GameCube Bot Records Your Play In A Weird Way

April 23, 2026 by Zoe Skyforest 8 Comments

If you wanted to record yourself playing on a GameCube, you could use a VCR to capture the video output on tape. But there is a more interesting way to do it—which is precisely what [jiinurppa] built GameCube bot for.

The concept is simple—GameCube bot is a small device that captures controller inputs and records them to an SD card. It can then play them back on command, allowing it to recreate gameplay as it happened the first time right on the console. A Raspberry Pi Pico is the brains of the operation, which is able to intercept signals from a standard GameCube controller. It’s paired with the aforementioned SD storage as well as an ST7735 display for showing status information. The device records in the DTM (Dolphin TAS Movie) format, which can be played back on the device when hooked up to a GameCube console, or in emulators like Dolphin itself.

[jiinurppa] notes that the device isn’t accurate enough to use for tool-assisted speed runs. Most notably, small errors in optical drive reads can lead to desyncs compared to the original machine state that make frame-accurate replays impossible. Still, it’s a neat build that can be useful for capturing game play and later analysis.

We’ve explored the world of Tool Assisted Speedruns before, though this device isn’t directly applicable to that world. Video after the break.

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Fixing A GameCube’s Dodgy Optical Drive With Fresh Capacitors

April 17, 2026 by Maya Posch 3 Comments

Generally when a game console with an optical drive stops reading discs the first thing that people do is crank on the potentiometer that controls the power to the laser diode to ramp up its output. While this can be a necessary solution to eke out a bit more life out of a clearly dying laser diode, this can actually massively shorten the lifespan of a good diode that’s just held back by bad capacitors. This is demonstrated by [Skawo] with a fix on a GameCube that stopped reading discs.

While it’s absolutely true that laser diodes have a limited lifespan, so do the capacitors and other components in the system. Thus, after tearing down this Japanese GameCube, [Skawo] accesses the optical PCB for some delicate plier-based capacitor surgery. One can absolutely question such violence, as well as the replacement mix of MLCC ceramics and a stray THT electrolytic capacitor, but the results after reassembly are obvious.

Without having to adjust the laser diode’s potentiometer, the game console now happily reads the game disc while the laser diode breathes a sigh of relief. Although all GameCube consoles will face the inevitable demise of their optical drives – barring a replacement optical pickup solution appearing – with this capacitor replacement solution it’s at least possible to stave off that undesirable time for a bit longer.

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Game Cube Hot Tub Animation Brought Into Real World

April 17, 2026 by Bryan Cockfield 2 Comments

Unlike the current era where most consumer electronics are black rectangles, or the early 90s where most consumer electronics were black rectangles, we got a brief glimmer of color, light, and hope in the 2000s. Cell phones had all kinds of shapes and sizes, laptops came in bright colors, and even video game consoles got in on the fun. The Nintendo GameCube not only featured its namesake shape but came in several vibrant colors, most famously a bright purple. In fact, its design was such a hit that it continues to inspire artists and console modders alike. An animator named [kidd.gorgeous] recently envisioned a GameCube as a hot tub, and [BigRig Creates] set out to make this animation a reality.

Of course, this won’t be a life-sized hot tub capable of holding a human, but [BigRig Creates] did want it to be a usable, playable Game Cube with all of the features from the animation present in the final version. Since the lid won’t be operational with a hot tub model on the top lest all of the water spill out every time a game is changed, he’s modified it with some modern tools to hold his games inside the console itself. With the case open he’s also added the LED accent lighting featured in the animation as well as added the 3D-printed hot tub to the top. The hot tub is filled with mineral oil for electronics safety, and has a small pump built in to give the appearance of a working hot tub.

The buttons around the outside are functional as well, toggling the various lighting features and hot tub operation. And of course, the console diorama is fully playable, with the staircase railing able to easily detach in order to access the leftmost controller ports. It’s a faithful adaptation of the original animation, and [BigRig Creates] has a few games on queue that are properly themed for the new hot tub addition like Wave Race 64, Super Mario Sunshine, and Pool Paradise.

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GameCube Dock For Switch, Revisited

February 15, 2026 by Fenix Guthrie 3 Comments

While modern game consoles are certainly excellent, there is still something magical about the consoles of yore. So why not bring the magical nostalgia of a GameCube controller to the Switch series of consoles?

