Hi, boys and girls! Welcome to another fun time tale with Uncle Murph!
Today, we’re gonna talk about retro consoles, and how to tear them apart and make them awesome, and the ethical dilemmas in doing so. Doesn’t that sound like fun?
As anyone who stumbles upon this is probably aware, I stream video games on Twitch. I play, you watch, we both die a little inside because I’m very cringe. We know what this is.
One of the things I want to do is stream full series of games, especially those by my favorite video game company ever, Nintendo. Small problem though; Gameboy games are hard to play on a device that can be broadcast to Twitch’s platform. At least, without an emulator. One of the pride points for myself is that I am streaming legit games from my legit collection, bought legitimately. Playing ROMs of games you own is still a gray area, and I never quite could make peace with doing that for one solid reason.
I may own the game, but I’m still not playing it on MY console. And that’s the thing with bringing you a genuine experience. I’m playing these games on the console I say I am, and I try to bring them to you on the console they released for, or at least ported to, but the console experience is what you get (unless its a PC game, then it’s the PC experience).
So, when I played Eternal Darkness for GameCube, that was a DOL-101 GameCube you witnessed it on. Not an emulation of one. It’s platinum, and a little beat up. I bought it at a thrift store for $15 because they didn’t have a way to test it, and therefore, didn’t know if it even worked. I took the gamble on it and got myself a cheap Gamecube, but a legit Gamecube.
When I play Metroid Prime, you’ll see it as it was played on the GameCube, and not an imitation of a Gamecube. The difference may not be noticeable to you, viewers at home, but you can be sure the experience you’re getting is true to the experience I grew up with. And we don’t have to cross moral lines to do so.
Until now. See, I can’t find a complete Gameboy Player with the disc in good condition for under $400, and trying to justify such a purchase so I can bring a handful of games into the rotation, knowing the developer isn’t seeing any of that money (it’s all resale at this point), leaves me wondering if there’s not a better way. And I may have it.
I purchased an old DOL-001 GameCube, a XENO chip, a SWISS disc and Serial Port 2 to MicroSD chip reader, and a Memory Card with a MicroSD expansion slot, and a Gameboy Player (without the disc). Why? Because I’m going to build a modded Gamecube for the purpose of playing Gameboy and Gameboy Advance games on Twitch, on actual (even if a might-bit modified) Nintendo hardware.
I’m doing all of this on a second GameCube, because I still want to have my unmodified DOL-101 for regular gameplay.
What’s it mean, modifying a Gamecube? Well, quite simply, we are adding after-market parts to increase the functionality of the Gamecube. The XENO chip injects a patch into the disc reader to bypass region and DMCA protections. What you do with it after that is where it gets a little… piratey. I plan to use mine to load a homebrew software disc (not pirated games, I have the games I want, I don’t need to pirate games), and the homebrew disc will load software from the Serial Port 2 to MicroSD chip reader, and the Memory Card Micro SD reader. Using either the homebrew disc, the Serial Port SD card, or the Memory Card SD card, I should be able to load software that boots the Gameboy Player. At which point, I can bring you those sweet, sweet Gameboy titles I’ve been wanting to show you.
This task is not without risks. The XENO chip needs to be soldered in place, and I’ve only ever soldered the wires to a robot I built almost a decade ago. To solder it, I need to take apart the entire Gamecube to get underneath the disc drive. I bought a Gamecube specifically to do this to (as well as a set of game-bit drivers, because regular screwdrivers are not gonna work for this) and it wasn’t cheap because I specifically wanted to do this to one with the Serial Port 2, or the DOL-001 line of Gamecubes, which are getting harder to come by. I got lucky and found one going for a discounted rate because it was missing the cover for the High Speed Port the Gameboy Player uses. So I’m investing a good chunk of real dollars to a project that may be beyond my limited skill set, and I’m hoping to come out the other side with something that let’s me play even more titles on my Twitch channel. I may come out the other side with a $200 brick.
I do not recommend this to the average gamer at home to take on as a project. I have some experience soft-modding a Wii, which I still have (never said the Gamecube was the first time I crossed into the ethical gray area of gaming, and I have another unmodified Wii for streaming gameplay), but never did any hard-modding. I hope I don’t mess this up.
Stay tuned for my Twitch channel this December to find out if I succeed, and to see even more game titles if I do.
