gamecube emulator dolphin

[movieman]

i have the gamecube emulator on my pc and i have a bunch of gamecubes that are mine that i bought my gamecube finally broke down how do i get the gamecube games into roms that way i can play them off of my pc

[alcoatjez]

You can do that with a Broadband adapter, an original Phantasy Star Online Episode I & II and a cross-networkcable. However, the emulator unfortunately is not good enough to emulate GC at a decent speed. You should wait a couple of years untill it is...

[hagbard]

Since some time ago you don't even need an original PSO I&II to dump an ISO from the GC, just use one of the "bios" (soft of hard modded) like GCoS or Gcom and of course the BBA networked with the PC

[alcoatjez]

Since some time ago you don't even need an original PSO I&II to dump an ISO from the GC, just use one of the "bios" (soft of hard modded) like GCoS or Gcom and of course the BBA networked with the PC

Will this also allow you to play backups on your GC? Could you please give me some mor info on this?

TIA, alcoatjez

[hagbard]

Will this also allow you to play backups on your GC? Could you please give me some mor info on this?

TIA, alcoatjez

Yes, the question it's how to load the homebrew BIOS, like GCoS, Gcom or Ninjashell. It's posible to load it with PSO and the BBA, Action Replay + BBA + MC or with Maxdrive Pro (an advanced AR). These 3 ways are explained at this site

However, there's other method, easier if you ask me, but you need an SD card adaptor, either the (very expensive) official, a cheap 3rd party solution like SD Gecko, or a made a homebrew one, and of course any SD card. Also GC Action Replay, it's needed, any version and the older the better. I'm gonna quote the procedure once available at that site, I don't take credit for this, it's Brakken's and Costis' work. Also I don't know why this is guide no longer on his site.

Every mentioned file it's available here or there

SoftMod - Action Replay + SD Loader

Nintendo SD Adapter

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SDLOAD startup screen

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GameCube Action Replay SD Loader V1.00. Copyright 2005. by Costis (costis@gbaemu.com">) and Parasyte . http://www.gcdev.com

INSTALLATION GUIDE

Things You Need

- Action Replay (ANY version!!!)

- SDLOAD (LOCATED \files\sdload.zip)

- Nintendo SD Adapter (or make your own [see below])

- SD Card (Any size)

- SD Card Reader/Writer for PC and Windows XP, NT, or 2000 (or a way to run code on GC.)

Installation

NOTE: SDLoad works with ALL versions of the Action Replay by Datel!

1. Ensure that your SD reader creates a virtual drive (Example: F:\) and that you can read and write files to the card without any problems. Your SD card must also be formatted with FAT16 (FAT12 and FAT32 are NOT supported.) To format the SD Card using DOS see below.

format f: /fs:fat /a:512

The h: is the drive letter of my SD Card drive. Replace h: with your drive letter.

2. Run sdpatch.exe, passing the SD reader drive letter on the command line. (Example: sdpatch.exe F:\)

This program will install the boot driver to the SD card. The boot driver will only have to be installed once, and will have to be installed on each SD card you wish to use with SD Loader. This is just the initial driver, and NOT the menu program, so it will never have to be changed!

Be assured that the file system of the card will remain COMPLETELY in tact after you have run the sdpatch.exe (or alternatively sdpatch.dol) program! They have advanced error checking, so there really is NOT any possibility for the file system on your card to become corrupted.

NOTE: If you do not have a computer with Windows XP, NT, or 2000 installed, or you cannot get sdpatch.exe to work for some reason and you already have a means of uploading code to your GameCube (such as PSO), then you can install the boot driver to the SD card by booting sdpatch.dol to your GC and following the on-screen instructions.

3. Copy SDLOADER.BIN to the root directory of the SD card. This is the DOL file selection menu that boots up after the Action Replay and lets you select what DOL to boot from the card. Since it's simply a file on the SD card, upgrading or replacing it is as easy as overwriting the file with a newer version in Explorer!

You may also copy any DOL files you want to the SD card, at this point. Try the included testdemo.dol file, as it's guaranteed to work! The SD boot menu supports subdirectories as well, so your DOL's can be arranged inside any directories you want. SDLOADER.BIN, however, MUST be copied to the root directory in order for the boot driver to locate it.

4. Additionally, the SD Loader Menu system can setup the BBA for you and allow NETWORK BOOT support. This means that just like PSOload, you can upload DOL or binary files from your computer through the network to your GameCube. If you want this functionality, create a new file named SDIPDATA.CFG containing the following text:

ON 192.168.0.4 9002 192.168.0.254 1234

The format is "ON PCIP PCPORT GCIP GCPORT" and must NOT contain any additional spaces or blank lines. Currently, due to a limitation of the current version of PSOload released, the GC IP address must end in 254 (xxx.xxx.xxx.254) and the GC port must be 1234. You must set the PC IP to your PC's IP address and the PC port to any free UDP port.

