gc-forever - Gamecube/Wii Forums

Hello. I recently bought myself another Gamecube and was shocked at the prices some of the games sell for (regret selling my old ones!). Whilst I'd like to get as many original games as possible, that isn't going to happen over night. In the meantime I'd like to just download them off the internet and play them that way, but I have no idea what chip to get. If I go ahead and list what I'd like out of it, perhaps people can chime in and recommend the chip/method that best suits my needs?

- I'd like to play them from an SD/USB drive.
- I'd like for the GC to appear vanilla/stock and not show any signs of being modded unless it detects the storage device with my games (or boot while holding a button or something).
- I don't want to mess around with inserting disks or opening/closing the lid to start the games.

I'm not sure I'f anything that ticks all of those boxes exists, but any suggestions are welcome and appreciated.

Cheers,
Chris.

I would say Qoob Pro

Wii Key Fusion with Swiss autoboot is the most modern solution and meets your requirements. Actually it's the best if you don't want to mess with discs, else the XenoGC might be cheaper.

MockyLock wrote:I would say Qoob Pro

Thanks for the reply.

With that chip would the GC always boot up to the Qoob screen or would I need to hold a button on start up to enter that? Then would I just browse an SD card with the game ISO's on it and hit play?

I have had a look on the internet but I cant find much on it. Can anyone point me in the direction of some detailed documentation?

Any other suggestions?

Thanks,
Chris

I would recommend the SD Media Launcher from Datel.
It costs 20 USD or so and boots swiss without any trouble.

I don't own a modded cube because it just isn't worth it for me.

You put swiss.dol on an SD card along with all your games and put it on slot a.
You can also get a second sd gecko and put it in slot b.

With that, you can play all your games from one sd gecko and use the other sd gecko as a memory card.

You can leave the SDML disc in the drive all the time. It's really simple and requires no soldering.

http://us.codejunkies.com/Products/GCNW ... 00589.aspx

Qoob can have SD loader software added, it doesn't ship with that. Boots to its own menu by holding a button or no disc inserted (not often you'll use the Nintendo BIOS option, except when you want to manage save files).

SD Media Launcher I've never used to comment on. No SDHC support itself is an inconvenience.

Keep in mind if you'd like to play imports, modchips like Freeloader don't change the console's internal region.

Thanks for all the helpful replies.
It seems that I have to decide between the Qoob Pro, Wii Key Fusion and the XenoGC.
I still have questions though.

-Will all of these boot games on an SD card? (autodetect?)
-Are there SD card size limitations with any of these chips?
-Do they all boot to their own menu when no media is inserted?
-If they boot to there own menu then how do I access the GC bios/menu?

Also, if anyone can link me to any detailed demo videos I'd appreciate that. I have spent a long time searching through videos but I cant find any detailed demos, just quick video's without talking or installation guides.

Thanks,
Chris.

XenoGC needs you to press a button to boot its menu. By itself it has no SD support so you need a Swiss DVD + SD gecko.

Qoob auto boots to its menu with empty drive. It leaves you the option of booting to the regular BIOS if you need to. Once again no SD support built in, but you can flash Swiss onto its flash and load games from SD gecko.

WKF is a lot better for that matter. You can flash Swiss on it and it will auto boot only if you have an SD in it. It's designed to load stuff from SD so it has its own reader and it hooks up between the drive and the main board, emulating the drive when in use. This makes it the most compatible. It requires quite a bit of soldering though. I recommend getting the MEGAdrive adapter if you're not comfortable with that plus it's a lot cleaner.

Keep in mind that with all three chips you can load DVD backups (Swiss required to do that on WKF) with full compatibility, Swiss + SD gecko is incompatible with a bunch of stuff although it's constantly improving. Also only DVD backups will get you audio streaming support (WKF needs the MEGAwire mod for that).

So I'd say go for WKF because you'll have a hard time finding a Qoob (only the Xeno is easy to come by nowadays when it comes to Cube chips). Also look for the WASP fusion as it's the exact same thing as WKF but still in production.

Anyone feel like making an updated version of this??
http://www.gc-forever.com/wiki/index.ph ... ecube_BIOS

Streetwalker wrote:XenoGC needs you to press a button to boot its menu. By itself it has no SD support so you need a Swiss DVD + SD gecko.

Qoob auto boots to its menu with empty drive. It leaves you the option of booting to the regular BIOS if you need to. Once again no SD support built in, but you can flash Swiss onto its flash and load games from SD gecko.

WKF is a lot better for that matter. You can flash Swiss on it and it will auto boot only if you have an SD in it. It's designed to load stuff from SD so it has its own reader and it hooks up between the drive and the main board, emulating the drive when in use. This makes it the most compatible. It requires quite a bit of soldering though. I recommend getting the MEGAdrive adapter if you're not comfortable with that plus it's a lot cleaner.

Keep in mind that with all three chips you can load DVD backups (Swiss required to do that on WKF) with full compatibility, Swiss + SD gecko is incompatible with a bunch of stuff although it's constantly improving. Also only DVD backups will get you audio streaming support (WKF needs the MEGAwire mod for that).

So I'd say go for WKF because you'll have a hard time finding a Qoob (only the Xeno is easy to come by nowadays when it comes to Cube chips). Also look for the WASP fusion as it's the exact same thing as WKF but still in production.

Thanks for the reply Streetwalker that's very helpful.

So if I load games from an SD card I will have no sound with my games (excluding WKF)?
With WKF would I need to have it's SD card slot hanging out of the GC or could I just leave it inside? If I left it inside would it always boot to the WKF/Swiss firmware, or does it only boot if I have a SDGecko plugged in?

Sorry for all the questions.

Cheers,
Chris.

The sound issues you are concerned about only affect a few titles
http://www.gc-forever.com/wiki/index.ph ... _Streaming
Currently the only method for full compatibility with these titles is with the DVD drive


The WKF/WASP sd slot can be internal or external to the GC...your choice how to mount/mod..
When swiss firmware is installed into WKF/WASP, it will always boot swiss if an SD card is detected in WKF/WASP SD slot (not to be confused with SD Gecko)

megalomaniac wrote:The sound issues you are concerned about only affect a few titles
http://www.gc-forever.com/wiki/index.ph ... _Streaming
Currently the only method for full compatibility with these titles is with the DVD drive


The WKF/WASP sd slot can be internal or external to the GC...your choice how to mount/mod..
When swiss firmware is installed into WKF/WASP, it will always boot swiss if an SD card is detected in WKF/WASP SD slot (not to be confused with SD Gecko)

Arh Ok thanks for clearing that up.
It sounds like the XenoGC is a good option for me.
So to play from an SD card would I just burn a Swiss DVD ( I assume I just download the image?), load it up like a regular game (would i need to boot into any special menus?) and then it lets me boot games from an SD card? It differs from the softmod in that I don't need to open-close the lid and/or swap disks to boot games? Is there a limit to the size of the SD card I can use with the xenoGC?

I'm trying to find the most simple and transparent way of doing this. At the end of the day I intend to buy as many games as I can so I don't want to see anything that isn't stock.

Thanks,
Chris.

Any size limit depends on the SD software used.

Most likely you'll have to adjust the Gamecube's laser for a DVD boot disc. Nintendo tuned it for original games.
And no a US/JP switch (if NTSC) doesn't have to hurt the stock look. Could hide it say underneath near that unused "serial port 2".