What’d be super cool is if there was an outlet that sold repro/custom teal shells so we could mod our GC’s visually. Cause the internals and functionality of the NR version isn’t anything super cool, but I love that color.
I took mine apart and give him a white and glossy black paint job. But I seriously discourage doing that. It was super annoying putting everything back together and some buttons arent working that well anymore. So premade shells would be awesome
Used to be that place in Hong Kong that made full size disc mod cases, I remember buying a full size disc clear purple GC one from over there with a couple matching clear purple controller shells. Lik Sang was the name as I got a stack of Dreamcast stuff from there at the same time.
@@daskampffredchen sounds like a fun project though! Do you think the buttons are just sticking from paint? Did you also paint the buttons? If so you could try sanding them down a bit and they would probably work better.
Well, there's companies making DC and Saturn shells, they're working on PS1 now. Other companies make N64 shells... It's only a matter of time before GC shells are mass produced.
What about generic discs? Can you get regular writable DVDs (can't remember if they'll even physically fit) or MiniDVDs and use burned game disks in the NR Reader
It's been known for ages, fun fact, you can do the exact same drive swap on the RVT-R reader. By the way NR discs are pretty much regular DVD-R but all the burned data is xored with key 0x9.
I got one of these long ago when Acclaim went out of business.. It has the Q/A # craved into the side and Acclaim sticker on the both. I already decked it out with the GC dual & SD2SP2. I replaced the daughter board with a retail board and modded it with the Xeno, removed the wiring for the Region Switch and set it US Region permanently. Love the color.... I just need to get the matching Controller.
Very interesting! Surprised you didnt try the other way around too and put the NR reader drive in the retail shell. Are they just normal mini-Dvd? would be cool if you could burn them or copy the one you have on loan.
@@MachoNachoProductions please do try that, I was wondering that same thing when the video was coming to an end. Also, I wonder if that region switch would work on a retail unit if soldered to the same points or if the NR reader also has custom firmware for its mainboard but just related to the region switch.
I had a hunch the optical drive was going to be the main difference, knowing how the xenogc worked but its nice to see definitive proof for my theory laid before! Very cool stuff, here's a question for you, have you attempted to burn a game to mini dvd (or full size dvd with the lid off) to see if it'll boot from that too?
No need to tune the laser. Installing a Qoob Pro will allow you to play burned games and also original one. I still have my gc with the qoob pro and it’s working fine. Changed the top shell also so it can accept regular dvd ;). That NR GameCube is just nice to keep as a collector piece..
Some of these came with a different controller (a NR DISC Full Speed). The handles are bigger, the shell has a clear back, and the buttons have different fonts, shapes, and colors.
Burned discs could also be loaded with GCoS on a completely unmodded gamecube after a little pot tweaking for stronger laser. It was recommended to use Ritek G04 mini discs burned at the slowest speed.
Yet another quality video, thanks Tito! I'd love to see a follow up to see if the nr optical drive works in the retail unit as the region switch is missing, just curious if there's any other unknown difference that might stop a retail unit working with the nr drive.
That's pretty cool. I think if you can turn a regular retail disc reader into a NR Reader, I would hope it didn't burn out the laser, like what happens with PS2's that switch between ps1 and ps2 games.
I don’t know anything at all about how any gaming console works, but when you said the nr discs didn’t have the same etching as a game cube disc, kinda thought it has to be the optical reader. It just made sense. But awesome video. I really enjoyed it.
Thanks Mathew. I knew it either had to be the motherboard or the optical drive. I was thinking it would’ve been the motherboard, but it definitely makes sense it’s actually the optical drive
There are at least 4 that I’m aware of. The npdp reader, the NR reader, the tdev, and the gdev. I’m sure there’s other accessories and tool that I’m unaware of 😅
I’m not sure, but I think it’s connected to the same exact points as you connect a switch to when doing the region mod for NTSC gamecubes. So yeah, if that’s the case, it would.
If I recall correctly, the GC drive spins backwards to a standard optical drive to keep people with burners from making copies easily. I'm guessing that's why the NR drive (not reversed?) can read burned disks. And if I'm wrong? Well, it won't be the first time. 😁
@@MachoNachoProductions could you have a look at a disk in the NR reader vs retail unit right after opening the top, it would be a quick way to see if it is the spin direction that has anything to do with it.
