A Noob Needs Help with NGC, ViperGC & SDboot

[saotome_ranma]

First of all, I'm from china and I have to admit that:I am a noob with NGC, especially with its modchips and SD load function, even I own a xbox, a PS2, a DC and can use them very well. But I definitely like NGC and its game very very much.

I bought a secondhand NGC (US version) with ViperGC modchip (not Extreme version) a few days ago because one of my friends told me that only this combination can launch programs from SD card without any boot disc. At that time, there was a strange idea coming out of my mind: Maybe there is a possibility to run GC games ISOs in a totally disc-free way.

But after trying in many days, I failed up till now. Fortunately, I still find this forum and know that the developer of great SDboot is here too. So I come here as a fresh noob of NGC & its modchips and ask for some needful help from you experts in your NGC territory.

Is there a possibility to play GC ISOs from SD card through ViperGC (not Extreme version) in a totally disc-free way?

Here are the steps I followed in these days work and failures I met, I hope they may help you guys to find my mistakes:

1. Flash the latest Cobra v2.1 BIOS & SDLoad PlugIn into my ViperGC modchip
2. Copy SDboot v0.4 and game ISOs into SD card and plug SD media launcher into memory slot of NGC (2GB Kingstone SD card and all ISOs are placed in folder "GCgames")
3. Start NGC and go to ViperGC IC manu by pressing button Y
4. Select SDLoad plugin and run
5. Boot SDboot.dol in SDLoad UI
6. SDboot seems run well after selecting speed and slot, all game ISOs can be recognized perfectly
7. Press button A to boot the game i wish to play
8. A black background text comes out saying "DVD is initializing" after selecting video mode
9. Then another warning message pop out with a red background showing "Insert a original Game to continue"......
10. Here are the problems:
Firstly, I dont have any original GC game disc, they are quite expensive in China.
Secondly, I am absolutely sure that those ISOs are correct because my friends burn those iso into DVD-R and play games perfectly. And before my every copy, i format SD card first.
Thirdly, also the most incredible point: my friend can run those ISOs very well without any warning message or mistake through SD media launcher. The only differences between us: He use a DVD-R to boot the same SDboot version and run ISOs on a NGC with XENO modchip.
11. I tried many ways to find out the problems:
First, I ignored warning message by keeping pressing buttons B+A like the method on Wii. Most of ISOs can be loaded just at begining but failed to play after start manu of game, leaving me some texts "disc missing" or just a black screen.
Then, I changed many game ISOs, even some games which have already been proved perfectly such as Super Mario Sunshine, Biohazard (Resident Evil) 0 & 1, MGS twins snake...but none of them is workable. Only Super Mario Sunshine allows me to play just a little part but still failed after my mario jumping into the stone.
At last, i throw a pirate game disc into gamecube but......obviously the disc cannot be initialzied....

Those problems almost drive me crazy now, and English is not my mother tongue, so I spend a real hard time on finding this forum and typing these letter for help.

Sincerely, I come here ask for someone's help with all of my honor, and I will highly appreciate those guys who are trying to help me overcome those difficulties.

[emu_kidid]

A disc is required in the drive. the next version will allow for a DVD-r to be used to play from SD but this is quite pointless.

[saotome_ranma]

A disc is required in the drive. the next version will allow for a DVD-r to be used to play from SD but this is quite pointless.

Is an original game disc necessary for SDboot?
Because my friend runs game ISOs through SD card perfectly on a NGC moded by XENO without any original game disc in the drive. He just uses a burned SDboot disc to launch SDboot and play games through SD media launcher.

[kevstah2004]

A DVD-R is a recordable disc so no, a original disc is pressed, I think you just need a DVD-R burnt with 1GB dummy data to push it past the cdrom 650mb/700mb standard similar to the trick needed on the PS2 where you can reburn cd games to a DVD but you need to push it past the 1.4GB mini-dvd standard with a dummy file.

emu-kidid is SD-Boot able to read / dump NR reader discs? there just official nintendo mini dvd-r aren't they?

[emu_kidid]

No, the dvd drive will not accept NR Discs, they use a different scrambling key than the one the GC DVD drive wants to use.

[Shinebi]

Sorry for bumbing, this is my first post here and was looking for information regarding Viper setup for boot from SD.

I have the regular version installed in a Panasonic Q and upgraded to 1.6 BIOS with some BBA-rip plugin (I thought the 2.1 version was only for Extreme?), so I'll update this together with the correct SD-load plugin. The Lik-Sang Q is chipped by myself for playing mainly PAL games. I'd also removed the power-button selector from the PCB and locked it to NTSC-U region as default (English memcard/interface solution).
Never got around playing any backups, I tried, but DREs had put me off this track for years now...


Just ordered me a cheapo SD Memcard adapter through DealExtreme, so I should be good to go.

If I understand correctly from the OP, I can then put SDboot on the SD card, along with any desired software to boot.

Now my question: I haven't seen any definitive answer/confirmation on this subject... but is it possible to install Swiss in the REGULAR Viper chip's plugin space (size-wise) ?
If so, booting Swiss straight from the chip would be nice, as I'm looking to get me an IDE/EXI adapter if they ever get produced again.

[emu_kidid]

You have two options if you want to boot swiss quickly. Put SDLoad as a plugin and use that to boot Swiss from SD card. Burn a DVD-R (iso9660 or Bootable) with Swiss.

[Shinebi]

Thanks for the fast reply.

I'll opt for booting Swiss from the SD card then (now why haven't I thought of that option...)

[Dragoon]

No, the dvd drive will not accept NR Discs, they use a different scrambling key than the one the GC DVD drive wants to use.

Is it possible to crack this key and implement it into a homebrew app?

[emu_kidid]

It's happening on the drive so it'd require a lot more effort.

[Dragoon]

I see, maybe it is easier to program it for a XENO or will it require the same work?

@saotome_ranma Do you know swiss is now out for use? It also supports loading games from SD, and I think it's more stable. (swiss is actualy SDboot but 90% was rewritten)

[Shinebi]

One more question:

I read SD-load only supports SD, but Swiss suppports SDHC....
SO, if I boot Swiss with SD-load, will I be limited by its SD-size capacity, or will booting Swiss enable me to use SDHC cards up to 32GB?

Just asking, as to not buy a 32GB SDHC and to come to the conclusion it won't work because of SD-load's limit.

[Dragoon]

Yeah swiss works with SDHC, but I guess you need to load it from a normal SD first.

[Shinebi]

Ah.... damn.
So in that case it's best to buy a 4GB regular SD card, since I ordered only 1 WiSD adapter.
(And I guess I still need a memcard for saving games, or am I mistaking and it's possible to save to the SD card itself?)

Or can I unplug the regular SD card once Swiss has booted, and then plug in an large SDHC card with desired soft to boot, as I take it Swiss is then already loaded into the cube's memory? Using my common sence, that'd be a no-no, ruining the ports in the long run.

[andzlay]

Yes you need a memorycard saving to SD cards is not possible (yet?).
And I think it's possible to change the SD card after swiss booted. Atleast I remounted the sd card because sometimes (earlier with r29) files did not show up so I reinserted the SD card and swiss did not crash.

[Dragoon]

You van swap via SD cards almost whenever you want, unless you are loading an app or playing a game form sd.
The reason is why you can swap SD's is because the homebrew apps are smaller then the RAM size, so it's completely loaded in to the memory when it's loaded.
And emu_kidid is/was working on saving save files to sd and mount them when you load the game. (just like my ez-flash for my gba )

@shinebi yes you can swap (incase you don't to read the textblock I've written :p)