Pretty cool development to see, I like the simplicity of the QSB, made be ask "That's it?" when I saw it installed in. Although indeed it would probably be nice if it was a bit thinner for ease of install, like you touched up on.
I considered making it thinner but then the KunaiGC itself interferes with the pins of the SP1, as you loose height in your overall setup. That's why I decided (for now) to stick with this height. I tested 0.8mm board (actual is 1.2mm) and it resulted in the KunaiGC board being slightly angled and having contact to the underlying pins
It looks like the QSB replaces, what, 6 solder points, with no other electronics on board? Wouldn't it be just as easy to solder 6 wires from the Game Cube motherboard to the mod chip? Is the QSB even needed?
@@user-lc5xp5xd2i Not necessarily. You can leave it away and use wires if you wish ^^ it's just so you don't need to look up wirings etc and keep it simple
I'm curious about the price, but I'm just not seeing the reason why this would be better than a $4 PicoBoot setup. Yeah it's got Swiss onboard, but we're going to be using an SD card anyway that can have Swiss on it. I like that there's no wires, but with the more difficult soldering that seems to be a wash. Is there some kind of functionality that the KunaiGC can offer that the PicoBoot cannot?
My first thought… It already doesn’t offer much that Picoboot can’t do, so the price really has to be competitive. The lack of wires is great, as that seems to be the main struggle for a lot of picoboot installs. However, the board is thick and I feel like more people may struggle with bridging the pins accidentally. Just my thought though. It’s great that we are getting more options. I just hope this is competitively priced.
Same. I don't really see the big deal about having onboard memory. It doesn't make it look any cleaner because the SD adapter is already hidden in the bottom expansion port. The end result is the same. Push power button, end up on at Swiss. The trick of changing the boot-up logo is neat, but I mean you won't even see that if you're holding start to end up at Swiss. So what's the point?
Removing that QSB for repairs or reversing the mod also looks like a pain compared to a flex ribbon or plain wires. I feel like you’d need to use a hot air station to get it off, which most people don’t have and even less people have experience with. Picoboot seems much easier in that aspect
Good stuff. Great editing and photography as always. Very clear presentation. You really deliver top tier content and at a rate and consistency unparalleled.
Tito, i love your videos man, I watch em all . Honestly you've taught me so much and I've used your guides to successfully mod consoles. And I never would've even attempted soldering if you didn't explain it so well, all while making it look so easy. And those production qualities. But you do have the personality of an Olympic swimming pool. In like, an endearing way.
Man the scene really is on a roll at the moment with the GC, it feels only like a few weeks ago we saw the internal bt module for controllers and that blowing peoples minds. Not only that, but the rise of custom ribbons and installation pcbs really is bringing these mods into the hands of the less skilled! Thanks again Tito for yet another top tier video; your consistency in delivery, quality and content is always appreciated!
I love how it can bring new features to the table, added customization and hotkey bootup. The only thing Im waiting for is a wifi module or an aftermarket lan adapter as there getting more and more rare to find for a good price. Let us know if you find anything Tito
It seems to be a neat simple-to-install modchip. Nice to have options! This being said you kept mentionning the internal memory will be in the future able to create virtual memory card, which sure is neat but kind of redundant with Swiss itself that can do that with any kind of storage attached
Not redundant at all. Swiss' memory card emulation cannot use a storage device that's being used to load games (and the last time I checked, there couldn't even be any game ISOs stored on it). So, to use Swiss to load games from an SD card adapter and utilize the memory card emulation, you would need two SD cards and the adapters to use them. Not terrible, or even all that expensive, but having a device with basically a built in memory card is great.
@@davidcameron648 then idk how my GC Loader is working. It's running SWISS, has a single SDcard that I load games from and have emulated memory cards on.
@@davidcameron648 As far as I can tell, this isn't true. I only have one storage on my GC which is an SD card, no memory cards, and it saves and loads just fine using Swiss.
I love being early to these videos. I might be missing something here, but I don't see the benefit of this chip over Pico Boot . As of now Pico is cost efficient, easy to instal with just 5 wires and super customizable. This feels like the same but tackier and with a few extra bells and whistles that ultimately won't ever be used more than once or twice (and we don't even know the final price yet) and the internal memory card is already a thing with the latest versions of Swiss with "Memory Card Emulation". Pretty neat, but unnecesary imo. They came to the game a little too late with the PicoBoot being an option now.