The spin direction has little to do with it, if anything. I can't remember which direction the GC drive spins in. However, the protection comes from the barcode and extra cuts outside of the barcode area. A regular DVD burner's laser is not strong enough to create these cuts in the DVDs and the GC's DVD drive checks for the barcode and the extra cuts. This is what stops the DVD drive from reading burned discs, and only 1 company (Datel) ever managed to circumvent the protection. The NR discs are still different from regular DVDs, though I'm not sure in what way, and from what I can remember is that other people have tried to use regular DVDs with the NR reader and it didn't read them.
I’m hoping there is a way to dump the firmware in the NR reader. That way it can be preserved and theoretically could be injected into any retail optical drive
So this raises a few good questions. Can you burn a GameCube ISO to a Mini-DVD and will the NR Reader read it? Can you put the NR drive in a retail GameCube and would it play NR disks? Great video! Maybe a Part 2?!?
@Milk The question I have is, if you adjust the POTS on the GC (if you did a few XENO mods I am sure you found one that can't read burned games), you can get the exact result here. It might not be firmware, it could be pots adjustment.... that is my wonder...
My assumptions from watching the video: NR Reader is a No Region firmware optical drive, where the standard NGC drive has Region Checks, to prevent playing Pal in NTSC and vice-versa
I modded my GC with a mod chip from Lik-Sang, weird thing is one of my daughter's friends gave her a ton of GC games so we have never had to use it for "jolly roger" discounting, I also emu'd an absolute ton of stuff on my Dreamcast like the full MAME set, all the 8 and 16 bit consoles on it and even a Linux build which was pretty rudimentary by todays standards but back then it was rubbing shoulders with mid range PC's for browsing and stuff (if a bit clunky to do things even with the dedicated keyboard and mouse set)
I had the same thought you had about the drive swap, would never have guessed the result. If I was to enter the guesswork zone (since this information is very likely well known to modchip makers and the folks that made mods to replace the optical drive with an SD card), I would say that Nintendo wanted to isolate completely the encryption from the console, such that it is entirely independent, to avoid modchips like the PS1s wobble defeat one, so that modders wouldn't be tapping into the drive's data lines to guess how it works and proceed with piracy. 8cm DVDs aren't any anti-piracy feature after all, given it was released about the same time as DVD video cameras that used 8cm DVD-Rs anyway. This explains the retail, NR Reader and NPDP consoles all sharing a board - the console doesn't care where the game data comes from.
Can you test someting else ? Write your copy of game to mini DVD/CD and try it in NR Reader. If it works it is a big thing !! Next step is to save a firmware of a drive - this is a missing link of plaing homebrews directly whitout hardware modifications or expensive mods. I think that those NR disks are just rebranded dvd-r dvd+r or CD-r disks...
I'm kind of disappointed you didn't try a retail game burned onto an off the shelf DVD-R in the NR Reader, or try and check the MCC ID of the NR disc using something like ImgBurn.
I'm assuming the way that region switch works would probably work on a standard gamecube as well. Looks more convenient than the default location that's been noted for years. The one where you have to remove the heat sink in order to get to.
Thank you! Glad you enjoyed it! Unfortunately game development is out of my wheel house 😅. I’m sure there are some great discord groups or forums out there on the topic but I don’t know any off the top of my head.
The TH-camr PolyMars did a video were he ported a game to 5 platforms. One of them being GameCube. Not much to development but maybe a nice starting place
Hmmm. Could you piggy back a firmware chip from a regular optical drive onto the NR reader chip and switch the CS line? It's a mod for the original XBOX drive using a custom chip.
It has NOTHING to do with the optical drive, it has to do with the firmware. All swapping the drive out tells you, is where the firmware you need is. Given the drive switch, it's clearly on the disk drive. Theoretically, you could dump, then write, said firmware and get an "NR Reader" out of a standard console. What I think would be MORE interesting, is if the NR Reader can read mini-dvds.
I wonder if the NR Reader drive can read burned games, or whether they need NR Disks specifically. Some firmware setting that has been missed for 20 years maybe...
I wonder if the NR disc works on a modchipped retail unit. This all makes a lot of sense when you think about the GCLoader and modchips. Seems like the system just trusts whatever it gets sent over the drive port.
