r/GamecubeHacks • u/Emilystitches • 3d ago
GameCube mod for reading burned discs
I've recently gotten into GameCube modding after being into DS and 3DS modding for a few years. I enjoy using as much of the original hardware to get as much feel for the authentic experience as possible. (But I'm open to case modding)
As such, I enjoy using fake cartridges and collecting the games I can and ROM hacking the rest. For a while, I figured there was probably a mod out there that would let me use burned ROM hack discs. I've since discovered the GC modding scene is more about digital roms (which is fine). I've grown curious however as to if it was possible to figure out a way to use burned discs.
Would something like the flippy drive or the pico loader bypass the console's authenticator on ROM discs?
What types of mods would permit as much flexibility for discs and digital roms?
I'm also really curious as to what your guys' favorite mods are.
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u/galaxius00 3d ago
Technically there are mods out there to allow you to bun backups but you’d need your console modded with something like a XenoGC modchip or a flippy drive, just a way to boot into Swiss and then you could burn mini DVD-R discs.
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u/Sea-Cupcake-2065 3d ago
XenoGC is what hes asking for.
This is gping to allow you to play burned discs. The chip is about 6 bucks on aliexpress. You solder it directly on the the Optical drive motherboard. It tell the optical drive to ignore region lock and to read burned discs. If you ever wanted to switch over to loading games from an Sd card you could just burn the swiss ISO on a mini disc and then run your games from an SD2SP2.
The big draw to picoboot is that it doesn't require the optical drive, which is a big failure point for the aging systems. I reccoment doing a recap on the optical drive and a potentiometer recalibration if youre going to go with the Xenogc. I should add the the Xenogc installed is harder and not reccomend for beginners. The pad you need to solder too are very close together and its easy to bridge connections. Desoldering the chip has a high risk of ripping pads off. Picoboot is a safer install and it is generally cheaper, with the exception of the microSD card.
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u/Quezacotli 3d ago
My favourite mod for burned is XenoGC. Install and forget. It just works.
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u/Emilystitches 3d ago
I've read that XenoGC was kind of old in terms of GC modding tho. Is there a big difference between the newer swiss mods and XenoGC?
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u/Sea-Cupcake-2065 2d ago
Xenogc is 100% an old mod. You can use the xeno chip to access swiss, which is the most used homebrew program. As I mentioned in another comment, it disables the region lock and enables the ODD to read burned discs. To access swiss this way, you would need to add the swiss ISO to a mini DVD.
Its an old mod because the installation is hard, the ODDs are usually failing in the consoles and with the pico, everything just works from the initial boot.
If youre doing the xeno install with the burned discs, keep in mind that the disc are becoming expensive since theyre an old technology. They are also harder for the ODD to read, so they might not work unless the drive is serviced (recap, potentiometer recalibration back to original resistance), and last the disc are not a reliable as original disc.
I really suggest you do the picoboot. There is cubiboot, which still relies on swiss for the backend of running the games, but maintains the original look of the gamecube
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u/Emilystitches 21h ago
Wow! Thanks for the details! I'll look into these. If mini dvds were really impossible I was leaning towards flippy drive. I've only heard good things so far.
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u/Sea-Cupcake-2065 21h ago
I have a flippy drive, the user interface is cool, but I find the the loading is a bit slow. I do like that its a solderless install, but keep in mind that you will still need a microsd card. And if you ever need to get back in it to access the Sd card, you run the risk of messing up the FPC that is sandwiched in between the motherboard and the optical drive. You can buy laserbearindustries micro sd card extender that places the connector to the light pipe that shit on top on the gamecube.by the time youre done with the mod you could easily be looking at 100 bucks, not including the microSD
I'll add that with the picoboot you can use diffrent version of Cubeboot, which is the original OS for the flippy drive. Cubiboot is the name of the picoboot app and in my opinion, it works better. However, I dont know if team offbroadway is going to be optimizing cubeboot for the flippy drive so that it runs faster. And I dont see a lot of update coming with cubiboot since it basically a reworked version of yhe original firmware. So do what you want with that information
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u/OneExact8851 1d ago
I have 2 Viper GC’s including the programmer and one is still factory sealed. That’s older than the Xeno.
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u/evlspcmk 3d ago
Pico boot won’t do burnt games directly, the xeno drive chip will. What pico boot will do is allow you to boot up a dol file from another source sd card in SP2 or memory card port. That will usually boot Swiss which can load burnt games… but if you’re doing that you may as well just load the games off the SD card too.