The Nintendo GameCube Appreciation and Collecting Thread.

thebisonxrc said:
Hi everyone,

Now that I've caught up with my Wii U collection, I'll be slowly getting into collecting GC games that I (regretfully) sold years ago.

Back when I played GC, I didn't much care for the image quality, as I never had a very nice TV. Now, things have changed, and I'm very curious about the component cable setup. I'm not sure if I'll go forth with it, as the games themselves are more important to me, but I figured I'd ask a couple questions, anyhow.

Is it difficult to find a dol-001 console? Are the component cables really $200-300? Or am I looking at the wrong stuff on eBay?

Thanks!
Click to expand...

001s are easy to find at Goodwill if you live in the States. Most of them end up being tossed into the recycling center! So go rescue yourself an orphaned 001 right now and give it a good home.

Component cables are bat shit crazy currently. If you are a bat shit crazy person then component cables make total sense. If you are not a bat shit crazy person, congratulations! You also have options. You can go with Wii component which is inferior to GC component or you can go with Nintendont on your shinny WiiU and display games in wonderful lossles digital 480p with wide screen patches via HDMI.

The only downside to using WiiU Nintendont is that you can't use original GC game discs on WiiU.
 
televator said:
001s are easy to find at Goodwill if you live in the States. Most of them end up being tossed into the recycling center! So go rescue yourself an orphaned 001 right now and give it a good home.

Component cables are bat shit crazy currently. If you are a bat shit crazy person then component cables make total sense. If you are not a bat shit crazy person, congratulations! You also have options. You can go with Wii component which is inferior to GC component or you can go with Nintendont on your shinny WiiU and display games in wonderful lossles digital 480p with wide screen patches via HDMI.

The only downside to using WiiU Nintendont is that you can't use original GC game discs on WiiU.
Click to expand...

Wii component cables still do a great job. I own both GCN component and Wii component and strongly feel like you are not missing out on anything by just grabbing an OG Wii for 480p goodness (unless you want to play GB Player). The difference in quality is so extremely slight that it's almost non-existent.
 
Peltz said:
Wii component cables still do a great job. I own both GCN component and Wii component and strongly feel like you are not missing out on anything by just grabbing an OG Wii for 480p goodness (unless you want to play GB Player). The difference in quality is so extremely slight that it's almost non-existent.
Click to expand...

I definitely see a difference between the 2. From day 1 when I got my Wii and saw the Wii menu. Nothing like the clean GC one. In game is also noticable to me. Personally, I wouldn't call it a great job... More like... Servicable. Most other people might not notice it though.

However, the difference is huge in person stepping up to Nintendont on WiiU and a really good scaling HDTV. Nintendont is almost as cost effective as Wii coponent cables if you already own a WiiU.
 
D.Lo said:
He's specifically looking at a PAL cube for 240p, 480p is irrelevant. PAL and Scart cable is the best and easiest solution if you already have RGB infrastructure in place (PVM, Framemesiter etc). And it doesn't cost $300 like a component cable.
Click to expand...

I understand, it's cheaper and also does 240p so for GBA, you're set. However I'm unsure if he already has component cables, which would make such a purchase meaningless.
 
Jamix012 said:
I understand, it's cheaper and also does 240p so for GBA, you're set. However I'm unsure if he already has component cables, which would make such a purchase meaningless.
Click to expand...

AFAIK, sixteen-bit is rocking s-video right now. (THE SHAME)

p.s. sixteen-bit, If you do end up grabbing a PAL cube and don't need your American version of the SD Loader anymore, I'll happily take it off your hands for a generous price.
 
Is nintendont really that much better (video) quality wise through HDMI than Gamecube over component? I recently replayed Metroid Prime 3 Corruption on my WiiU through HDMI and was less than impressed. Metroid Prime 1 on my Gamecube definitely appears sharper. Now I know Prime 3 uses a lot of bloom and is a different game but the map screen has no bloom and was just as soft. Also tried the Galaxy games and they just didn't appear notably than with wii component. Tried upscaled as well as direct 480p and tv settings where all equall and I routed it both through my receiver as pass-through and without receivefr.