Glad it's not just me who thinks that. I don't see how this is any better than the picoboot. Also I'm not sure if this allows you to update swiss if you need to
@@darknigh71 it's likely there will be. After all they mentioned that they're in production. It would be a shame of they released it without the ability to update it somehow. But yeah, usually this kind of thing excites me but this one was a total miss for me
@@Ehren1337 and I agree with you 100% on that. Just placing and soldering is thousands of times better but then again even Nacho had some trouble with the thickness of chip. It's definitely a strong point in its favor but then again, I'm not really sold on it yet. Maybe in the future, we'll see but right now Pico is the way to go for me
I think it's cool, but a pi pico is going to be cheaper and more versatile in my personal opinion. Even if we don't know the exact price, there's no beating 5 bucks
Agreed! There's no way it will be cheaper than a pi pico and at least as of right now it doesn't have any advantage over picoboot as far as features. If saves can be stored to it in the future that would be cool but then again i wont be able to use my saves elsewhere if i use a different console at someone else's house for example. Memory cards are not that hard to find and the quality of 3rd party ones has come up a lot. If this would have come out before picoboot it would have been a hit but picoboot is just too strong at the moment and readily available now. If maybe pico's stock starts to dwindle and they get harder or hyper-inflated by scalpers... ok this would be the easy choice but just because something COULD happen, doesn't really justify it being usefull right now. The other thing that bothers me is availability for the kunaiGC. Sounds like it's exclusively being sold on consoles4you at least at launch (whenever that'll be). They are based out of Switzerland so for us on this side of the ocean in North America, that's going to mean longer delivery times, customs fees, brokerage fees... again, not ideal. It's great to see another player in the mod chip game for our beloved GC's but I'm like most of the comments on here where I'll be passing unless there's some game-changer feature or killer app that is only available on the kunaiGC. Props to @ManCloud for an alternative. I'm sure europeans will snap them up once released but until you at the very least get a NA distributor, stock levels that don't require a waiting list and a features list that are compelling enough I'm sorry to say me and many many other GC modders will be sticking with our picoboots. Looking forward to be proved wrong in the future however.
@@mohawkmikeandfriends2257 Raspberry has committed to producing or at least supporting pico models until 2028, or could be extended at an unknown time.
Considering the amount of free memory space in the GameCube's address map, I suspect that flash chip could be made much larger in future versions. They may want to actually socket it with a type that could be substituted with larger models in later versions.
having swiss directly on it is a nice idea but could present a problem when it comes to updating swiss until an option is added for that, using something like iplboot where it runs swiss from micro sd makes it so much easier to update swiss given how often it's updated. i would also love to see an option where you can set the startup so it's the opposite, as in you hold start to get to the gamecube bios and if you don't hold start it boots to swiss because 99% of the time i would want the console to boot into swiss and i would very rarely want to get to the gamecube bios and wouldn't want to have to hold start each time.
I have been playing with FPGA's since few years (almost 10) for my personal projects and I have the feeling they have became pretty popular in the last few years (probably due to price drop and higher availability)
Really incredible when you also consider that up until a few years ago, any time someone suggested the need for a modern ODE or video mods, the cranks would come out of the woodwork to tell you there's no need to bother with the GC since you could "just use a Wii." Turns out there is a market for these products, someone just had to take the leap of faith to prove it. I think major credit is due to Black Dog Tech for commercializing GCVideo with the GCDual and bringing Daniel Kraak's GCLoader to the masses. Since then, it feels like the flood gates have been opened up for other new products and projects to thrive.
@@kr4t0sg.28 im the same way. I love that theres mods out there but the GC specifically has always been my “mod-free” console even tho i own more than one. Its probably nostalgia for me
It almost looks like some kind of clamp could be fashioned that connects to the chip without soldering. I realize that could increase the cost, but a no-solder option for something like this would be great.
I love how much love is still put into preserving the GameCube. I want to see what this chip allows in the future, before I would consider installing it, especially sense I already have a nice set up for one of mine at the moment. But if I can make one of my other GC's work better with something like this, than I think this might be doable for me.
Pico boot in this case will be a much better purchase , although it says the new mod chip has Swiss intergraded you still will need some type of gecko or spd2 adapter to load games and pico also allows for cube boot to have your own custom logo.
This is not true. You can also boot games via burned dvds or via the broadband adapter. I use burned dvds myself, I love optical media. I will get the kunaigc soon. :)
You won't want to use that chip for saving game data or writing to it a lot. Ideally you'll just leave it as written that one time and leave it as a read only chip as writing to those a bunch can make them act wonky.
I actually don't like that it comes pre-installed with Swiss, primarily because that looks to mean updating would be more cumbersome. Plus, if the chip dies, you have to install a whole new pcb instead of just replacing an SD card.
There's nothing that convinces me this is better or even as good as picoboot. I'm going to have an SD card installed anyway because my games have to live somewhere, so it really doesn't matter that this has onboard memory. Picoboot is cheap and easy and the end result is still that you turn on the gamecube and end up in Swiss.
those copper burs on the IPL pcb are due to the method used to create castellated edges. often you can opt for the cheaper method where they use vias and route though them, to get real castellated edged on a pcb will bring the production cost up considerably, you can easily see the difference f you compare to say the pi pico's pcb as it has proper castellated edges....
