The 'GC Loader' #GameCube

People are always wondering in the comments why my Gamecube has no Disk Drive. Now you know

[BigMoai]

So I just learned that there's actually like a region setting solder point, they're all region locked but you can change what region it's set to by simply soldering the new point and desoldering the existing point

[setLillie]

3 reasons he removed his disc drive:

1.) it didn't work
2.) it didn't work
3.) it didn't work

[monchopr]

I prefer GC Loader because doesn't need soldering. Also the SD card slot of the GC Loader loads faster than the SD Geko. Not all gamecubes has access to SD2Card slot. But the GC Loader is always Out of Stock.

[dethiamthelaw]

Honestly bought a Japanese game cube just so I can get cheaper games that you don’t need to understand Japanese to play. Like double dash, melee, Mario parties, that sorta thing.

[inoahguygames]

“they wouldn’t work without modding, ” he says while explaining about why he modded his console

[Angyjxx]

1: there’s better, cheaper mods out now
2: replacement lasers cost less than the price of a gc loader
3: there’s a solder point that makes GameCubes region free I think

[ChaChaRetro]

The GC loader will load games pretty much flawlessly.

The Pico boot mods and using the other slots for an SD don’t run the games as well. It’s not bad by a long shot; but it’s not 100%.

The best compromise between keeping the disc drive and using an SD card is the M2 loader, however, unsure if that is commercially available yet.

[cullbear]

The Swiss Picoboot is my favorite mod. That way, you can play backups off SD Card, but still keep the disc drive in the console for any possible issues with games. Or if you just feel like collecting physical still.

FMVs can stutter off of SD card so it's kind of a trade-off, but most games should be playable. If they freeze, I tend to replace the dump with another, and it usually fixes any consistent crashes in games. There's a lot of bad dumps out there.

The only big challenge is that you have to be careful when soldering. It's a very fine point where you need to solder the wires. But I did it and I'm really happy. My Gamecube is a 2006 unit, so it's missing one of the serial ports on the bottom. Overall, I got it all set up for just under $100, iirc. (Counting buying a Gameboy Player.)

And my console's disc drive still works, thankfully!

[BattleTardigrade]

All I could think watching him poke the broken lens was "Ne Jamais Toucher La Lentille".

[GiSWiG]

The picoboot method takes five wires to solder to the motherboard and to a raspberry pico, a simple chip based of raspberry pi but only 1"x2". You also get to keep your disc drive and can even back up your discs to the SDcard using the modded GameCube. This job won't take a fancy soldering station, easily done with a cheap one. See if a friend of yours knows how to solder. This mod will run you ~$30 and you get to keep your drive. BTW, don't rub your thumb across your laser. A band name q-tip that is tightly wound, no frays, rubbing alcohol, and a light touch fixes most read problems. My gamecube is the orange Japanese model, switched to US region by a small bead of solder, has the picoboot, 512GB SD card, internal HDMI and can use bluetooth controllers like a switch pro controller, XBOX and PS5. All that did run be about $200 but it was worth it to me. If you're not too picky, get a Wii U and gamecube controller adapter. You'll need to download games because the Wii U can't read GC discs, more like Nintendo disabled the ability to do so. The modding is all software, no soldering and so easy to do. You also have HDMI on the Wii U so it will work on 4K TVs w/o issues. See! The Wii U is a great console now!

[masterquest]

Just throwing this out there: Flippydrive is a new no solder mod that lets you also use tour disk drive if you have a working one or are aiming to repair it. Should be out soon too.

[grimflame]

3 reasons he removed his disc drive:
Free games
Free games

Free games

[L-di]

him touching the laser was so painful to watch

[RAPTOR]

I currently have 2 Gamecubes, and the DVD drives on both of them shit the bed. I need a GC Loader to put into just ONE of my Gamecubes. Seriously. It'd be a big upgrade, and I need to find a high capacity SD card to store my entire Gamecube library. Otherwise it's just space taken up on my external hard drive... And yes, I am also considering getting a new one for the additional storage!

[Davidgon]

I'm waiting to buy a flippy drive

[MrTrev]

Wanted one of these but a modded Wii covers everything so I went that route instead.

[boredstudent]

I was able to get a GCLoader. I needed to get one because the DVD drive has a damaged sensor. I could have just ordered a replacement on AliExpress or something but I decided to get a GCLoader instead. Next to the original Xbox, installing the GCLoader was the easiest mod to do.

[MarioVrAdventures]

What you could’ve done is on the back you could do region switch which you could switch from to US to Japan mode and that way you could play Japanese or English games instead of putting an SD card straight through the disc drive

[OrdBanjo]

The flippydrive will be a better option

[PenticoreTechnologies]

The solder point to change the region is on the motherboard anyway... the entire disc drive assembly/hardware itself is not region locked.