Maybe WiiU (scaler) or MP3 has a softening filter applied when outputting a progressive signal? Similar like Melee has it as an option in the,menu screen.

Now my WiiU's Wii is not softmodded so couldn't really compare Gamecube games.
 
tesla246 said:
Is nintendont really that much better (video) quality wise through HDMI than Gamecube over component? I recently replayed Metroid Prime 3 Corruption on my WiiU through HDMI and was less than impressed. Metroid Prime 1 on my Gamecube definitely appears sharper. Now I know Prime 3 uses a lot of bloom and is a different game but the map screen has no bloom and was just as soft. Also tried the Galaxy games and they just didn't appear notably than with wii component. Tried upscaled as well as direct 480p and tv settings where all equall and I routed it both through my receiver as pass-through and without receivefr.

Maybe WiiU (scaler) or MP3 has a softening filter applied when outputting a progressive signal? Similar like Melee has it as an option in the,menu screen.

Now my WiiU's Wii is not softmodded so couldn't really compare Gamecube games.
Click to expand...

I did a comparison between Metroid Prime 1 played on the GC with component cables and Metroid Prime 1 played on the MP Trilogy on the Wii U through HDMI. Other than the obvious native widescreen in the Wii Version, I couldn't tell the difference with side by side pics.
 
tesla246 said:
Is nintendont really that much better (video) quality wise through HDMI than Gamecube over component? I recently replayed Metroid Prime 3 Corruption on my WiiU through HDMI and was less than impressed. Metroid Prime 1 on my Gamecube definitely appears sharper. Now I know Prime 3 uses a lot of bloom and is a different game but the map screen has no bloom and was just as soft. Also tried the Galaxy games and they just didn't appear notably than with wii component. Tried upscaled as well as direct 480p and tv settings where all equall and I routed it both through my receiver as pass-through and without receivefr.

Maybe WiiU (scaler) or MP3 has a softening filter applied when outputting a progressive signal? Similar like Melee has it as an option in the,menu screen.

Now my WiiU's Wii is not softmodded so couldn't really compare Gamecube games.
Click to expand...

WiiU upscaling to 1080 is actually kinda bad. 480p direct into the TV should be better depending on a good scaler is in the HDTV. Which most sets won't. My ST60 for example is beautiful at this. Totally benefits from the lossless signal and just sprints with it. Twilight princess actually looks good on it compared to how garbage it looks coming out of the Wii.
 
Balb said:
Yeah I've vaguely heard of that. How do I run that on my GameCube?
Click to expand...

Get an SD Media launcher online. JUST DO IT! They do Ship to the US and it's cheap.
Shia-LaBeouf-Just-Do-It.gif


Download the GBi app onto an SD card and get the Media Launcher software to... well... launch it. This will also allow your to run another app called Swiss which features sweet options like forcing 480p and widescreen for GC games.
 
televator said:
Ya know... I probably should have thought of that... before buying mine. lol Yeah, it works fine on all my NTSC units. Not sure about JP, but I don't see why it wouldn't.
Click to expand...

OK, I'm taking your word for it; ordered.

I guess if it somehow doesn't work with my JP matching orange GC/GBP I can always get a Platinum GBP to match my US cube.
 
televator said:
Get an SD Media launcher online. JUST DO IT! They do Ship to the US and it's cheap.
Shia-LaBeouf-Just-Do-It.gif


Download the GBi app onto an SD card and get the Media Launcher software to... well... launch it. This will also allow your to run another app called Swiss which features sweet options like forcing 480p and widescreen for GC games.
Click to expand...

Huh, didn't know this was even possible. Does it work flawlessly with games that normally don't support 480p/widescreen?
 
Balb said:
Huh, didn't know this was even possible. Does it work flawlessly with games that normally don't support 480p/widescreen?
Click to expand...

480p is pretty much accross the board for my purposes. Granted, I don't have the largest 'Cube collection. Widescreen is hit or miss since some games literally weren't made with 16x9 in mind like Cubivore's literal 4x3 sky box. lol

It's also worth mentioning that it supports 240p so you can play those sega/arcade anthologies in correct res.
 
chaosblade said:
Unless collectors have bought most of them up recently, I don't think the console should be too hard to find unless you are looking for specific colors that weren't made in large quantities. Might cost a little more than a 101 model though. I'm kind of curious what the breakdown is for the number of manufactured 001s vs 101s though, I'd think they would have made more during the first half of the system's life than the second. But maybe not.