This seems like an awesome way to allow multiple people to have their own save files of a game for games where you only get one save file, or so you can play more than one save file at a time such as when you have to pick a character class.
The "built-in Swiss" feature is actually not that great of a "pro" for the modchip. In fact, Swiss gets updated regularly enough that you would want a new version on your SD card, which you have to set up anyway since the on-board memory is obviously not anywhere large enough to hold even a single game. It's literally saving us from a drag-and-drop action from the Swiss release zip file onto the SD card, (possibly) followed by renaming it. Picoboot (PB) does all that KunaiGC (KGC) does already. If one uses PB and does not want Swiss to auto-load like KGC, just assign it to a button. PB also supports custom boot logos via flippyboot (basically chainloading bootloaders). Does KGC require Swiss to be installed onto the onboard memory (huge "con" if so)? Or will KGC auto-load newer versions of Swiss on the SD card? (PB just requires Swiss to be named IPL.DOL or some other relevant "button-name" DOL file). The only "pro" I see for now is that the QSB is nicely made (but I do worry about bridging neighboring connections due to the copper edges that you pointed out). Hopefully the onboard memory capabilities will be a big surprise with future updates.
I don't personally think the thickness of the QSB is an issue. It leaves some room for error. Flex cables would be far less forgiving and are easier to damage with the soldering iron during installation. My negative is that this doesn't have to be two separate boards. It can be done with just one eliminating the need for two separate parts. All that being said, this easily one of the simplest mods I've observed. It can be accomplished with amateur-level soldering skill -- mainly because of the QSB's thickness. Only thing left is price. If it comes in under $100USD, this will be a nearly perfect mod. Great vid with pros/cons review.
I can imagine when they eventually integrate a micro sd card slot onto the modchip itself you could chop it all down to make an ultra portable gamecube handheald
Definitely prefer the hold a button to boot Swiss as sometimes I just wanna boot normally I'm assuming it does but gonna ask just in case does this bypass the region lock?
It's not really clear what additional features it has compared to the picoboot? Ok it has a memory, but what does that allow that the picoboot could not do?
In general it allows you to store applications on it. Like having 240p suite, gbi, swiss and whatever tool you like permanently on your console without having them on the sdcard. In future this could also be used to do bios based region patching by simply injecting an NTSC BIOS into a pal console and the other way round.
I literally just put two picoboots in my basket from Aliexpress when I tabbed out to youtube and saw this! It seems great, but I cant really imagine that its going to cost anything near the picoboot which makes it a hard sale. I have two picoboots in my basket totalling only £8. It is perhaps good for those who really want to keep the intro, but I could really see that being something solvable in the future on the picoboot. I don't see the 16mb of non removable storage being that beneficial for that many people, especially when we have sd2sp2 to free up both slots, as well as SD Gecko allowing for ridiculous capacitiies. Im excited to see what the future will bring for the Gamecube!
I guess i'm waiting on a flexboard to develop with this modchip. This video also addressed a question i had about picoboot. (modifying the boot process rather than being an alternative boot.)
the castelated holes are not made to specification to save money, this is the reason why the copper pieces are found in the half holes. remove before installation makes installation easier
You don't mention it but it is good to know that the 16Mb flash memory is most likely used to store the bit file for the FPGA (FPGAs cannot store anything permanently, they need to be configured every time they boot). So not all space on the flash memory will be available
YAY It's Thursday, My weekly serving of Nachos. When you finished the soldering and you were done, I was like "That's it?" that was quick and easy, no wires. edit: Quick Q... what racing game was that? I gotta get it for my 6 year old, he loves racing games.
I’m wondering how easy this is for someone with limited soldering skills as I’m rather inexperienced with soldering but the QSB looks relatively straight forward. Only thing I’d be worried about would be to accidentally bridge those smaller pins on that chip.
The nasty castellated edges can be a problem if they introduce mechanical interference. Certain PCB fabs produce them better than others. In the past, I've cleaned them up manually under a microscope with a sharp hobby knife.
I was thinking those looked like the PCB fab made them as plated through holes, then the large hole was cut out afterwards with the blade for that tearing apart the vias. They're probably come out better if they specced drilled holes only with solder pads, no vias.
This is the very first time I have been disappointed by a lack of Kapton tape in your video. Though that is just a minor gripe, otherwise, fantastic as always.
6:30 Are these Points all electrically equivalent? 🤔 Is the GND, chassis ground or signal ground? And is VCC 3.3 Volts? I ask because i believe my modchip is not getting enough Voltage or is grounded improperly.
I only recommend this chip if your soldering skills are near professional level. I spent two days trying install it and I could not get it into the chip for the life of me. My soldering skills are decent as I don't solder often but I've gotten some projects done with it. The small mounting chip is probably the most frustrating thing I've ever attempted to work with. The opening to set it within the chip has little to no wiggle room so aligning them to the chip legs was near impossible as you're soldering and it moves around. I'm not sure if there's an alternative method by using wires to connect it with the legs, otherwise I have a useless overpriced modchip. I'm just going to get a PicoBoot instead.
