Topic: The Official GameCube Thread

@ThanosReXXX I actually plug in either my GBA or SP with the link cable to play on the Gameboy player 😁

Yeah, I was exaggerating about the chainsaw controller, I’m sure it worked fine. However, as a young bachelor that possibly would have scared off any female company at all if I’d nonchalantly left it out on the coffee table in my flat 😆. That and any visiting family members might have questioned my taste/sanity!

@Gamecuber Oh believe me, it does make people question you. Back then, I was still living with my parents, and my mother went all like ""what the hell is THAT?"...

And yeah, plugging in the GBA also works, but when playing on the TV, an actual controller is just so much better, in my opinion.

@ThanosReXXX i kind of like the fact that the GBA screen displays the GameBoy player logo when you plug it in 😁

Speaking of random cube stuff, I forgot that I have not one but three different carry bags for the system. I have one which is like a football boot bag that’ll hold the system, wires and one controller. Then I found one in the style of a camera bag with the Pokemon Stadium logo on the front, but it is not really big enough to hold much more. Then I found what I thought was the biggest one, again camera style but with the GameCube logo instead, only to walk into a retro event and see that there is one more that is much larger that would comfortably hold the system, wired, 4 pads etc about two days later. I was standing there like ‘dammit!’

About 3 years ago I randomly drove behind a biker who had a GameCube backpack which was a bit random.

@Gamecuber Yeah, that was kinda of a neat little touch. Kinda reminds me of the Dreamcast VMU, which also had all kinds of pictures of games displayed while they were running on the console.

As far as GameCube carry cases/bags go, I've got this one myself:

Fits the console and its cables, two controllers and some games. Officially licensed bag.
https://www.virtualvideogamestore.com/store/p2034/Gamecube_Ca...

@ThanosReXXX that was the last one I got. I tend to put the system and cables in that one and use the smaller one for the pads if I ever have to take them anywhere.

@Gamecuber Well, that sounds like a waste of bag space, seeing as you could put at least two controllers in that same bag, in those pockets on the side. And if you divide space a bit smarter, you could even add two more controllers: one in the pocket under the flap in the front, and one on top.

@ThanosReXXX way ahead if you 😁 but it is a bit of a task doing it that way.

@RedderRugfish yep, I meant Colosseum. I have stadium as well, with the transfer pack.

@Gamecuber A task? How so? Sounds more a bit like #firstworldproblems...

Personally, I never felt the need to take four controllers with me. I took three at most, and I used the front pocket to store my original clear purple GBA in. My friends and I used to play a LOT of Pac-Man Vs., and that was the exact setup that we needed for that: three controllers and one GBA.

Good times...

@ThanosReXXX I run a retro games competition a couple of times a school term (I’m a teacher) and plug in the cube to an old crt in my classroom. Most kids are amazed at being able to play 4 player local games like smash and Mario kart (it seems that those who have been raised in PS3/4 and Xbox 360/1 don’t ever play local multiplayer. Very few switch players it seems). That’s why I need the extra storage space in the bags 😁

@Gamecuber Haha, that's pretty cool. Where were teachers like you when I was in school?

@ThanosReXXX it’s strange to think, but back when I was at school video games were a very niche, nerdy past time. I would have been mind blown if one of my teachers had been a gamer. The closest we got was dungeons and dragons in the role play club.

@Gamecuber I had a couple of these game and watch handhelds, as did a couple of my friends, but playing them in class was a definite no-go.

@ThanosReXXX I had two. One was about catching parachutists in a row boat (I think it was in a gold and brown case) and the other was Donkey Kong jr. which I think I got at an airport before a holiday. I remember seeing a sky blue super mario bros one in the shops and I think someone at school had a dual screen one. Could’ve been Donkey Kong or Zelda. My first real gaming system was a Sinclair Spectrum 128k (I wanted a NES with Ninja Turtles) before a Game Gear and eventually Mega Drive. My sister got a Gameboy but my first Nintendo system was the N64.

In the UK SEGA was much more popular than Nintendo. They were in the shops but I knew maybe 2 people who had a SNES. However, it didn’t really matter which you had, both 16 bit systems were brilliant and you were guaranteed a brilliant experience with either.

Edit: I tell a lie; my first Nintendo system was the GameBoy, I got one myself a year before the N64.

@Gamecuber Well, over here in the Netherlands, Sega was pretty popular as well. But between them and Nintendo, the local market share was probably 50/50, so kind of a stalemate. We had real Sega and Nintendo camps in school.