Yes, component cables are pretty ridiculous. You're honestly better off going with a Wii and component cables even though they are slightly worse if you are more concerned more about image quality than collecting. Then of course there are options like Dolphin and Nintendont if you are really concerned about image quality, both will provide better output than the GC does.
Click to expand...

televator said:
001s are easy to find at Goodwill if you live in the States. Most of them end up being tossed into the recycling center! So go rescue yourself an orphaned 001 right now and give it a good home.

Component cables are bat shit crazy currently. If you are a bat shit crazy person then component cables make total sense. If you are not a bat shit crazy person, congratulations! You also have options. You can go with Wii component which is inferior to GC component or you can go with Nintendont on your shinny WiiU and display games in wonderful lossles digital 480p with wide screen patches via HDMI.

The only downside to using WiiU Nintendont is that you can't use original GC game discs on WiiU.
Click to expand...

Thanks a lot for the responses! Though they'll likely never go down much in price, I'm going to keep an eye on the component cables (out of curiosity). I'm not crazy (or rich) enough to spend $300 on cables at the moment, but I have to admit that I'd love to have 'em. In the meantime, by the sounds of it, it shouldn't be difficult to find a cheap 001, so I'll grab one of those just in case I end up finding component cables.

I gotta say, it's interesting to be actively searching for GC games that I hadn't thought of in years. The prices for used CIB aren't too bad for most of the games that I want, but it's going to be a rough day putting down $100+ for a copy of Path of Radiance. Vicious!

Anyway, looking forward to reading this thread and learning more from the other GameCube collectors on GAF. Cheers, everyone!
 
televator said:
It's also worth mentioning that it supports 240p so you can play those sega/arcade anthologies in correct res.
Click to expand...

How many of those were there on the 'cube? Just curious because I love collections like that. I know of

Intellivision lives
Sonic Gems and Mega Collection
Mega Man Collection (The WORST version)
Mega Man X Collection (Already runs at 240p)

Sonic Adventure DX also has game gear games. What am I missing?
 
televator said:
480p is pretty much accross the board for my purposes. Granted, I don't have the largest 'Cube collection. Widescreen is hit or miss since some games literally weren't made with 16x9 in mind like Cubivore's literal 4x3 sky box. lol

It's also worth mentioning that it supports 240p so you can play those sega/arcade anthologies in correct res.
Click to expand...

Sweet, definitely going this route then.

Jamix012 said:
How many of those were there on the 'cube? Just curious because I love collections like that. I know of

Intellivision lives
Sonic Gems and Mega Collection
Mega Man Collection (The WORST version)
Mega Man X Collection (Already runs at 240p)

Sonic Adventure DX also has game gear games. What am I missing?
Click to expand...

Animal Crossing (if this counts)
Zelda Collector's Disc (think this already runs at 240p)
Intellivision Lives
 
Guys, I need your advice quickly.

Megaman Anniversary Collection (USA/NTSC) 30 Euro's
Magaman X Collection (USA/NTSC) 60 Euro's

Both in mint condition for 80 Euros. Yes or no?
Thing is, Gamecube is only going to get more expensive (and rather quickly at that) and USA/NTSC is hard to come by here in Europe.
 
tesla246 said:
Guys, I need your advice quickly.

Megaman Anniversary Collection (USA/NTSC) 30 Euro's
Magaman X Collection (USA/NTSC) 60 Euro's

Both in mint condition for 80 Euros. Yes or no?
Thing is, Gamecube is only going to get more expensive (and rather quickly at that) and USA/NTSC is hard to come by here in Europe.
Click to expand...
I remember being annoyed back in the day at the Mega Man X collection control scheme so I would say no.
 