I would have loved to see if the swapped unit was capable of reading a retail Japanese game! Also I'm wondering if someone tried to add a region switch to a retail gamecube to see if it works by any chance (I doubt it but who knows)
I would really like to see a region switch mod kit that is identical in form factor to the one on either the NR reader GameCube and NPDP GameCube. Did they use like a hot glue gun to secure the wire to the board?
@@MachoNachoProductions That was going to be my question. The drive is a funky thing, I seem to remember it spins the opposite way to a standard DVD etc. It would be a nice trick to inject the NR firmware in to a normal GC but without access to a dev burner it seems a bit pointless. Nice video Tito, good to see the dev kits in action. I've only seen two dev kits, a Megadrive one and a PSX one. I just happened to visit Steve Snakes place, apart from writing the Kega Fusion PC Genesis emulator he was also the dev of NBA Jam on the same system.
Yes but you'll need a nr dvd burner (it's a retail burner w/ a custom fw on it from nintendo), some blank nr disc and to make a slight edit to the iso. I made some ages ago for the hell off it because I had access to all the hw at work (small game studio) and blank nr disc were easy to source. It was neat in theory back in the day but i'd say less so now a days, still have the discs I made.
Great video. Now did you try the region switch with Japan games? This now makes the NR consoles worth grow because those colors are legit awesome! I love those NR dev gamecube consoles colors!
Yep it’s still functional. I’m realizing I should have done more filmed more testing. A lot of people are asking some great questions. May have to do a follow up.
That seems expected because with both Gamecubes. I don't think they'll be doing two different motherboards, that would cost a lot more than manufacture. All of the emulation is done on the disk drive.
I wonder if it's firmware, or just a POTS tweak.... I've modded about 10-15 GCs with Xeno etc. About 5-6 of them I needed to adjust the POTs so it could read burned disks. I know in testing, you can tweak the POTS so it could read burned games but, not play retail games, normally needing a re-adjustment. Seeing how this device works, I would wonder if you "copied" a disc, or burnt a retail game on a disc (there are some good quality discs that the GC likes) and tried it on this system. Does it work ? If this NR Reader can read burned games fine, then it's not a firmware, it's a tweaked POTS... just my thoughts from experience on it. Very interesting see this device, and I like the color ! My Spice Orange GC can do everything this one does and read retail games (Xeno), I also did the switch for JP and US but, I'll admit, their location to grab it is a lot easier than the 2 tiny solder points I used...
Probably already been asked but what would happen if you put the NR disc into a modded regular Gamecube? Or indeed could you put a mod in the NRLoader and have it read Retail games? Also I like how you say the many screws in the GC assembly. I always call them the 180 screws in the assembly. Why 180? because it's 1 more than 179... And that is exactly how it feels when you think you've got them all only to realize there's one more. (In other words there is no reason)
Haven't watched the full video yet so I'm probably wrong: The disc drives are probably identical however if there is a difference then it's probably that NR one is in debug mode. If not I think it's handled by the IPL Well, you said it yourself: that was very unexpected 😅
Daym I was hoping it would be as simple as flashing a regular drive with the NR firmware. Hopfully all you GameCube fans out there might see something come out of this in the future... but I always want "the dream" of a soft modded solution for old systems.
But you will need a SPECIAL BURNER to MAKE the NR-Discs ... right? - It's still a pretty cool piece of history... but I wonder why you didn't put the NR drive into a RETAIL Gamecuve to see if it's that simple to change it up???
have you considered moving the wire to a retail gamecube and seeing if the retail gamecube can swap regions (i have a hunch it works similar to how picoboot and similar things work works where it replaces the bios live) that and trying the system without the change switch (i would imagine it just boots a default gamecube bios like retail (or none at all if theres nothing on the chips but something tells me its just a repurposed retail unit) also have you tried playing a japanese gamecube using that switch because it should be possible all the same the drives are identical
Would a modded retail drive with a xenoGC be capable of running NR discs anyway? If not, would it be the file structure and bootable file that would make the difference? What would be awesome is if you could utilise the NR reader in to a PicoBooted retail console and see what happens there. Sooooo many ideas!
🤣 Your only test disc is Batman: Dark Tomorrow. One of the most notoriously broken releases! I'd love to see you do a vid comparing retail vs tester disc
Very cool. I’ve never heard of the GCN development hardware. I wonder if it was a greater detriment that it was on the optical drive? I am curious if transferring the region switch to a retail GameCube would work the same?
