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.
If reading Hackaday teaches us anything, it’s that there is a subset of hackers who take things like emulator builds a step farther than most. [RetroModder] is very clearly one such hacker. Enter the GamecubePC, which you can read about on Hackaday.io. The GamecubePC is a multi-year project that aims to stuff an entire Windows 10 PC into a GameCube shell while still being able to play Wii and GameCube titles at native resolution and performance.
Internals of the GamecubePC with all the custom chassis and PCB’s on display
Although it only takes a spare computer and the Dolphin emulator to make a GameCube and Wii emulator, great attention has been paid to keeping the GameCube at the forefront. Contributing to the illusion is the preservation of the original GameCube power switch and reset buttons by way of custom PCB’s that interface the parts to the mSTX motherboard.
The bottom of the GameCube shell is replaced with a 3D printed base that mounts the motherboard while smartly giving access to the motherboard’s front panel. The minuscule motherboard sports an Intel Core™ i5-7600 with 8GB memory, and SSD storage. Topping off the experience are four functional controller ports that can be switched to be used with the emulator or with PC games too. Surely the GamecubePC will be the subject of many double takes!