Thanks for the replies. Bummer the controlls are switched though, maybe a future update of swiss has button swap.
Thing is, I've been meaning to add them to the collection for a while now if the price is decent. Still in doubt. Gonna give it some more thought.
 
tesla246 said:
Thanks for the replies. Bummer the controlls are switched though, maybe a future update of swiss has button swap.
Thing is, I've been meaning to add them to the collection for a while now if the price is decent. Still in doubt. Gonna give it some more thought.
Click to expand...

The Mega Man X one isn't reversed...or if it is you have options, i can't remember. it's a good collection and outputs at native 240p.
 
televator said:
Ya know... I probably should have thought of that... before buying mine. lol Yeah, it works fine on all my NTSC units. Not sure about JP, but I don't see why it wouldn't.
Click to expand...

Whaaaaaaa?!?! How did nobody else elaborate on this till now?! Ordering one as soon as I get home! Do Component cables work with the 240p outputting? So going to hook it up to my PVMs and find a new use for my Cube with this and my GB player!
 
tesla246 said:
PAL 60hz plays fine (speed-wise), but trades the increased resolution for black bars on top and bottom
Click to expand...
What? Black bars for 60Hz mode? Also it's REDUCED resolution, not increased.

Either you have it completely backwards, ir your screen not accepting the 480i/p signal correctly. If a TV works properly with 480i/p/60Hz it should adjust the scan to fit the screen with the lower resolution output.

In normal CRT land you're more likely to see black bars for poorly converted 50Hz games.

576/50Hz is roughly the same fill rate as 480/60Hz, so performance from the same hardware using all pixels should be near identical, but most developers were lazy pricks toward PAL gamers.

tesla246 said:
So PAL 50hz mode, even during the gamecube era, is essentailly slower than NTSC 60: as in the gameplay is slower, just like in the old SNES days. Of course, the difference is that they did (correctly) adjust the speed of the music to sound identical in both 60hz and 50 hz, something we mostly missed out on back in the old days.

Now, I may very well be wrong, or it may just affect one game (Double Dash), but I wouldn't be surprised if PAL 50Hz affects other games similarly. Would be interested in other peoples findings.
Click to expand...
It varies based on game.

Some games are still poorly PAL converted (e.g. Wave Race, 80% of 3rd party games), slower, with various levels of black borders.

Some are partially PAL converted (Smash Bros), still have some small black bars, but have the speed adjusted somewhat.

Some have the full PAL resolution but run slower (Mario Kart).

Some are fully PAL converted (Metroid Prime - which is even a bug fixed version of the game).

Some have no conversion at all (Metroid Prime 2).
 
Ramune said:
Whaaaaaaa?!?! How did nobody else elaborate on this till now?! Ordering one as soon as I get home! Do Component cables work with the 240p outputting? So going to hook it up to my PVMs and find a new use for my Cube with this and my GB player!
Click to expand...

I TRIED TO TELL EVERYBODY. I went on and on for pages about how awesome it was to live it up forcing my games in 480p. But does anyone listen to Televator? "No, televator is crazy. Don't listen to that guy." I think the only people who paid attention were Seik and Peagles... So they're cool.

:P

entrement said:
I still can't believe the MMC passed QA without a button config mode at least.
Click to expand...

That what now? I feel like I've heard of an MMC before, but I'm drawing a complete blank. I feel I'm having a moment of derp.
 
televator said:
I TRIED TO TELL EVERYBODY. I went on and on for pages about how awesome it was to live it up forcing my games in 480p. But does anyone listen to Televator? "No, televator is crazy. Don't listen to that guy." I think the only people who paid attention were Seik and Peagles... So they're cool.
Click to expand...

I heard about this a little while ago, someone said they ordered one but I didn't ever hear if it was an EU unit working on non-EU system. I event went so far as to email Codejunkies asking if they had any US or JP units in stock and they never got back to me. :(

I've wanted something better out of my GBP since I got it last year. It's really neat but the stutter, the laaaaaag, the fuzziness, all make it really hard to use.
 