I have a sneaky suspicion that a modded GC which can play burned games would be able to read NR discs, which is basically what they are. Would be cool if this was tested though.
The only thing that’s unique to the NR reader is the optical drive. And it’s most likely just the firmware. Essentially the NR reader is simply a regular GameCube.
I'm curious to see what would happen if you had the retail disc drive in the dev unit, but switched the region to Japan. Also curious if you could reverse engineer the region switcher to use on retail units, just copying what Nintendo did with that board.
if you slowly think about it ... NR Reader ! read it again but slowly N ... R ... R E A D E R it's the thing that does the READING that's supposed to be different, which is the disk reader lol
A rom-dump of the firmware of the drive would be interesting, to see, what different is.
Dump the drive firmwre! Dump the drive firmwre! Dump the drive firmwre!
What’d be super cool is if there was an outlet that sold repro/custom teal shells so we could mod our GC’s visually. Cause the internals and functionality of the NR version isn’t anything super cool, but I love that color.
I think it’s only a matter of time before we get some Gc shells. At least I hope 😅🙏
I took mine apart and give him a white and glossy black paint job. But I seriously discourage doing that. It was super annoying putting everything back together and some buttons arent working that well anymore. So premade shells would be awesome
Used to be that place in Hong Kong that made full size disc mod cases, I remember buying a full size disc clear purple GC one from over there with a couple matching clear purple controller shells. Lik Sang was the name as I got a stack of Dreamcast stuff from there at the same time.
@@daskampffredchen sounds like a fun project though! Do you think the buttons are just sticking from paint? Did you also paint the buttons? If so you could try sanding them down a bit and they would probably work better.
Well, there's companies making DC and Saturn shells, they're working on PS1 now. Other companies make N64 shells... It's only a matter of time before GC shells are mass produced.
There are more dev kits for gamecube than I thought. It's really cool that swapping the drive lets you play retail games!
You should have used the NR drive on the retail console, I think it would be interesting to see an NR disc work on the retail one
What about generic discs? Can you get regular writable DVDs (can't remember if they'll even physically fit) or MiniDVDs and use burned game disks in the NR Reader
It's been known for ages, fun fact, you can do the exact same drive swap on the RVT-R reader. By the way NR discs are pretty much regular DVD-R but all the burned data is xored with key 0x9.
damn so its literally not even a line of code its a hex value keeping it bottlenecked
I got one of these long ago when Acclaim went out of business.. It has the Q/A # craved into the side and Acclaim sticker on the both. I already decked it out with the GC dual & SD2SP2. I replaced the daughter board with a retail board and modded it with the Xeno, removed the wiring for the Region Switch and set it US Region permanently. Love the color.... I just need to get the matching Controller.
Oh man, did they come with color matched controllers? I’ve never seen one.
@@MachoNachoProductions I see them on eBay now and then.
teal color controller
@@MachoNachoProductions I don’t think these particular systems came with matching ones, but similar colored controllers did release at retail
Very interesting! Surprised you didnt try the other way around too and put the NR reader drive in the retail shell. Are they just normal mini-Dvd? would be cool if you could burn them or copy the one you have on loan.
I know, I thought about doing it while editing 😭 I may have to do a follow up video since a lot of people are asking great questions
@@MachoNachoProductions please do try that, I was wondering that same thing when the video was coming to an end.
Also, I wonder if that region switch would work on a retail unit if soldered to the same points or if the NR reader also has custom firmware for its mainboard but just related to the region switch.
I’d like to see it try to run a mini-dvdr backup from a retail disc
I had a hunch the optical drive was going to be the main difference, knowing how the xenogc worked but its nice to see definitive proof for my theory laid before! Very cool stuff, here's a question for you, have you attempted to burn a game to mini dvd (or full size dvd with the lid off) to see if it'll boot from that too?
I haven’t tried that, but that would be very interesting to test out!
burn GameCube game could only be read if the laser is tuned
I used to sell gamecubes
That can reed burn GameCube games. you have to tuned
The lasers .BUT BE WORN
you will burn out the lasers faster that way
No need to tune the laser. Installing a Qoob Pro will allow you to play burned games and also original one. I still have my gc with the qoob pro and it’s working fine. Changed the top shell also so it can accept regular dvd ;). That NR GameCube is just nice to keep as a collector piece..
Fun fact.
The Wii RVT-R will read any region NR disc.
