Softmod? Hardmod?

Well, I guess I have a couple questions.. with a softmod, can you load backups from disks like with a chip? Thats all I really want to do, buying a chip would probably cost more and be more of a hassle.. But if its the only options, then its a must. Anyone know a good place to buy either a cheap good chip or Max Drive Pro for paypal?

 

Softmods offer *most* of the features available for mod chips at this point. There are a couple things available for mod chip bios that aren't for softmods such as the Qoob Pro's audiofix enable/disable.

You can boot from disc using a softmod, but only recently was the ability to direct boot back-ups implemented.

Personally, I think it costs about the same to softmod as it does to hardmod. Then again I prefer hardmodding, so meh.

 

doing the soft mod is really annoying and takes more time to do it, hard mod is excellent no worries, just put it in and play, none of this PSO crap

 

Ok but will Max Drive Pro boot safety copies of my original games?
Are there some issues with some games or all of them run perfect?
That's all that matters after all...I'm not feeling like opening up the console..

 

Max Drive Pro can direct boot back-ups with a bit of work and the use of GCoS or NinjaMod.

There are always issues with some games, but for the most part compatibility doesn't seem to be an issue.

If the reason you're interested in soft modding is to keep from opening the GC, you might end up disappointed if you're GC doesn't read back-ups regardless of the media and you end up having to adjust the potentiometer on the laser module.

 

no, the concern really was the price, and the soldering (a little bit ) But after a good amount of reading, ive decided to just buy a package that comes with a case mod and qoob sx pro... Lets just hope its as easy to install as people say

 

Hmm so it's better to just mod it with qoob sx directly ,you say?
Does this one have region free? I have a PAL console and i want to play MK Deception which is NTSC only..I have a NTSC compatible TV.
What is this potentiometer adjust?
What are the best disks for GC backups?

 

potentiometer adjust is when you adjust the laser so it reads media better. Best disk.. I dunno, Im just gonna try some of my memorex DVD+R

 

Heh, the price is pretty much the same when comparing the cost of a MDP and a mod chip. The case can drive up the cost as well depending on whether you get a full case or just the top half.

Personally, I prefer the Qoob Pro over the SX since I can flash the Pro using a USB cable rather than having to burn a DVD everytime I want to flash a new bios.

All mod chips are region free, so no worries about that. Also, most of the newer bios have the "force video" feature so you won't be restricted to just that NTSC TV if you decide to use a PAL TV while playing an NTSC game. It works for most games, although for some reason the display gets a bit funky such as Paper Mario and Mario Power Tennis where part of the screen shifts right and another part shifts left (the curtains on Paper Mario are displayed too far left and the gameplay screen is shifted too far right, effectively cutting off parts of the screen).

The best media to use is produced by Ritek. DVD-Rs show better compatibility than the others but DVD+Rs work sometimes as well.

 

Somebody offered to install a qoob sx in my GC and he said it would cost 90 us dollars (chip+installation) .
I say the Max Drive pro is realy an option since it costs only like 60 us dollars .Those 30 bucks really matter to me.I i had money to spend on consoles i would not have ended with a lousy GC.
I need to know how this works..Is it something like Swap Magic for PS2,you put Max Drive Pro in the GC ,let it show a menu or whatever stuff he does ,press some buttons ,then remove it and put in the backup game and it will play?It would be to good to be true.
Or how exactly do you do it with this stuff?
Venom ,you said something about GCos ,Ninja mod ..What are those?

 

Gcos is a bios, ninja is a modchip. Max drive pro lets you put on files, so you load the mod from the memory card with the cd... so yes in a way, its like the swap magic for ps2.

 

So how much those costs?
I'm guessing GCos is free you can download it from the internet and that ninja costs some money.
Is that ninja mod really necessary?

So if please someone describe the whole procedure..What do you do with that bios? You replace the consoles bios somehow? You put it in the memory card that comes with Max Drive Pro?

 

Ninjamod is the budget GC chip basically. Somewhere around $25 as I recall. It's also got a damn good bios now, with all the most used features of the qoob Pro (direct boot, force video mode, game ripper). However, there's also a dol version of the Ninjamod bios that can be loaded using softmods and hardmods. The dol is free, but purposely lacks the speed of the chip's bios.

GCoS is GameCube Operating System. It's a dol file that can be loaded using softmod and hardmod methods. The newest version is GCoS ver.5 Teaser 3, and it seems to work well enough. Supports direct boot, ripping, and some other features.

Here's an overview of how everything works.

Hardmods
Chips are used for convenience since it doesn't require swaps and is cheaper as long as the person buying it installs it themselves. They can cost anywhere from $25 to $50 depending on the chip and reseller. DOL files can be loaded from onboard flash memory on the chip, DVD-R, or by being streamed from a PC.

Softmods
PSO methods, MDP, and Action Replay all end up with the same results eventually, with some methods being quicker than others. A preferred method seems to be the use of the Max Drive Pro, which has the ability to load DOL files off the MDP memory card using the MDP DVD. Loaders such as GCoS, Ninjamod, and GCOM22 work fine with it.

Now about the BIOS. The GC's original BIOS is never modified on the console itself. When you run GCoS, qoob Pro, or anything else, the GC will run whatever the custom BIOS will allow it to run. So in the case of the MDP, you'd be running a loader off the MDP memory card.

My advice is to learn how to solder and install a chip yourself. It's a lot more convenient than softmod in the long run.

 

Ok i got now..Max Drive Pro loads GCos from it's memory card and GCos loads the backup game from DVD.So the way games run is really up to the Gcos,all MDP does is load it right?
Did i get it right?

 

yup, think so.

 

Yup.

 

Wouldn't it be cool if someone found a way to launch this GCos without any mod?
We would play backups of our games without any investment in modchips.
What other stuff can GCos do besides loading backups?

 

sure it would be cool... and good luck with that.. what else would it do? it runs homebrew, and backups.. pretty much all that a modchip does

 

Hard mod. Use whatever other people here use, not what is cheapest. Why? You know other people are using the same chip, and if you need help, people are more familiar with what you have.

QOOB PRO. Not SX, PRO. Mine was $60 shipped.

 

so was mine.. I just bought my second qoob pro, because im a damn idiot who spilt some solder on the first on and while unsoldering it, a small ass chip fell off