Basic Operation of Your Gamecube

If you read nothing else in this guide, this is what you need to know to set up and use your Gamecube.

• If you have been given a memory card adapter for your SD card, place it in slot 2 (the one on the right)
• Your SD card has been preconfigured with basic settings that do not require changing unless you have a specific reason to do so.
• To install your games, place your “game.iso” files into the folder labelled “2-Games” on your included SD card. No further setup is required.
• If you play multi-disc games, the system will handle switching discs for you as long as both disk files are located in the same folder.
• The system is preconfigred to use the SD card as a memory card. A very small number of games are not compatible with this feature and will require a real memory card, which can be had for a few dollars. See this link for a full list.

Technical Details

Your Gamecube has been configured with Picoboot, an internal mod chip which attacks the BIOS on boot in order to load a payload from an SD card. This allows you to launch into SWISS, which is the front end you will see when the system boots up. However, everyone wants to see that iconic boot animation when turning the system on, and as such the system has also been configured with Flippyboot, which not only shows the boot animation, but allows further customization, such as changing the color and allowing for a custom “logo” to replace the “Gamecube” logo. These are all configured and stored on the microSD card which came with your system. You can read more about each component by clicking the links above.

As a quick breakdown, Picoboot is what loads the payloads(IPL/.dol files). Flippyboot is configured as “IPL.dol”, which then loads SWISS (boot.dol). The config for flippyboot is located on the root of the SD card as “cubeboot.ini”.

Your SD card is attached to the system via a SD2SP2 or GCgecko, one of which connects to the serial port on the bottom of the system, the other which plugs into a memory card slot. Both perform identically, and such your usage is preference on a DOL-001 (DOL-101 does not have the serial port and requires a GCgecko.)

<aside> <img src="/icons/question-mark_purple.svg" alt="/icons/question-mark_purple.svg" width="40px" /> When you turn the system on, you will see some text flash quickly on the screen. This is the Picoboot exploit displaying its progress, and can be safely ignored. If for some reason your system boots to the “stock” boot menu, ensure your SD card is connected, IPL.dol is still present on the root of the card, or simply reboot the console.

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Swiss