Some of these came with a different controller (a NR DISC Full Speed). The handles are bigger, the shell has a clear back, and the buttons have different fonts, shapes, and colors.
Great video as usual. I look forward to them every week.
Thank you Stephen 🙏😁 glad you enjoy them!
it seems like a missed opportunity to me to not try a regular burned mini DVD on the NR console, or an NR disc on a xenoGC modded console.
I believe the NR disc requires a special DVD burner. Regular burned mini dvds I believe won’t work
Yeah I'm wondering about whether the nr disc will work on a xeno modded standard drive as well
That is so cool and I would be interested in seeing if that region switch assembly could be added to a retail GameCube.
Burned discs could also be loaded with GCoS on a completely unmodded gamecube after a little pot tweaking for stronger laser.
It was recommended to use Ritek G04 mini discs burned at the slowest speed.
Nice! I believe the NR disc is a bit different than a stand burned one since it needs a special burner
Yet another quality video, thanks Tito! I'd love to see a follow up to see if the nr optical drive works in the retail unit as the region switch is missing, just curious if there's any other unknown difference that might stop a retail unit working with the nr drive.
That's pretty cool. I think if you can turn a regular retail disc reader into a NR Reader, I would hope it didn't burn out the laser, like what happens with PS2's that switch between ps1 and ps2 games.
Installing a XenoGC should let NR discs to be read.
Nice Series X you’ve got there. 5:29
Edit: It’s even got a developers license, that’d aught to let you play Game Cube games on it.
🤣
I don’t know anything at all about how any gaming console works, but when you said the nr discs didn’t have the same etching as a game cube disc, kinda thought it has to be the optical reader. It just made sense. But awesome video. I really enjoyed it.
Thanks Mathew. I knew it either had to be the motherboard or the optical drive. I was thinking it would’ve been the motherboard, but it definitely makes sense it’s actually the optical drive
Very cool :) thanks for sharing this cool dev kit with us Tito.
Absolutely 😁 you’re most welcome. Glad you enjoyed it
Neat. Crazy how many different kits their are.
There are at least 4 that I’m aware of. The npdp reader, the NR reader, the tdev, and the gdev. I’m sure there’s other accessories and tool that I’m unaware of 😅
I do wonder...does the region bodge for the NP* units work on the retail system?
I’m not sure, but I think it’s connected to the same exact points as you connect a switch to when doing the region mod for NTSC gamecubes. So yeah, if that’s the case, it would.
If I recall correctly, the GC drive spins backwards to a standard optical drive to keep people with burners from making copies easily. I'm guessing that's why the NR drive (not reversed?) can read burned disks.
And if I'm wrong? Well, it won't be the first time. 😁
That’s very interesting. I know the NR discs requires a special burner
@@MachoNachoProductions could you have a look at a disk in the NR reader vs retail unit right after opening the top, it would be a quick way to see if it is the spin direction that has anything to do with it.
The spin direction has little to do with it, if anything. I can't remember which direction the GC drive spins in. However, the protection comes from the barcode and extra cuts outside of the barcode area. A regular DVD burner's laser is not strong enough to create these cuts in the DVDs and the GC's DVD drive checks for the barcode and the extra cuts. This is what stops the DVD drive from reading burned discs, and only 1 company (Datel) ever managed to circumvent the protection. The NR discs are still different from regular DVDs, though I'm not sure in what way, and from what I can remember is that other people have tried to use regular DVDs with the NR reader and it didn't read them.
I'd want to see if this can be turned into a region modchipped gamecube but without a modchip (by changing the odd)
Weird, that wasn't the result I was expecting, either. Gotta keep that laser working! Hopefully if it dies it's an easy replacement.
I’m hoping there is a way to dump the firmware in the NR reader. That way it can be preserved and theoretically could be injected into any retail optical drive
@@MachoNachoProductions Agreed 100% - there has to be a way, and hopefully someone does it.
now i'm curious if with a regular disc drive if you can use the region switch to play retail japanese gamecube games
I’m pretty sure it’s possible.
I've been wanting a DEVCube for awhile now, still awesome to see!
im curious what would happen if you put a xeno chip onto the nr disc drive, could you play regular games that way?
So this raises a few good questions. Can you burn a GameCube ISO to a Mini-DVD and will the NR Reader read it? Can you put the NR drive in a retail GameCube and would it play NR disks? Great video! Maybe a Part 2?!?