@@stephenshelottiii3272 What is the purpose of swiss without a storage device, though? You have 16 mb of storage at most so you could maybe have GBI and nothing else?
I think to have heard that the 16MB of onboard storage could be used to house other software. However it was only briefly touched on and I might have imagined it.
I’d love this. We could do our own custom animations, or even just something simple like change the hue of the existing logo to make it a different colour to make it match whatever shell your actual GameCube has.
To the developers of this project - I can't wait to see what technical aspects of the GameCube this may unlock! Picoboot came too late for me to be useful (ODE gang rise up), but a modern IPL replacement... You have my attention.
Sooo Pins 2,3,4,6,8,10 and 14 of the IPL QSB are not used for functionality and are actually just physical anchor points, at least that is what it looks like @ 6:26. Correct?
Honestly, all the love that these consoles get is amazing and all, but I really wish we had some mods for the original DS model 😓, I’ve always been an GBA SP model fan and that model of DS has a soft spot, however, poor quality shells, no real screen replacements, it just sucks :(
There's no way this custom modchip is going to be any cheaper than the picoboot right? Feel like as of yet, there's not much point to this over the picoboot.
been a rough week for me personally and this entire video scratched my nerd itch and really helped my mood, thanks man
Pretty cool development to see, I like the simplicity of the QSB, made be ask "That's it?" when I saw it installed in. Although indeed it would probably be nice if it was a bit thinner for ease of install, like you touched up on.
I considered making it thinner but then the KunaiGC itself interferes with the pins of the SP1, as you loose height in your overall setup. That's why I decided (for now) to stick with this height. I tested 0.8mm board (actual is 1.2mm) and it resulted in the KunaiGC board being slightly angled and having contact to the underlying pins
I think similarly because of the size of the ViperGC. This is a much more viable solution than the picoboot and other IPL solutions. Love it.
@@mancloud19 keep up the great work my dude
It looks like the QSB replaces, what, 6 solder points, with no other electronics on board? Wouldn't it be just as easy to solder 6 wires from the Game Cube motherboard to the mod chip? Is the QSB even needed?
@@user-lc5xp5xd2i Not necessarily. You can leave it away and use wires if you wish ^^ it's just so you don't need to look up wirings etc and keep it simple
I'm curious about the price, but I'm just not seeing the reason why this would be better than a $4 PicoBoot setup. Yeah it's got Swiss onboard, but we're going to be using an SD card anyway that can have Swiss on it. I like that there's no wires, but with the more difficult soldering that seems to be a wash. Is there some kind of functionality that the KunaiGC can offer that the PicoBoot cannot?
My first thought…
It already doesn’t offer much that Picoboot can’t do, so the price really has to be competitive. The lack of wires is great, as that seems to be the main struggle for a lot of picoboot installs. However, the board is thick and I feel like more people may struggle with bridging the pins accidentally. Just my thought though.
It’s great that we are getting more options. I just hope this is competitively priced.
Same. I don't really see the big deal about having onboard memory. It doesn't make it look any cleaner because the SD adapter is already hidden in the bottom expansion port. The end result is the same. Push power button, end up on at Swiss. The trick of changing the boot-up logo is neat, but I mean you won't even see that if you're holding start to end up at Swiss. So what's the point?
Where can I get a modbo?
Removing that QSB for repairs or reversing the mod also looks like a pain compared to a flex ribbon or plain wires. I feel like you’d need to use a hot air station to get it off, which most people don’t have and even less people have experience with. Picoboot seems much easier in that aspect
@@ArcanineluvsU Picoboot has a QSB anyways and that one is easier to install.
that intro with the consoles and music is awesome! great channel
Just got mine ordered, thanks for the installation tutorial!
Best intro music on YT, period. Love your editing as well, Tito!
Good stuff. Great editing and photography as always. Very clear presentation. You really deliver top tier content and at a rate and consistency unparalleled.
That's pretty cool. The GameCube is getting more mods lately
I am prepared to be amazed! 😄
Tito, i love your videos man, I watch em all . Honestly you've taught me so much and I've used your guides to successfully mod consoles. And I never would've even attempted soldering if you didn't explain it so well, all while making it look so easy. And those production qualities. But you do have the personality of an Olympic swimming pool. In like, an endearing way.
Man the scene really is on a roll at the moment with the GC, it feels only like a few weeks ago we saw the internal bt module for controllers and that blowing peoples minds. Not only that, but the rise of custom ribbons and installation pcbs really is bringing these mods into the hands of the less skilled! Thanks again Tito for yet another top tier video; your consistency in delivery, quality and content is always appreciated!
