Homebrew n00b, little help getting started?

[mat8888]

Ok, first off, I do not have a gamecube yet.
I /will/ be buying one soon, though!

So I've already bought these things from DX.com, and they are gonna be mailed soon:

Wiikey SD Card Adapter - http://dx.com/p/3993
Mini DVD-R 10 pack - http://dx.com/p/4483
8GB Sandisk class 10 SDHC - http://dx.com/p/153540
[And hopefully will be buying xenoGC soon]

I've read reviews on the mini-DVDs that they work well for Gamecube. The Media ID is apparently "CMC MAG AF1."

Now, here's what I want to do once I get a cube: 1st, install xenoGC mod. Then boot .iso games off of my 8GB SD.

What do you recommend I do? Should I burn a bootable .iso of sdLoad to one of my mini-DVDs, and then put Swiss.dol on my SD and then load the .iso's from there? Or just burn swiss to the disk? but I'm leaning towards sdLoad because I can easily update swiss without burning a new disk, since it's just a file on my card.

Also, if I have the sd gecko [Wiikey SD Card Adapter, for Wii, but someone told me it works for GC also] in slot A, running a game, I can still have a real memory card in slot B to save my game progress, right?

Speaking of Swiss, it does run most games fine off the card right? The main games I want to play: Super Smash Bros Melee, Mario Kart, and maybe Super Mario Sunshine. I saw it said "High Level, Disabled Interrupts" on the swiss compatability list, but Idk what that means.
Thanks

[megalomaniac]

SDLoad or swiss on disc is your choice but SDLoad only works from SD and swiss works with everything.
Also no need to burn a new disc for new swiss version, just boot swiss DVD then load latest version from SD...


As for your list of items so far, looks good..don't worry to much about media type until you begin testing...
Look for a dvd laser impedance adjustment guide to familiarize yourself with the process so you are ready when the time comes to make any adjustments if necessary...

[mat8888]

SDLoad or swiss on disc is your choice but SDLoad only works from SD and swiss works with everything.
Also no need to burn a new disc for new swiss version, just boot swiss DVD then load latest version from SD...


As for your list of items so far, looks good..don't worry to much about media type until you begin testing...
Look for a dvd laser impedance adjustment guide to familiarize yourself with the process so you are ready when the time comes to make any adjustments if necessary...

Ok I'll do that then, sounds better. Do I just rename a DOL file to something and it will auto boot?

Now about the memory card.. I am planning on getting a cube, 1 oem controller, av/power cords for $30. But there's no memory card. So if I try to use an emulated card (for Mario kart, SSBM) can i copy the data over to a real card once i get one? Does anyone know this?

Also what's the best memory card to get for a reasonable price? Aftermarket on ebay? And is 8MB enough for a few games tht I mentioned? Probably super Mario sunshine too.

[emu_kidid]

I haven't coded anything to extract the data from emulated memory cards, but I will shortly, it's on my list.

[mat8888]

I haven't coded anything to extract the data from emulated memory cards, but I will shortly, it's on my list.

Awesome.. So in the future will i be able to extract to physical card or just a backup file? If the former ill forget about the memory card for now at least, unless it doesn't work with the games i mentioned?

[emu_kidid]

It definitely works for Sunshine, and it will probably be the former.

[mat8888]

So I had another question. I got a gamecube and it came with a memory card so, ill be able to put the gecko into slot B, and boot .iso files from a swiss boot disc, and still correctly use the memory card right?

And another one, once my boot disk spins up, can I load swiss from the sd card, and have the disc part basically go to sleep since i will be using the sd card for the rest of the game?