learning curve - well, you start by reading all the threads linked in here - and for Wii hacking, the only tool you need is ModMii:
https://gbatemp.net/threads/modmii-for-windows-official-support-topic.207126/


If you dont care about old game emulation on a Wii (you should, 240p 5x upscaled by the OSSC is the reason (with 'gradually adjustable' blur and scanlines)), go with a WiiU. Then you dont need the OSSC.

 

[Hanafuda]

The GC Loader is region free, so a region switch is not necessary with it. The only other hurdle to playing Japanese games is memory card corruption, but AFAIK this can be completely overcome by also installing an SD2SP2 and using SWISS' virtual memory card feature. Put Swiss as boot.dol on your GC Loader, put your GC iso's on the GC loader, put Swiss as IGR.dol on the SD2SP2, put all your GBI dol files on the SD2SP2*. Enable virtual memory card and set "Configuration Device" in SWISS settings to SD2SP2. Boom. Oh and either install a GC Dual, or get a Carby or Retro-Bit Prism for HDMI out.

I have an SD2SP2 in my GC and I just got the GC loader PNP, haven't installed it yet. But I've been putting in time watching "Half-Circle Forward" vids on YT to figure all this out and I think the above is correct. (Please feel free to correct me if wrong.)


*you can run GBI dols from GC loader, but if you run them from the SD2SP2 you can set and save GBI tweaks.

Edit: besides not having to deal with Nintendont, the main benefit to using a Gamecube and not a Wii is the Gameboy Player. If you're not into Gameboy and don't have a Gameboy Player, then the above posts about just using a Wii are good advice.

Oh and see this thread for a minor, easily corrected issue I had with the SD2SP2:

https://gbatemp.net/threads/gc-xeno-sd2sp2-swiss-stopped-booting.592943

 

[notimp]

Edit: besides not having to deal with Nintendont, the main benefit to using a Gamecube and not a Wii is the Gameboy Player. If you're not into Gameboy and don't have a Gameboy Player, then the above posts about just using a Wii are good advice.

*cough cough*

And if you are not into counting frames on GBA games (no lag on the Gameboy Player, with certain homebrew solutions I believe), mGBA does very well on the Wii as well.

(see: https://gbatemp.net/threads/tut-quick-240p-emulation-guide.589987/post-9577635 for how the end result looks like (full screen is an issue, as the Wii is 480p native and would stretch for 16:9, which is what you dont want - but that tinsy section of screen is ideal to read dialog, it also is what the gameboy player would default to)

As in dare I say almost perfect emulation.

Also playing with the image resulting from an OSSC is part of the fun as well. Now we are getting into a 'tastes' discussion, but I'll chose the Wii emulating systems outputting 240p, 5x scaled by an OSSC over a native 4K output of a silent home theatre gaming PC next to it any day. scanlines and color settings, and custom screenwidth, playing with the blurriness of the signal... I'll chose that over a plain perfectly scaled 4x signal any day.

(The analog to digital converters also have those options for a reason... (even the boilerplate blur on/off option, they add something to the experience. They arent distractors.)

Downside with the OSSC is, that if 480p isnt supported via Nintendont ( https://wiki.gbatemp.net/wiki/Nintendont_Compatibility_List ) its Bob deinterlacer is bad enough, that I chose to use passthrough and let my TV handle the deinterlacing in my case. Which adds lag.)

And if you arent into upscaling and messing with the signal (linedoubling 240p signals), pick a WiiU, and you have a native HDMI out.

If its complexity you are afraid off, read this, and you are off to the races:
https://gbatemp.net/threads/tut-quick-240p-emulation-guide.589987/post-9613623

 

[pedro702]

Edit: besides not having to deal with Nintendont, the main benefit to using a Gamecube and not a Wii is the Gameboy Player. If you're not into Gameboy and don't have a Gameboy Player, then the above posts about just using a Wii are good advice.