This isn’t [Dorison Hugo’s] first attempt at building a Switch dock, but with seven years of development, there are a lot of updates in the project to unpack. One version allows the user to play on the Switch’s screen instead of on a docked display, and another comes with a mechanical lock to prevent the console from being stolen. But what really caught our eye is the modifications made to the OEM Switch docks.

As it turns out, there is enough space inside a Switch dock to stuff in four GameCube ports. Short of spinning a custom board, the trick was picking the right commercial adapter to start with. The Wii U branded adapter [Dorison] was using wouldn’t fit. However, a rather small third-party adapter from Input Integrity got the job done. Space was still rather tight, and the ports needed to be removed from the board to fit. Some cables with simple connectors on the GameCube connector side make cable management a bit simpler later. Holes have to be very neatly cut into the front of the Switch dock to complete the look, with the mods held in with some superglue, epoxy, and hot glue.

Shortly after the completion of the dock, the Switch 2 was released, so naturally, that dock went through a similar process. While there is more internal space for cable management on this iteration of the console, there is too little space for the ports to fit without modification. Shaving off a few millimeters from the top of the ports allows them to fit inside the case, but makes cutting professional-looking holes in the front panel all the more challenging. Unfortunately, there is no good way to connect the adapter’s USB cable to the dock’s PCB, so an extra USB cable became necessary.

Regardless of any imperfections, both modified docks look excellent, with near-OEM quality!

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Computer rendering of a DIY, purple Nintendo Wavebird controller adapter

Wavebird Controller Soars Once More With Open Source Adapter

December 7, 2025 by Drew Littrell 8 Comments

After scouring the second-hand shops and the endless pages of eBay for original video game hardware, a pattern emerges. The size of the accessory matters. If a relatively big controller originally came with a tiny wireless dongle, after twenty years, only the controller will survive. It’s almost as if these game controllers used to be owned by a bunch of irresponsible children who lose things (wink). Such is the case today when searching for a Nintendo Wavebird controller, and [James] published a wireless receiver design to make sure that the original hardware can be resurrected.

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Making GameCube Keyboard Controller Work With Animal Crossing

June 26, 2025 by John Elliot V 2 Comments

[Hunter Irving] is a talented hacker with a wicked sense of humor, and he has written in to let us know about his latest project which is to make a GameCube keyboard controller work with Animal Crossing.

This project began simply enough but got very complicated in short order. Initially the goal was to get the GameCube keyboard controller integrated with the game Animal Crossing. The GameCube keyboard controller is a genuine part manufactured and sold by Nintendo but the game Animal Crossing isn’t compatible with this controller. Rather, Animal Crossing has an on-screen keyboard which players can use with a standard controller. [Hunter] found this frustrating to use so he created an adapter which would intercept the keyboard controller protocol and replace it with equivalent “keypresses” from an emulated standard controller.

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RTEMS Statement Deepens Libogc License Controversy

May 14, 2025 by Tom Nardi 41 Comments

Earlier this month we covered the brewing controversy over libogc, the community-developed C library that functions as the backbone for GameCube and Wii homebrew software. Questions about how much of the library was based on leaked information from Nintendo had been circulating for decades, but the more recent accusations that libogc included code from other open source projects without proper attribution brought the debate to a head — ultimately leading Wii Homebrew Channel developer Hector Martin to archive the popular project and use its README as a central point to collect evidence against libogc and its developers.

At the time, most of the claims had to do with code being taken from the Real-Time Executive for Multiprocessor Systems (RTEMS) project. Martin and others in the community had performed their own investigations, and found some striking similarities between the two codebases. A developer familiar with both projects went so far as to say that as much as half the code in libogc was actually lifted from RTEMS and obfuscated so as to appear as original work.

While some of these claims included compelling evidence, they were still nothing more than accusations. For their part, the libogc team denied any wrongdoing. Contributors to the project explained that any resemblance between libogc code and that of either leaked Nintendo libraries or other open source projects was merely superficial, and the unavoidable result of developing for a constrained system such as a game console.

But that all changed on May 6th, when the RTEMS team released an official statement on the subject. It turns out that they had been following the situation for some time, and had conducted their own audit of the libogc code. Their determination was that not only had RTEMS code been used without attribution, but that it appeared at least some code had also been copied verbatim from the Linux kernel — making the license dispute (and its solution) far more complex.

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