Gamecube: The Gamecube Hard Drive Loader

A rather interesting development has been happening in the world of Gamecube homebrew lately. Before, the PS2 and Xbox were the only last-generation consoles to be able to load games from a hard drive. The poor little Gamecube was left out in the cold, cold world of writable optical media. It has been many, many years of waiting for 'Cube fans, hoping that some day, some bold developer would attain mastery of one of the Gamecube's many data ports, and give the system the backup loader it deserves, with an actual hard drive. Various new developments in Gamecube homebrew could finally make this a reality. First, let's talk hardware.

[img width=300 height=225]http://cache1.bigcartel.com/product_images/30789303/300.jpg[/img]

This is the Gamecube Hard Drive Loader. It works by connecting through the memory card port, as shown, as opposed to any of the 3 ports on the bottom of the system. It works essentially the same way as does the SD card .iso/.gcm loader, except, obviously, in lieu of a solid state card, an IDE hard drive is used. This will allow you to keep your entire Gamecube collection on your hard drive. Since it can only access data at the speed of a memory card slot, you probably can't expect better loading times, but that doesn't change the fact that it is a convenient way to store your collection. Now the bad news. The accessory is currently unavailable and out of production, and has not been in production for some time. If you want one, you will either have to build your own, or ask reeeeeeeeeaaaaaalllllllyyyyyy nicely to buy one from someone who has one. Also, the compatibility is only as good as the SD Card loader, but the good news is that compatibility for both is always on the rise, with most major titles being playable. Speaking of .iso loaders, let's take a look at the software that makes this possible.

[img width=251 height=183]http://gbatemp.net/images/news/1296605456swiss.png[/img]

Primarily, the new piece of homebrew meant to load any game from anywhere. Swiss-GC [AKA "The Swiss Army Knife of Gamecube Software"] is meant to load .iso/.gcm files from either the disc drive, SD Card, or Hard Drive. The compatibility list is quite good compared to other SD Card loaders, and the speeds are playable. The program can also rip disc images from Gamecube discs to the Hard Drive and SD Card. There are more minor features to the software, but the focus is to make the biggest homebrew loader possible for the system, like it should have gotten in its heyday.

The Gamecube has tons of untapped potential left in homebrew, and this is another important step. A hard drive is an indispensable accessory to a modern console, and it is good to see that the 'Cube can still hold its own in this regard. Hopefully, development will continue to go smoothly on both of these projects, and that someday, all Gamecube enthusiasts will be able to have the HDD be a total replacement of the disc drive. Long live the Gamecube, even after death!

Sorry that I have not been writing a whole lot lately; I have been finishing up High School, so I had a lot of things to take care of. But, now I am on summer vacation, so I will have a lot more time to write for my blog! Thanks for everyone who has been reading so far; I really appreciate it when people like my articles!

This is Lisalover1, and this post does not encourage piracy in any way, shape, or form. Gamecube games are cheap anyway, so you really have no excuse.