Jamix012 said:
I did a comparison between Metroid Prime 1 played on the GC with component cables and Metroid Prime 1 played on the MP Trilogy on the Wii U through HDMI. Other than the obvious native widescreen in the Wii Version, I couldn't tell the difference with side by side pics.
Click to expand...
Hmmm, that is interesting. Maybe some Wii games have some sort of sotening filter enabled when in progressive mode is active. Now that I think of it, when I played MP3: corruption back in the day with a wii, it was dissapointing how soft the game looked compared Gamecube Component. Replayed it on WiiU a few months back, and the image quality still appeared rather soft. However, iirc, Metroid: other M picture quality amazed me due its sharpness and vivid colours. Might try this out tomorrow on WiiU HDMI if I have time to compare.

televator said:
WiiU upscaling to 1080 is actually kinda bad. 480p direct into the TV should be better depending on a good scaler is in the HDTV. Which most sets won't. My ST60 for example is beautiful at this. Totally benefits from the lossless signal and just sprints with it. Twilight princess actually looks good on it compared to how garbage it looks coming out of the Wii.
Click to expand...
Yeah, I know. Tried it with WiiU upscaling and without, so the scaler shouldn't be at fault.

D.Lo said:
What? Black bars for 60Hz mode? Also it's REDUCED resolution, not increased.

Either you have it completely backwards, ir your screen not accepting the 480i/p signal correctly. If a TV works properly with 480i/p/60Hz it should adjust the scan to fit the screen with the lower resolution output.

In normal CRT land you're more likely to see black bars for poorly converted 50Hz games.

576/50Hz is roughly the same fill rate as 480/60Hz, so performance from the same hardware using all pixels should be near identical, but most developers were lazy pricks toward PAL gamers.
Click to expand...

I was talking about gamecube swiss forced 576p with a PAL copy of mario kart. Then selecting 60hz. So I got a 480p resolution with black bars added top and bottom to make the image 576p resolution-wise, but with 60 FPS. This resulted in a slightly (vertically) squashed image. When Selecting 576p 50hz i got the correct image, but at a slower speed. What I'd hoped for was the full 576p resolution through swiss video mode forcing and the 60hz resulution option of the PAL version; best of both worlds. But that didn't happen.

D.Lo said:
It varies based on game.

Some games are still poorly PAL converted (e.g. Wave Race, 80% of 3rd party games), slower, with various levels of black borders.

Some are partially PAL converted (Smash Bros), still have some small black bars, but have the speed adjusted somewhat.

Some have the full PAL resolution but run slower (Mario Kart).

Some are fully PAL converted (Metroid Prime - which is even a bug fixed version of the game).

Some have no conversion at all (Metroid Prime 2).
Click to expand...

Interesting that Metroid Prime was fully converted. Might try that one out tomorrow if I have time.
 
Peltz said:
GB Player is good because it (obviously) lets you play GBA carts on the big screen. But as anyone will tell you, it has a lot of problems. There's input lag (even with a CRT), framestuttering, blurry visuals, and no 240p support.

Some of these drawbacks can be eliminated with homebrew software though. Still, my ideal setup is a real GBA SP AGS-101 or a DS Light for perfect 1:1 pixel mapping.
Click to expand...

How does home-brew work for it?
 
tesla246 said:
I was talking about gamecube swiss forced 576p with a PAL copy of mario kart. Then selecting 60hz. So I got a 480p resolution with black bars added top and bottom to make the image 576p resolution-wise, but with 60 FPS. This resulted in a slightly (vertically) squashed image. When Selecting 576p 50hz i got the correct image, but at a slower speed. What I'd hoped for was the full 576p resolution through swiss video mode forcing and the 60hz resulution option of the PAL version; best of both worlds. But that didn't happen
Click to expand...
ah that makes sense.

Yeah it won't work, 576p//50Hz is possible because the game is rendered at that, then interlaced at the output stage. No games are ever naturally 576/60hz because the cube doesn't do it.

Odrion said:
God the GameCube still looks fucking rad.
Click to expand...
It's a beautiful piece of engineering. I haven't been as impressed by a console's engineering and physical design since, they otherwise range from boring to hideous.
 
SD Media Launcher came today.

FYI, totally not region free. They sent a US one (probably due to my address), and it does not work on my JP cube. I'll dig my US Cube out of storage to test out GBI.
 
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