But I wanted none of that. I was always more of a "real" computer kid. I did play games on my cousin's Pong console and Atari2600, but never got into the consoles myself. When I was younger, my parents would never buy me one, because they didn't think it was a good toy, and later on, I didn't want to burn my pocket money on such expensive stuff.

So, instead, I started learning BASIC on a Toshiba MSX computer, and my cousins had all the Nintendo goodness (they had both the NES and the SNES, and also a Game Boy), so I didn't really miss out on anything, other than Sega games.

But even though I didn't exactly feel the need (yet) to burn a hole in my pocket by buying a game console, it did start to gnaw at me somewhat. But still I wasn't convinced. And there was also this group of friends, and/or like minds, that tried to enthuse me for the C64 instead of sticking with my MSX, but they too couldn't sway me. But then came the Amiga... Oh, boy... I've spent quite a bit of time and money on those, and I still own all of my systems and games too: an A500, an A1200 with built-in hard drive and a CD32 with SX32 expansion and built-in hard drive.

Only after the Amiga brand withered and died, never really having been able to fully realize/fulfill the promise of true 3D gaming, did I look elsewhere, and seeing as the family was already firmly in the Nintendo camp, that is basically how I ended up with my first Nintendo console: the N64, and later on, I also bought the clear purple Game Boy Color, to complete the combo of being able to play games anywhere.

And basically, I've been with Nintendo ever since. The only things still missing in my collection are a 2DS, and both the newer iterations of the 2DS and 3DS, and a Game Boy Micro, but other than that, I have every console, and every handheld. And because of the Classic Minis, I was finally also able to repair my earlier mistake of never having bought a NES or SNES...

Outside of all the Nintendo systems and handhelds, I've only ever bought a couple of other systems, namely the Sega Dreamcast, the Xbox 360, and the Xbox One S, but that's it. Oh, and an old, mid-range PC, the very one I'm using right now, on which I can play anything up to games like COD Black Ops 2. Anything heavier/newer than that, and it starts to stutter. So, basically the PC versions of early to mid-generation Xbox 360 games.

Alright guys help me out. Just got a Pal GameCube with a carby hdmi adapter. The GameCube is modded but only so I can force up the resolution. Im not interested in dodgy downloads as im trying for a full physical collection. Am I best using 576p at 50hz or 480p at 60hz? I’ve been staring at my tv so long I can no longer tell the difference.

@BigBadJohn Are you certain that it's 576p, and not 576i?
Either way, 60Hz is always better, and seeing as PAL GameCube games were actually developed in a native 480p, you'll get the most accurate result out of that. Let your TV screen do the rest, with upscaling it to Full HD and/or 4K.

I'd also suggest you try a racing game, one in which you can easily notice differences in refresh rates, so not F-Zero GX, in which your brain is bombarded with a lot of WAY too fast images, but something like Need for Speed or similar. Or even Mario Kart Double Dash. Simply looking at a picture and switching back and forth between resolutions will do little to make you see or decide, but playing the same game first at 50Hz and then at 60Hz should do the trick. (edit: and the other way around should make it even more noticeable, by the way)

The latter should be smoother, and/or slightly faster, so for all intent and purposes, that should make you notice it. But if you still don't, then just simply know and accept that 60Hz is always to the benefit of the game, and resolution-wise, the two settings really aren't that far apart, but most importantly, as previously mentioned, 480p is the native resolution of the PAL GameCube. In NTSC regions, it was 480i and/or 576i, which is why I asked you about that earlier, seeing as I can imagine that being one of the options of the HDMI adapter.

@Gamecuber hay gamecuber, was the broadband lan for a nintendo gamecube able to play games over hundreds of miles without an internet conection..or was i dreaming. Your in the UK could you tell me a place on the net that is in Britain I could buy one from

The Japan import of f-zero GX is not great .just got it. Also I'm learning all the moves in soul calibur 2 again good fun.

It definitely says 576p but I’ll stick with 480p if that’s how the games where designed to be played. Thanks for your help @ThanosReXXX

@BigBadJohn Okay, that is kind of odd/uncommon. The 576i resolution was a normal thing on NTSC systems, and it's also present on the Wii, if you go into the settings menu.

In your specific case, there is a minimal benefit to gain from displaying games in that resolution, because the improvement vs 480p is only 1.2 times, so that's why you weren't really able to see any clear difference, because we're talking about only 96 pixels more here, which is rather negligible.

Either way, as I mentioned before, the screen refresh rate is the most important anyway, so with such a small difference in resolution, that's the first thing to look at.