I love how it can bring new features to the table, added customization and hotkey bootup. The only thing Im waiting for is a wifi module or an aftermarket lan adapter as there getting more and more rare to find for a good price. Let us know if you find anything Tito
It seems to be a neat simple-to-install modchip. Nice to have options!
This being said you kept mentionning the internal memory will be in the future able to create virtual memory card, which sure is neat but kind of redundant with Swiss itself that can do that with any kind of storage attached
Not redundant at all. Swiss' memory card emulation cannot use a storage device that's being used to load games (and the last time I checked, there couldn't even be any game ISOs stored on it). So, to use Swiss to load games from an SD card adapter and utilize the memory card emulation, you would need two SD cards and the adapters to use them. Not terrible, or even all that expensive, but having a device with basically a built in memory card is great.
@@davidcameron648 i've absolutely saved games on the same sd i load games from.
@@davidcameron648 what abooouut if I’m grinding chao garden and trading chaos? It needs two memory cards :o
@@davidcameron648 then idk how my GC Loader is working. It's running SWISS, has a single SDcard that I load games from and have emulated memory cards on.
@@davidcameron648 As far as I can tell, this isn't true. I only have one storage on my GC which is an SD card, no memory cards, and it saves and loads just fine using Swiss.
I love being early to these videos.
I might be missing something here, but I don't see the benefit of this chip over Pico Boot . As of now Pico is cost efficient, easy to instal with just 5 wires and super customizable. This feels like the same but tackier and with a few extra bells and whistles that ultimately won't ever be used more than once or twice (and we don't even know the final price yet) and the internal memory card is already a thing with the latest versions of Swiss with "Memory Card Emulation".
Pretty neat, but unnecesary imo. They came to the game a little too late with the PicoBoot being an option now.
Glad it's not just me who thinks that. I don't see how this is any better than the picoboot. Also I'm not sure if this allows you to update swiss if you need to
I'm with the both of you on this as well as any other pico boot mentioners
@@darknigh71 it's likely there will be. After all they mentioned that they're in production. It would be a shame of they released it without the ability to update it somehow. But yeah, usually this kind of thing excites me but this one was a total miss for me
wires look nerve wrecking, i rather go with kunai.
@@Ehren1337 and I agree with you 100% on that. Just placing and soldering is thousands of times better but then again even Nacho had some trouble with the thickness of chip. It's definitely a strong point in its favor but then again, I'm not really sold on it yet.
Maybe in the future, we'll see but right now Pico is the way to go for me
I think it's cool, but a pi pico is going to be cheaper and more versatile in my personal opinion. Even if we don't know the exact price, there's no beating 5 bucks
What if this was $300 but they threw in a woman?
I'd be up for it if she looked halfway decent and a powerful suction technique.
No proprietary components from the developer, just a off the shelf raspberry pico
@@AddableStone13 LEt us know how it is going - since it would be so simple.
Agreed! There's no way it will be cheaper than a pi pico and at least as of right now it doesn't have any advantage over picoboot as far as features. If saves can be stored to it in the future that would be cool but then again i wont be able to use my saves elsewhere if i use a different console at someone else's house for example. Memory cards are not that hard to find and the quality of 3rd party ones has come up a lot. If this would have come out before picoboot it would have been a hit but picoboot is just too strong at the moment and readily available now. If maybe pico's stock starts to dwindle and they get harder or hyper-inflated by scalpers... ok this would be the easy choice but just because something COULD happen, doesn't really justify it being usefull right now.
The other thing that bothers me is availability for the kunaiGC. Sounds like it's exclusively being sold on consoles4you at least at launch (whenever that'll be). They are based out of Switzerland so for us on this side of the ocean in North America, that's going to mean longer delivery times, customs fees, brokerage fees... again, not ideal. It's great to see another player in the mod chip game for our beloved GC's but I'm like most of the comments on here where I'll be passing unless there's some game-changer feature or killer app that is only available on the kunaiGC. Props to @ManCloud for an alternative. I'm sure europeans will snap them up once released but until you at the very least get a NA distributor, stock levels that don't require a waiting list and a features list that are compelling enough I'm sorry to say me and many many other GC modders will be sticking with our picoboots. Looking forward to be proved wrong in the future however.
@@mohawkmikeandfriends2257 Raspberry has committed to producing or at least supporting pico models until 2028, or could be extended at an unknown time.
Can't wait to see this one available!
Considering the amount of free memory space in the GameCube's address map, I suspect that flash chip could be made much larger in future versions. They may want to actually socket it with a type that could be substituted with larger models in later versions.
nothing brings me the same kinda joy and clamness that this channel gives me.
W Channel dude u rock!