Oh and see this thread for a minor, easily corrected issue I had with the SD2SP2:

https://gbatemp.net/threads/gc-xeno-sd2sp2-swiss-stopped-booting.592943

what? wii can run gc games without nintendont just fine lol, just get a wii with gc ports and put the disc in...
sure nintendont gives you alot of options from controllers to emulated memory cards and such but no need for it if you only want to run legic gc disc.

Also on the wii you can just run any gb/gba game with some emulators with more options and better looking image than the actual gameboy player lol, while gc is my favorite console from nintendo i just stored mine on the garage some years ago and just use a wii or wiiu.

 

[Hanafuda]

what? wii can run gc games without nintendont just fine lol, just get a wii with gc ports and put the disc in...
sure nintendont gives you alot of options from controllers to emulated memory cards and such but no need for it if you only want to run legic gc disc.

Also on the wii you can just run any gb/gba game with some emulators with more options and better looking image than the actual gameboy player lol, while gc is my favorite console from nintendo i just stored mine on the garage some years ago and just use a wii or wiiu.

The OP's question was about what all can be done to mod a gamecube, so stock capabilities of the Wii (or Gamecube) aren't really the topic. Yes, a stock Wii can run Gamecube discs. And a modded Wii can run Gamecube games natively with Nintendont. And a Wii is comparatively quite easy to get a good (component) video signal out. I have a Wii with component cables and a nice little Western-Digital Passport hard drive velcro'd on top of it - I know. But it's not a Gamecube, which is what the OP asked about.

As for GBA emulation on Wii vs. the Gameboy Player, with the GBI software I am quite happy with the video output of the Gameboy Player. Much better than the original Gameboy Player disc. And it's native gameplay, not emulation. That's a personal preference issue, but I really only use emulation when I need to. I can play Gamecube with Dolphin on my PC at 1080p and it looks glorious. I have an OEM Gamecube USB controller adapter (the one made for WiiU and Switch) so I can even do that with one of my Wavebirds. But I'd rather do it with an actual Gamecube. For me, emulation is always just a backup plan.

 

[TheLead]

the best mods is to use a wiiu and nintendont or just a wii with gc ports sadly the gc has very little going for it imo, the wii and wiiu run gc games better than the gc.

This is false you can see any side by side and GC runs GC better out of the digital port.

 

[pedro702]

This is false you can see any side by side and GC runs GC better out of the digital port.

that is not what i meant... gc games have higher fps on wii or wiiu with nintendont.

 

[TheLead]

that is not what i meant... gc games have higher fps on wii or wiiu with nintendont.

That’s not really true. Many games have frame rate tied to physics, you can’t just uncap the frame rate and have the game run properly. Their are some games (albeit very few) that support 60fps but for whatever reason released with 30 but the thing is most 1st party and even a lot of 3rd party games already support 60 fps to begin with on the native hardware. And you aren’t getting higher than 60fps on the Wii. So really the point is moot.

 

[pedro702]

That’s not really true. Many games have frame rate tied to physics, you can’t just uncap the frame rate and have the game run properly. Their are some games (albeit very few) that support 60fps but for whatever reason released with 30 but the thing is most 1st party and even a lot of 3rd party games already support 60 fps to begin with on the native hardware. And you aren’t getting higher than 60fps on the Wii. So really the point is moot.

i never said we uncapped the framerate... that is how games are coded nintendont just offer more processing power and memory so they can run like they were meant to be played, lots and lots of gc games have framedrops this is not an uncapped framerate thing...

 

[TheLead]

i never said we uncapped the framerate... that is how games are coded nintendont just offer more processing power and memory so they can run like they were meant to be played, lots and lots of gc games have framedrops this is not an uncapped framerate thing...

Ahhhhh I gotcha, my bad.


Difference would be that gamecube has a digital out so the signal is much cleaner.(unless you get a Wii hdmi mod but even with this the gamecube looks slightly better) Overall it looks much better but in turn has less stable frame rates. Tbh I haven’t really had many issues with frame rates in almost any of my gc games but mileage will vary. I’m using a rt4k with mine and running out the digital port with a retro bit prism. Upscalers are the way to go!