@Milk The question I have is, if you adjust the POTS on the GC (if you did a few XENO mods I am sure you found one that can't read burned games), you can get the exact result here. It might not be firmware, it could be pots adjustment.... that is my wonder...
My assumptions from watching the video: NR Reader is a No Region firmware optical drive, where the standard NGC drive has Region Checks, to prevent playing Pal in NTSC and vice-versa
“Holy Cow” I think maybe you were thinking something more “expressive”. But kinda remembered the camera was on 😁
I wonder if it is possible to load anything else than NR discs in the drive. Are you able to try any burnt discs or something like the freeloader?
I wasn't expecting the CDROM to be the secret sauce. Very cool and fun video as always!
I modded my GC with a mod chip from Lik-Sang, weird thing is one of my daughter's friends gave her a ton of GC games so we have never had to use it for "jolly roger" discounting, I also emu'd an absolute ton of stuff on my Dreamcast like the full MAME set, all the 8 and 16 bit consoles on it and even a Linux build which was pretty rudimentary by todays standards but back then it was rubbing shoulders with mid range PC's for browsing and stuff (if a bit clunky to do things even with the dedicated keyboard and mouse set)
I had the same thought you had about the drive swap, would never have guessed the result.
If I was to enter the guesswork zone (since this information is very likely well known to modchip makers and the folks that made mods to replace the optical drive with an SD card), I would say that Nintendo wanted to isolate completely the encryption from the console, such that it is entirely independent, to avoid modchips like the PS1s wobble defeat one, so that modders wouldn't be tapping into the drive's data lines to guess how it works and proceed with piracy. 8cm DVDs aren't any anti-piracy feature after all, given it was released about the same time as DVD video cameras that used 8cm DVD-Rs anyway.
This explains the retail, NR Reader and NPDP consoles all sharing a board - the console doesn't care where the game data comes from.
Can that bad boy read a regular burned mini DVD? However, I'm dying of envy... nice catch.
Your Videos are the best on TH-cam
Could the xeno chip read the NR disc on a original gamecube?
Can you do the opposite? If you set the nr reader optical drive in a retail gc, will it play the nr discs? I assume so ...
I think it could do. I actually haven’t tried it but I thought about doing that only after I completed filming. I may need to do a follow up video.
Can you test someting else ? Write your copy of game to mini DVD/CD and try it in NR Reader. If it works it is a big thing !! Next step is to save a firmware of a drive - this is a missing link of plaing homebrews directly whitout hardware modifications or expensive mods. I think that those NR disks are just rebranded dvd-r dvd+r or CD-r disks...
I’m pretty sure it won’t work since you need a special burner to write NR discs
I'm kind of disappointed you didn't try a retail game burned onto an off the shelf DVD-R in the NR Reader, or try and check the MCC ID of the NR disc using something like ImgBurn.
What happens if you put the nr reader drive in a regular GameCube.
I thought about trying that at the 11th hour. My assumptions is it would become an NR reader. I need to try it and make a post about it
I'm assuming the way that region switch works would probably work on a standard gamecube as well.
Looks more convenient than the default location that's been noted for years. The one where you have to remove the heat sink in order to get to.
True, I think you would still need to remove the heat sink screws to remove the motherboard but you could leave the heat sink in place for sure
what i m really wondering is: is there a Pal version of the NR Reader?
there should be right?
I do believe there is but they’re incredibly rare
This was so cool! Thanks for showing us, Tito! Do you know if there are any good resources on developing GC games?
Thank you! Glad you enjoyed it! Unfortunately game development is out of my wheel house 😅. I’m sure there are some great discord groups or forums out there on the topic but I don’t know any off the top of my head.
The TH-camr PolyMars did a video were he ported a game to 5 platforms. One of them being GameCube. Not much to development but maybe a nice starting place
It would be really cool if you could make a video on how to use modern controllers on the og Xbox!
Hmmm. Could you piggy back a firmware chip from a regular optical drive onto the NR reader chip and switch the CS line?
It's a mod for the original XBOX drive using a custom chip.
It has NOTHING to do with the optical drive, it has to do with the firmware. All swapping the drive out tells you, is where the firmware you need is. Given the drive switch, it's clearly on the disk drive. Theoretically, you could dump, then write, said firmware and get an "NR Reader" out of a standard console. What I think would be MORE interesting, is if the NR Reader can read mini-dvds.