Great that we're seeing a lot more options for the Gamecube
I would hope they make enough money to stay afloat from 9/10 people using the option of buying a Pico off of AE
having swiss directly on it is a nice idea but could present a problem when it comes to updating swiss until an option is added for that, using something like iplboot where it runs swiss from micro sd makes it so much easier to update swiss given how often it's updated.
i would also love to see an option where you can set the startup so it's the opposite, as in you hold start to get to the gamecube bios and if you don't hold start it boots to swiss because 99% of the time i would want the console to boot into swiss and i would very rarely want to get to the gamecube bios and wouldn't want to have to hold start each time.
Awesome video as always Tito!
Dang friend, you are on a roll!
I have been playing with FPGA's since few years (almost 10) for my personal projects and I have the feeling they have became pretty popular in the last few years (probably due to price drop and higher availability)
The last few years have been a great time to be a GameCube owner. It was about time, right?
Really incredible when you also consider that up until a few years ago, any time someone suggested the need for a modern ODE or video mods, the cranks would come out of the woodwork to tell you there's no need to bother with the GC since you could "just use a Wii."
Turns out there is a market for these products, someone just had to take the leap of faith to prove it. I think major credit is due to Black Dog Tech for commercializing GCVideo with the GCDual and bringing Daniel Kraak's GCLoader to the masses. Since then, it feels like the flood gates have been opened up for other new products and projects to thrive.
Meh. I like mine stock. No mods.
@@kr4t0sg.28 have fun. im going to mod mine with this. youre just scared to touch it. good luck with space and physical games.
@@Ehren1337 no I'm not afraid, far from it. I have 7 Years of modding experience under my belt. I just like my gamecube bone stock that's all.
@@kr4t0sg.28 im the same way. I love that theres mods out there but the GC specifically has always been my “mod-free” console even tho i own more than one. Its probably nostalgia for me
Yet another banger! Keep up the good work Tito!
I love the high quality that you put into your videos, keep it up
Thank you!
It almost looks like some kind of clamp could be fashioned that connects to the chip without soldering. I realize that could increase the cost, but a no-solder option for something like this would be great.
awesome job as always Tito !
yo Gusse! you are a legend!
That intro was fire 🔥
Your intro is one of the best I’ve seen on TH-cam!!
I love how much love is still put into preserving the GameCube. I want to see what this chip allows in the future, before I would consider installing it, especially sense I already have a nice set up for one of mine at the moment. But if I can make one of my other GC's work better with something like this, than I think this might be doable for me.
feature wise this does nothing more than a Pico lol
@@rainbowdooche6957 It's like you didn't watch the video or read a single word I said.
It's crazy how far we have come to not even needing gcloader anymore.
This channel has become appointment TV for me
Pico boot in this case will be a much better purchase , although it says the new mod chip has Swiss intergraded you still will need some type of gecko or spd2 adapter to load games and pico also allows for cube boot to have your own custom logo.
This is not true. You can also boot games via burned dvds or via the broadband adapter. I use burned dvds myself, I love optical media. I will get the kunaigc soon. :)
You won't want to use that chip for saving game data or writing to it a lot. Ideally you'll just leave it as written that one time and leave it as a read only chip as writing to those a bunch can make them act wonky.
This looks so cool. Like a mod I feel confident installing myself 😮
troubleshooting soldering on this would be much more difficult than wires with a Pico
A quick solder flex cable from Helder Game Tech makes install pretty easy with a Picoboot if you like the idea of the solder board on this!
@@rainbowdooche6957 BWAHAHA false. i rather do this than doing wires. go see the doctor.
Our beloved Cube is more alive than ever!
It is indeed!
I actually don't like that it comes pre-installed with Swiss, primarily because that looks to mean updating would be more cumbersome. Plus, if the chip dies, you have to install a whole new pcb instead of just replacing an SD card.
another great video Tito! thank you!
Another great video Tito! I like this new video presentation layout, the shelving behind looks very nice
Thanks Andrew!
There's nothing that convinces me this is better or even as good as picoboot. I'm going to have an SD card installed anyway because my games have to live somewhere, so it really doesn't matter that this has onboard memory. Picoboot is cheap and easy and the end result is still that you turn on the gamecube and end up in Swiss.
really depends on the price and what features get added cus its hard to beat 4-8 bucks for a pico chip that will basically do what you need.
Tito the goated retro modder
Ben Heck
Great, dude!
Great stuff. Thanks tito.
those copper burs on the IPL pcb are due to the method used to create castellated edges. often you can opt for the cheaper method where they use vias and route though them, to get real castellated edged on a pcb will bring the production cost up considerably,
you can easily see the difference f you compare to say the pi pico's pcb as it has proper castellated edges....
This seems like an awesome way to allow multiple people to have their own save files of a game for games where you only get one save file, or so you can play more than one save file at a time such as when you have to pick a character class.
?
