GameCube + external storage - just a dream ?

[Mugi]

back when i got my cube modded (qoob SX chip) i was just happy to see it's still alive and kicking and proceeded to test it out.

when it came to the point where i had a backup game that was a bad burn at best. the game was burned as a data on a mini DVD (so it's just a single .iso on the disk) after staring at it a bit im like.. "ok, i'll just put it in the cube anyways." to my surprise the chip's bootscreen throws me a browser window instead of a "bad disk" error letting me browse the disk for .iso files to boot for.

i did couple of disks to test it with and mariocart64 is fully playable like this and super smash bros somewhat works. i can put up a vid of running a disk this way if necessary.

since the chip indeed has the ability to load and use iso files directly, i was thinking that would it be even remotely possible to attach a HDD or some other storage device to a gamecube at all and if yes, how extensive of a mod are we talking about in here?

it's possible that i just fail with google but so far i've found little to no mention about the chip having this "attribute" to begin with. it wasn't mentioned with the documents i got and neither on the site i bought it from.

it's also possible that it's just a normal thing and im missing some basic knowledge :P in that case, feel free to enlighten me about it.

ideas/opinions/flames/laughs/anything else more or less constructive is welcomed :P

[LEo]

Hmm, actually there was this one guy that got this to work, give me a minute and ill find it. He hooked up a sata hdd some way

Edit found a different one, the original ones site died
http://forums.benheck.com/viewtopic.php?t=18006

[Nitro734]

SATA is a bit of a stretch (would be happy to see this happen though).

They did it using a PATA/IDE interface. You can find more information about it here: http://www.tehskeen.com/forums/showthread.php?t=6040

http://www.tehskeen.com/gfx/200801/dvdemu2.jpg

[Mugi]

now that's pretty much exactly what i was after :P
read through the whole thread you linked to and there really doesn't seem to be a lot of news regarding it.

...i hope the project isn't dead since any console + HDD = automatically awesome :P
i don't really even use my GC but that's one thing i'd be sure to get if for nothing else, then just to have it.

thanks for digging it up for me. atleast i got confirmed that my google skills do fail :P

edit: on a sidenote, since i can't be the only one in here who has thought about having a HDD on GC, does anyone have anything more or less solid about whether the project is alive ?

i'll try to take a peek at gcdev.com (the url is on the screen on the pic :P) to see if there's anything out there

[Barc0de]

console+hdd= GC devkit, namely a GDEV.

[Mugi]

possibly yes but that equation also goes like this:

devkit = expensive

im currently trying to scrape together cash to buy a dev ps2 so getting a dev gamecube along that will be impossible as for now.

i'll see if i find enough info about things and possibly molest my cube to apptempt a HDD mod for it.
not too likely since my skills with this stuff are way less than i'm gonna need but one can dream, right ? already mentally prepared myself to lose the cube too :P

[Nitro734]

Check out this thread as well over at the BenHeck forums: http://forums.benheck.com/viewtopic.php?t=18006

Its 37 pages long and I'm not sure how much is practically discussed, but if you're bored its worth a read! :)

[Mugi]

i actually read though most of it already. they didn't have a proto by the time i stopped reading (15 pages or so) so i'll leave the rest of the thread for some other day :P

they seem to be also using this "desktop" guy's schematics as a base for the project and i dug up some his old project files as he seems to be the only one who's actually built a working proto of it. the link to desktop's "archive" is on that benheck forum's thread somewhere if someone is interested. i'll post it here when i read it again, forgot to bookmark it :P

in any case. whenever i find a viable solution to obtain some of the needed stuff (i can't actually program chips myself, nor i know anything about that stuff) and gather some more time to deticate for this, i think it would be worth a shot :)

i'll make sure to come here and make few annoying topics about trivial matters then :P

[liquitt]

there are shematics online from CZN almost since the GC came out and i know of at least 3 people who had the PCB build. and it worked

Edit:
i'm talking about the original design, not the one from tehskeen, dunno what happened to that. the last thing i remember is that brakken wanted to sell it to the masses

[Mugi]

yeah. i read the tehsceen thread too. no idea what happened but the whole thing just seems to have stopped.

i think that the desktop guy is the one who was doing the one on crazynation so the shematics i mentioned on my previous post are most likely the same ones you're talking about, which are also the same ones used by the guys over at benheck forums too.

it will be interesting to see where this goes to.
personally i'd love to see a sort of make from it that would be available to be bought as a ready board. i can't imagine too many cube owners being tech sawwy enough to pull out a mod of this caliber. Myself included :P

[moribund112]

Me as well!
It would be great to have an HDD add-on for one of my cubes - my laser would live on forever!

[Barc0de]

DesktopMan? wonderful guy, I have him on msn

[liquitt]

i dunno if he's still active tho

well and if you take a look at the recent tehskeen posts, emukidid claims to know that the project is still alive, so... ;)

[Borman]

possibly yes but that equation also goes like this:

devkit = expensive

im currently trying to scrape together cash to buy a dev ps2 so getting a dev gamecube along that will be impossible as for now.

i'll see if i find enough info about things and possibly molest my cube to apptempt a HDD mod for it.
not too likely since my skills with this stuff are way less than i'm gonna need but one can dream, right ? already mentally prepared myself to lose the cube too :P

125$ isnt that bad :P Its the HDDs themselves that are haha

[Ed the Nerd]

what about a sd geko+big ass sd card?

Although, i would LOVE to have a HDD in my cube!

[Johnny]

Cool, HDLoader for GC. Hope it comes true.

Anyway, wouldn't be easier (and cheaper) to use SSD or USB drives?

[Ed the Nerd]

Cool, HDLoader for GC. Hope it comes true.

Anyway, wouldn't be easier (and cheaper) to use SSD or USB drives?Probably.

Once i modchip my cube, I will get a sd gecko and store files on sd cards, so i can save my cubes drive lazer :nod:

[bob]

I Hope This Happens it would be so awesome to have all my cube games stored in one spot

[Dr.Wily]

I upping this topic, because of recent release of Wii USB loader. if my memory serve me, it exist an USB adapter for Gamecube (from SN System) who plug in a serial port.

I don't know how USB hardware is working on Wii. However, if is just a builtin USB port, plug on a gamecube serial bus "like", it has a possibility that USB loader can run on a Gamecube hardware (with some modification of course).

What do you think ?

[Nitro734]

USB hardware was available for the GC in two "official" flavours.

USB2EXI Adapter, which converted the memory card port (which uses the system's EXI bus) into USB.

T-DEV USB Adapter, by SN Systems for streaming game content similar to how an ODEM and NPDP-GDEV operate.

Neither way can be universally useful for homebrew, partly due to the lack of these devices for those that could potentially use them, and lack of understanding in how the hardware operates outside of supplied development libraries for them (none of which exist for the T-DEV adapter, to my knowledge).

[Dr.Wily]

How USB port on Wii is wired, and how SN Systems USB to ?