Yep that’s correct. That’s what webhdx indicated. Using a mod like the xeno chip to inject the firmware could potentially make NR capability drives.
I would think it would work with this disk drive. When doing a xeno chip mode you don't need to solder anything to the motherboard.
I wonder if the NR Reader drive can read burned games, or whether they need NR Disks specifically. Some firmware setting that has been missed for 20 years maybe...
I wonder if the NR disc works on a modchipped retail unit. This all makes a lot of sense when you think about the GCLoader and modchips. Seems like the system just trusts whatever it gets sent over the drive port.
I would like to know is can you use a mini DVD-R or DVD-RW or does it have to be NR discs
I would have loved to see if the swapped unit was capable of reading a retail Japanese game!
Also I'm wondering if someone tried to add a region switch to a retail gamecube to see if it works by any chance (I doubt it but who knows)
I would really like to see a region switch mod kit that is identical in form factor to the one on either the NR reader GameCube and NPDP GameCube. Did they use like a hot glue gun to secure the wire to the board?
Since this is in the drives Firmware, maybe you can dump the rom and compare it to stock firmware ?
Absolutely! Webhdx said that firmware potentially could be injected into any gc optical drive to make it read burned discs which is pretty neat
So, now the question is, could an NR Reader GameCube play a personal backup disc of a retail game??
I don’t think it can. I believe the NR discs requires a special DVD burner
@@MachoNachoProductions That was going to be my question. The drive is a funky thing, I seem to remember it spins the opposite way to a standard DVD etc. It would be a nice trick to inject the NR firmware in to a normal GC but without access to a dev burner it seems a bit pointless. Nice video Tito, good to see the dev kits in action. I've only seen two dev kits, a Megadrive one and a PSX one. I just happened to visit Steve Snakes place, apart from writing the Kega Fusion PC Genesis emulator he was also the dev of NBA Jam on the same system.
Yes but you'll need a nr dvd burner (it's a retail burner w/ a custom fw on it from nintendo), some blank nr disc and to make a slight edit to the iso. I made some ages ago for the hell off it because I had access to all the hw at work (small game studio) and blank nr disc were easy to source. It was neat in theory back in the day but i'd say less so now a days, still have the discs I made.
Could I also add a switch to my retail GameCube to switch regions?
Yes you can
Great video. Now did you try the region switch with Japan games? This now makes the NR consoles worth grow because those colors are legit awesome! I love those NR dev gamecube consoles colors!
I'm wondering if after the reader swap the region switch is still functional? 🤔
Yep it’s still functional. I’m realizing I should have done more filmed more testing. A lot of people are asking some great questions. May have to do a follow up.
a GameCube NR Reader mod? if it allowed the creation of gamecube games on the homebrew front then we would bear witness to some really cool shit!
The one thing I need to find out is are NR discs simply regular blank 8cm dvds
That seems expected because with both Gamecubes. I don't think they'll be doing two different motherboards, that would cost a lot more than manufacture. All of the emulation is done on the disk drive.
I wonder if it's firmware, or just a POTS tweak.... I've modded about 10-15 GCs with Xeno etc. About 5-6 of them I needed to adjust the POTs so it could read burned disks. I know in testing, you can tweak the POTS so it could read burned games but, not play retail games, normally needing a re-adjustment. Seeing how this device works, I would wonder if you "copied" a disc, or burnt a retail game on a disc (there are some good quality discs that the GC likes) and tried it on this system. Does it work ?
If this NR Reader can read burned games fine, then it's not a firmware, it's a tweaked POTS...
just my thoughts from experience on it. Very interesting see this device, and I like the color !
My Spice Orange GC can do everything this one does and read retail games (Xeno), I also did the switch for JP and US but, I'll admit, their location to grab it is a lot easier than the 2 tiny solder points I used...
when I modded mine with one of the first modchips it could read burned discs, so the drives are not different.
I think I want to know what I need to make every single mods. So maybe can you create that tutorial and tools for that?
It's simply because optical have a proper firmware
So if you change NR optical for a RETAIL optical you will be able to play retails games but lost NR
Probably already been asked but what would happen if you put the NR disc into a modded regular Gamecube? Or indeed could you put a mod in the NRLoader and have it read Retail games? Also I like how you say the many screws in the GC assembly. I always call them the 180 screws in the assembly. Why 180? because it's 1 more than 179... And that is exactly how it feels when you think you've got them all only to realize there's one more. (In other words there is no reason)
Haven't watched the full video yet so I'm probably wrong:
The disc drives are probably identical however if there is a difference then it's probably that NR one is in debug mode.