I’ll never get tired of new methods to mod a GC.
there's really nothing all too new about this feature wise besides the QSB
The "built-in Swiss" feature is actually not that great of a "pro" for the modchip. In fact, Swiss gets updated regularly enough that you would want a new version on your SD card, which you have to set up anyway since the on-board memory is obviously not anywhere large enough to hold even a single game. It's literally saving us from a drag-and-drop action from the Swiss release zip file onto the SD card, (possibly) followed by renaming it. Picoboot (PB) does all that KunaiGC (KGC) does already. If one uses PB and does not want Swiss to auto-load like KGC, just assign it to a button. PB also supports custom boot logos via flippyboot (basically chainloading bootloaders). Does KGC require Swiss to be installed onto the onboard memory (huge "con" if so)? Or will KGC auto-load newer versions of Swiss on the SD card? (PB just requires Swiss to be named IPL.DOL or some other relevant "button-name" DOL file). The only "pro" I see for now is that the QSB is nicely made (but I do worry about bridging neighboring connections due to the copper edges that you pointed out). Hopefully the onboard memory capabilities will be a big surprise with future updates.
Outstanding stuff!!
Because of you I have modded 2 gbcs 2 gbas and my gc
I don't personally think the thickness of the QSB is an issue. It leaves some room for error. Flex cables would be far less forgiving and are easier to damage with the soldering iron during installation. My negative is that this doesn't have to be two separate boards. It can be done with just one eliminating the need for two separate parts.
All that being said, this easily one of the simplest mods I've observed. It can be accomplished with amateur-level soldering skill -- mainly because of the QSB's thickness.
Only thing left is price. If it comes in under $100USD, this will be a nearly perfect mod.
Great vid with pros/cons review.
What a gorgeous wavebird you have. Minty fresh
Recovery option is great, but using Z for that is a no go.
If you ever hold Z on a stock GCN while powering on, you know why.
I can only dream of having that level of soldering neatness.
Great StezStix Fix style finger click!
these videos get me so excited to mod
I can always appreciate a mod with a cool name.
If I ever get a GameCube, I might consider getting this modchip!
Keep going 💪
Theres always fascinating heads-up from tito 👍
I can imagine when they eventually integrate a micro sd card slot onto the modchip itself you could chop it all down to make an ultra portable gamecube handheald
Definitely prefer the hold a button to boot Swiss as sometimes I just wanna boot normally
I'm assuming it does but gonna ask just in case does this bypass the region lock?
It's not really clear what additional features it has compared to the picoboot? Ok it has a memory, but what does that allow that the picoboot could not do?
In general it allows you to store applications on it.
Like having 240p suite, gbi, swiss and whatever tool you like permanently on your console without having them on the sdcard. In future this could also be used to do bios based region patching by simply injecting an NTSC BIOS into a pal console and the other way round.
I literally just put two picoboots in my basket from Aliexpress when I tabbed out to youtube and saw this! It seems great, but I cant really imagine that its going to cost anything near the picoboot which makes it a hard sale. I have two picoboots in my basket totalling only £8. It is perhaps good for those who really want to keep the intro, but I could really see that being something solvable in the future on the picoboot. I don't see the 16mb of non removable storage being that beneficial for that many people, especially when we have sd2sp2 to free up both slots, as well as SD Gecko allowing for ridiculous capacitiies.
Im excited to see what the future will bring for the Gamecube!
Cubeboot let's you keep the original GC intro with a picoboot! I have it installed on mine, works great.
I guess i'm waiting on a flexboard to develop with this modchip. This video also addressed a question i had about picoboot. (modifying the boot process rather than being an alternative boot.)
the castelated holes are not made to specification to save money, this is the reason why the copper pieces are found in the half holes. remove before installation makes installation easier
New subscriber! Would love to see some more Wii mods, HDMI mods are the coolest!
Good thing a brand new Wii HDMI mod is releasing very soon.
Finally on sale!!
This looks amazing. I can’t wait to get try installing one. Thanks for sharing. Also, how are you connecting your Gamecube to your monitor?
if you're newer to soldering please start with the Pico first
@@rainbowdooche6957 nah im doing kunai first.
@@Ehren1337 good luck lol
@@Pickelhaube808 yup will have better luck than pico with wires.
You don't mention it but it is good to know that the 16Mb flash memory is most likely used to store the bit file for the FPGA (FPGAs cannot store anything permanently, they need to be configured every time they boot). So not all space on the flash memory will be available
I forgot to mention that this uses a CPLD instead of a FPGA
YAY It's Thursday, My weekly serving of Nachos.
When you finished the soldering and you were done, I was like "That's it?" that was quick and easy, no wires.
edit: Quick Q... what racing game was that? I gotta get it for my 6 year old, he loves racing games.
The racing game is F zero gx
F-Zero
That is F-Zero GX. This racing game is extremely well-known for its harsh difficulty, so keep that in mind should you get your hands on it.