If you do not need network boot functionality, you can leave the SDIPDATA.CFG file off of the SD card, or change the first word of the file to "OFF". Both SDLOADER.BIN and SDIPDATA.CFG must be in the SD card's root directory.

You can tell that the SD boot menu has recognized the network configuration file if you see "INITIALIZING BBA..." at the top once it is running. Refer to the "Using SD Loader" section for information on how to use the network boot feature.

5. After installing the boot driver to your SD card, place the card and SD adapter into your GameCube's memory card slot A. Insert the Action Replay card or a standard memory card into slot B and start up the Action Replay. From the AR main menu, select Action Replay Codes. Select the USA flag, then ADD NEW GAME. Enter "SDLOAD" as the game name and push the "done" key. Now enter "(m)" as the code name. Enter the following code:

7YPR-RKZZ-MH6W5 D26A-PE4J-1XX2W ZJHY-B1ZH-6P00G

Next, select ADD NEW CODE and name the code "SDLOAD". Enter the following code:

AF4H-JPF5-H1B5J
MVAB-7TQE-ABZPB
V2CK-QQ1A-Y6P72
M5N6-CMMH-9EURT
0JFM-3A6C-VZ6VK
KYV8-0JGV-0GR1N
2EGU-HVKF-NDMCN
7AH0-J9JZ-HHGNJ
4MHU-G8XT-ZRYCJ
9474-KF41-8KG34
QMEV-G90N-A8RV0
KD4G-5QHV-74D46
V97K-652Q-Y4TEY
6M4W-9GPT-E99NG
QPFY-DJAF-E01FV
2Z6E-P2WY-24WV4
6NHW-G3NH-HP31Y
A2KF-MCKN-D645J
K5V8-EF9W-7GFQC
XTU3-269T-VH5NE
H9GP-C4PP-6FGF9
HF77-R45C-ZXPDV
22Y3-D98C-50AJM
WTWZ-EC88-U5ZTV
36G1-UGDG-J2G84
DUMT-15KR-DXJ8K
JV55-6VF5-2Z02T
D4R8-MVJ5-QGR21
1G3C-APD7-1CUVD

Finally, select the code named "SDLOAD" and press A to enable it. (The check box next to the code name will be filled when the code is enabled.) Press START and open/close the lid when asked.

6. The SD Loader main menu will now be shown on the screen. At this point, you can select from all dol files you have written to the SD card. You can also pull the SD card out and write new files to it. Just reinsert the SD card when ready and the SD Loader menu will refresh the card contents. If you have written the configuration file for network boot, you can also boot a GC executable with it at any time of your choice.

Using SD Loader

Many versions of Action Replay contain a bug that will keep newly entered codes disabled. The second time you use SD Loader, you must enable the code from the code list. After this has been done, the enabled code will be saved to the card in slot B.

You can then get into the SD Loader menu by simply selecting START from the AR main menu and open/close the disc cover when asked. That's right! All it will take from this point on to boot back into the menu is simply turning on your GC, pressing A, and opening\closing your GameCube's cover once!

Some newer versions of Action Replay may disallow booting their own discs. The Japanese "Pro Action Replay" is especially sensitive. If you are unable to get the SD Loader menu to show up (if the GameCube hangs after closing the disc lid, for example) then you may be required to swap discs when the AR asks. Any game disc will work, so long as the GameCube can read it properly. To do this, select START from the AR main manu, as usual. Open the disc cover and replace the AR disc with another disc. For example, Super Smash Bros. Melee or Pikmin (whatever games you have). After closing the disc cover, the SD Loader menu will show up!

To use the network boot functionality with PSO Loader v2.0, the GC's IP address must be x.x.x.254, and the GC's Port must be set to 1234. (See the installation notes above) Use psoload's -r switch to send dol files. For example:

psoload.exe -r -u9002 testdemo.dol



DOL Reloading

SD Loader supports DOL reloading in the same way as PSO Loader. To add reload support to your own DOL files, jump to address 0x80001800 in GameCube memory. You can achieve this in C by either using function pointers, or by using some inline assembly:

asm ("lis 3, 0x8000"); asm ("ori 3, 3, 0x1800"); asm ("mtlr 3"); asm ("blr");

Once the reloader has been invoked, the SD card browser menu will be reloaded and you will be able to network boot again or select another DOL file from the card to load.

Known Issues

A few DOL files which rely on Phantasy Star Online may not work well with SD loader.
- The the SD Loader Menu will not show up if the SD card Adapter is removed or inserted while in the Action Replay menu. The SD card adapter CAN be removed to change cards or make changes to the current card while in the SD card boot menu, however!
- PC IP must be correct in the SDIPDATA.CFG file if you choose to use it. Otherwise the menu code may hang.

Homebrew SD adaptor pics

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Above is how to directly wire an SD card into the cube, so you don’t need to buy an SD Card adapter.

Section 4 it's optional, like everything about network loading

[alcoatjez]

Wow, thanks for the extensive information! I will give it a try this week

[hagbard]

Wow, thanks for the extensive information! I will give it a try this week

No problem, I hope it won't be expensive btw