If not I think it's handled by the IPL
Well, you said it yourself: that was very unexpected 😅
I'm curious what would happen if an NR disc was inserted into a modded gamecube, like Xeno chipped
It will not work, the XenoGC firmware isn't written to recognize NR discs.
Cool find! Did you try the switch nod on a retail unit?
I haven’t yet but it would be a very interesting to try. I’ve seen region switch mods before but they solder to different locations
@@MachoNachoProductions do it! I'd watch the video 😁
The two mainboards have the same hardware build (etched in silkscreen of a board) It should work !!
How do you get NR disks and/or how do you burn them anyway?
I'm wondering if in the future you could have a switch that toggled NR mode on and off!
Daym I was hoping it would be as simple as flashing a regular drive with the NR firmware.
Hopfully all you GameCube fans out there might see something come out of this in the future... but I always want "the dream" of a soft modded solution for old systems.
So newest Gamecube mod gonna be flash the nr firmware to the disc drive and just play burned games?
But you will need a SPECIAL BURNER to MAKE the NR-Discs ... right? - It's still a pretty cool piece of history... but I wonder why you didn't put the NR drive into a RETAIL Gamecuve to see if it's that simple to change it up???
Mmh would a Region switch working on the normal gc too?
With the swaped disc drive, can you play retail jp games? Awesome vids btw
Thank you for your video
Could you put a region switch on a retail GameCube the same way?
Does the region switch work with the standard optical drive installed?
Wow, this is awesome!
fuck man that beginning jumpscared me xD
have you considered moving the wire to a retail gamecube and seeing if the retail gamecube can swap regions (i have a hunch it works similar to how picoboot and similar things work works where it replaces the bios live) that and trying the system without the change switch (i would imagine it just boots a default gamecube bios like retail (or none at all if theres nothing on the chips but something tells me its just a repurposed retail unit)
also have you tried playing a japanese gamecube using that switch because it should be possible all the same the drives are identical
I was hoping to see you swap the NR Reader's optical drive into a retail Gamecube as well
Would a modded retail drive with a xenoGC be capable of running NR discs anyway? If not, would it be the file structure and bootable file that would make the difference? What would be awesome is if you could utilise the NR reader in to a PicoBooted retail console and see what happens there. Sooooo many ideas!
🤣 Your only test disc is Batman: Dark Tomorrow. One of the most notoriously broken releases! I'd love to see you do a vid comparing retail vs tester disc
I wish Retail GameCubes had this color
Could you add that switch to a standard gamecube and switch it between us and jp?
Makes sense. You have to have certain drives to rip GameCube disks. Plus drives are essentially sub-computers.
Very cool. I’ve never heard of the GCN development hardware. I wonder if it was a greater detriment that it was on the optical drive? I am curious if transferring the region switch to a retail GameCube would work the same?
I have a sneaky suspicion that a modded GC which can play burned games would be able to read NR discs, which is basically what they are.
Would be cool if this was tested though.
and what happens, if you put a NR Disc into a PC? can it read the disc?
That’s a great question! I’ll definitely need to see.
I don't really understand what the discovery was? What am I missing?
The only thing that’s unique to the NR reader is the optical drive. And it’s most likely just the firmware. Essentially the NR reader is simply a regular GameCube.
Hey, can you try Gameboy reader with NR reader with retail optical drive. I love your video and I’m so interested to what happens!
can it play any burned rom? not just NR discs?
I'm curious to see what would happen if you had the retail disc drive in the dev unit, but switched the region to Japan.
Also curious if you could reverse engineer the region switcher to use on retail units, just copying what Nintendo did with that board.
could it just be a change in the potentiometer?
Unfortunate no. The Gamecube reads the bca which is on every disc. If it doesn’t detect it, it won’t read the disc.
Can game cube be modded soo it can have region switch??
I believe you can 👍
Very cool!
Thanks!
You should check out the Panasonic Q next!
if you slowly think about it ... NR Reader ! read it again but slowly N ... R ... R E A D E R
it's the thing that does the READING that's supposed to be different, which is the disk reader lol