@@mr.mystere4999 OVER $100 on Slamazon... Free R O M on the internet lol.
@@adonian I was talking about the game itself. It is actually harder than Diddy Kong Racing.
your mods are always fascinating, especially if you only come from the emulator corner
I’m wondering how easy this is for someone with limited soldering skills as I’m rather inexperienced with soldering but the QSB looks relatively straight forward. Only thing I’d be worried about would be to accidentally bridge those smaller pins on that chip.
Aesthetically it’s beautiful
The nasty castellated edges can be a problem if they introduce mechanical interference. Certain PCB fabs produce them better than others. In the past, I've cleaned them up manually under a microscope with a sharp hobby knife.
I was thinking those looked like the PCB fab made them as plated through holes, then the large hole was cut out afterwards with the blade for that tearing apart the vias. They're probably come out better if they specced drilled holes only with solder pads, no vias.
This is the very first time I have been disappointed by a lack of Kapton tape in your video. Though that is just a minor gripe, otherwise, fantastic as always.
Never been here this early before.
so do i
Same haha
Me neither.
I cant wait to see where this goes in the future.
Can the Swiss be updated on this?
6:30 Are these Points all electrically equivalent? 🤔
Is the GND, chassis ground or signal ground?
And is VCC 3.3 Volts? I ask because i believe my modchip is not getting enough Voltage or is grounded improperly.
Incredible!
I saw your video on the PS2 mini, have you considered trying portablizing? I’d love to see a video of yours on a Wii or Ps2 portable
I only recommend this chip if your soldering skills are near professional level. I spent two days trying install it and I could not get it into the chip for the life of me. My soldering skills are decent as I don't solder often but I've gotten some projects done with it. The small mounting chip is probably the most frustrating thing I've ever attempted to work with. The opening to set it within the chip has little to no wiggle room so aligning them to the chip legs was near impossible as you're soldering and it moves around.
I'm not sure if there's an alternative method by using wires to connect it with the legs, otherwise I have a useless overpriced modchip. I'm just going to get a PicoBoot instead.
This is a game changer. I think if we give it a few months it will be amazing.
game changer of what exactly?
@@rainbowdooche6957 the possibility of internal memory. Loading Swiss without an external source.
@@stephenshelottiii3272 What is the purpose of swiss without a storage device, though? You have 16 mb of storage at most so you could maybe have GBI and nothing else?
@@AustinHulslander I use Swiss to force 480p on my non 480p physical games.
@Stephen Shelott III that's fair. I guess I forget that people would mod their system and not play backups.
you should make a most modded gamecube with all the gamecube mods you've ever reviewed or have.
Definitely planning on doing that
@@MachoNachoProductions let's go
Con: how the heck do you update Swiss that is preloaded onboard? Why was this not mentioned? Other than that love the vid as always
I think to have heard that the 16MB of onboard storage could be used to house other software. However it was only briefly touched on and I might have imagined it.
No, you're absolutely right and it already holds two softwares: the KunaiLoader (iplboot based application) as well as swiss.
@@mancloud19 woooosh
fr, he couldn't have mentioned that awesome feature that PicoBoot has that this doesn't enough times throughout the video
I love your mods. I have a Game Cube and i want another for restore and mod!!
Fine soldering job. What your iron temps at, usually?
I wonder if it were possible to create a custom boot sequence on the GC Logo with the Pico.
I’d love this. We could do our own custom animations, or even just something simple like change the hue of the existing logo to make it a different colour to make it match whatever shell your actual GameCube has.
To the developers of this project - I can't wait to see what technical aspects of the GameCube this may unlock! Picoboot came too late for me to be useful (ODE gang rise up), but a modern IPL replacement... You have my attention.
It'd be better if you listed at the beginning what the chip does
Sooo Pins 2,3,4,6,8,10 and 14 of the IPL QSB are not used for functionality and are actually just physical anchor points, at least that is what it looks like @ 6:26. Correct?
I think you need like 10 old consoles of each type in hand just in case new mod is released.
Honestly, all the love that these consoles get is amazing and all, but I really wish we had some mods for the original DS model 😓, I’ve always been an GBA SP model fan and that model of DS has a soft spot, however, poor quality shells, no real screen replacements, it just sucks :(
This may have already been answered and i have some (not a lot) experience soldering boards. What temp is the soldering iron for this job?
We need a pico boot vs kunaiGC video
There's no way this custom modchip is going to be any cheaper than the picoboot right? Feel like as of yet, there's not much point to this over the picoboot.
if i had to guess, 20-30 dollars. more than a pico, but cheaper than the disc drive delete.
So what is Swiss about? Is there a video that covers it?
Holes in cheese, poncy chocolates, unscrupulous banking and hoarding "Nazi Gold" whilst remaining _neutral..._
@@adamkane7513 I meant this GameCube thing but I love the joke my friend.