Help choosing mod path

[Hybird]

Hi all, I'm quite new to the whole modding scene but would like to take a crack at it. I'm having a hard time deciding what I should do and which chip to buy. My end goal is to have a gamecube that can run backup GC games, and also has the ability to run emulators for others systems. Back in the day, my cousin had an x-box with the viper chip (I think?) and a disc that he could use to play a bunch of roms for systems like sega, nes, snes, neo-geo, atari, all the good old ones. I essentially want to duplicate this on gamecube. Problem is I can't figure out what is the most up to date and best method to mod my system.

I read that the viper chip was a good one and it seemed you needed a cobra bios to use it, but then the more I read the more it seemed like this chip was out dated. Even worse, almost impossible to find online.

Then I read you could do a softmod with a SD memory card, adapter, and some cheat code disk. But I was not sure that this method would give me the ability to run emulators.

The most recent chip I have found is the Xeno v2.0 and v1.0. Then I get to this forum, and I am beginning to doubt this is the best way to do things.

What is the way people are going these days? Any guidance would be great, I've been scouring the internet for hours trying to find out what I need to get emulators working, and where I should devote most of my learning. I am an engineer and have spent quite a bit of time with microprocessor programing, soldering, and the likes, so the amount of difficulty in each method will not deter me. If you can convince me of a method that gives me the most mod-ability I would be quite happy.

Thanks in advance!

[corenting]

I use a softmod with Datel's SD Media Launcher, Swiss and emulators so yes you can use emulators with softmod. The only problem is that Datel's SD Media Launcher is not compatible with SDHC cards. So I have a small SD for loading Swiss from Datel's SD Media Launcher disc then I swap for my SDHC card where I have emulators, gamecube games...

[emu_kidid]

If you're going to be developing code or want to run homebrew quickly from bootup, I would get a Qoob IPL replacement modchip.

There are many methods outlined on the Wiki that you can use, once you can read DVD-R or run unsigned code you can do anything.
http://www.gc-forever.com/wiki/index.ph ... g_Homebrew

Running unsigned code allows you to read DVD-R and reading DVD-R allows unsigned code.
I would recommend a SDGecko at all costs as it's the most supported loading and saving device for all homebrew.

[megalomaniac]

You could also buy (or make) a Xeno to get up and going real quick.
Play around with it a little, run your backups and emulators...
Then start building your own code once you get more familiar with GC

[Hybird]

Thanks for the input. I guess I will go with a mod chip. I'm going to grab the Qoob pro from the online shop (figure I should start supporting this forum as it seems pretty helpful). So from what I read there are two particularly popular operating systems: GCOS and Swiss. Swiss seems to be favored, so I guess I'll go with that one. I know there is a project site for swiss, but is there a project site for the Qoob chip firmware like there is for the Xeno? I wouldn't mind getting familiar with the code and trying to help out if I could.

EDIT: Actually I think I found the source code on GIT hub from here: http://gitorious.org/gqoob#more

[theclaw]

Also keep in mind mod chips will not enable Japanese system language. For that you still need to use the region switch mod on US consoles (I don't believe it's possible for PAL).

A number of JPN games have glitches if run under English setting. Corrupt text, memory card trouble, etc.
Even some US games show very interesting differences. Star Fox Adventures curiously switches into full Japanese text when played in Japan mode. Normally can't be accessed due to region lock.

[ALTHiR]

i've been doing a while with "fake" Xeno. I bought it for 4$ from China. Works great

[Hybird]

Ok, so I got my Qoob pro in the mail today (Thanks emu_kidid!). I used the qoob-flash-13.exe tool to flash on the chip's Bios (.gcb extention), as well as a background (.mvi extention). I soldered it on, fired it up and it works! Great, now I want to put an emulator on it and possibly Swiss. So can someone help answer the following questions, it would be much appreciated.

1.) I assume the emulators are the same format as gamecube backups (.dol extention) so you have to burn the emulator and roms to a blank gamecube disc (or memory card that has been hacked into an SD card holder)? Yes, emulators are .dol files, you can burn these to a dvd and put a sub folder on the dvd with the roms in it. I am currently using a utility called "bootable disc maker .01" that allows you to make a bootable DVD with the emulator and roms, and then expanded it to the correct size of 1.35gb. I tried to do the process manually from the command line and couldn't get the generated iso's to expand using fstfix (Wiped GCM Fixer). I kept getting errors saying:

- "Sorry this ISO is not fixable in this version" (changing the file extension to .gcm didn't work either)

So I am currently using this "bootable disc maker" for the moment because it seems to expand the iso's correctly. I'm still having troubles loading the roms as the emulators seem to be freezing when I try to load from the DVD, perhaps I have the folder structure named incorrectly.

2.) Is Swiss a bios that can be flashed to the qoob chip just like the qoob bios? Or is it a boot loader than is first placed on a DVD/Sd card and then the qoob bios flashes it in place of the stock boot loader on the gamecube chip? So it seems you use a program called qoob-flash-13.exe to flash on the qoob bios (.gcb extension), that must be the first block of code flashed, then you have a limited amount of space to flash other applications (.dol files). I flashed a minimized version of swiss directly into the qoob's memory so it doesn't have to go on every dvd-r I burn.

3.) So far I have flashed a qoob bios and a background image to the qoob chip, is there anything else I can flash to this chip?

Thanks in advance!

EDIT: I guess I can answer some of these know that I have spent the last couple days fooling around with my mod chip, just incase someone else happens to find this post.