Full Guide to Gamecube Booting With Phoenix 2.3

Icemonkey did his tutorial using slightly aged tools, and since it seems so many people are still confused, I'm going to attempt to rewrite the process (using Icemonkey's as a template) with the all-in-one tool, Cubesoft Phoenix 2.3 (build 133).

This tutorial will show you how to boot gamecube images, load isos, hack the gamecube, some people improperly term it to mod the gamecube, whatever you want to call it, this is how you do it.

I have yet to rip anything, it seemed easier at the time to just download iso's of the games i already had than risk screwing up a few rips, so if you want to rip, don't ask me (also don't ask me where i found the iso's, that'd be against forum rules).

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Full Gamecube load tutorial v2.0
(original by Icemonkey)
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Phase 1: Initialize the memory card (fool the game into thinking you have a subscription)

Tools Needed: Cubesoft Phoenix 2.3
Phantasy Star Online 1&2 Game Disc
Memory Card
Gamecube Broadband Adapter

Note: If you actually play Phantasy Star Online, you may want to use another memory card for this. Also, you only have to initialize your memory card once, not before each rip or game load.

Step 1: Boot Phantasy Star Online Game Disc
Pretty self explanatory, set up the calendar if you wish.

Step 2: Setup Network Profile

Go to Online Game, pick Slot A (preferably), create a network info file.
Click Network Setup when you have a choice (I believe everything else is "Yes")
click Edit Menu
Next (don't bother renaming it)
Choose manually set up an IP address, do not auto-disconnect, next


IP Address: 192.168.1.32
Subnet Mask: 255.255.255.0
Gateway: 192.168.1.100
Primary DNS: 192.168.1.100
Secondary DNS: Leave Blank

Leave the proxy stuff blank, click next and Save it. Return to the game.

Your gamecube is now configured to talk to your PC, now we have to configure the PC to accept the connection, then we confuse the GC into thinking you have a subscription to PSO1&2, then we start playing.

Step 3: Set up the PC

On Your PC:

The best option here is to connect a crossover cable from your gamecube, to a network card on your PC, and dedicate that network card to the gamecube, using another for internet. If you absolutely must use the same card for internet, you'll have to switch your settings back and forth every time you wish to play GC.

I'm going to assume you've got a dedicated network card for the gamecube.

Go into Network Connections (in WinXP) and go to the properties of that network connection.
(if you don't have WinXP, the settings are similar when you find them)

Select the TCP/IP Protocol and edit its properties
Use the following IP Address:
IP Address: 192.168.1.100
Subnet Mask: 255.255.255.0
Gateway: leave blank

Ignore the DNS settings below, we don't need them on the PC side.
Apply those settings, you should be able to confirm now that your network card is running on the ip 192.168.1.100. PC side ready.

Fire up Cubesoft Phoenix 2.3, and go to the Extras tab.

You have a choice of using PSOLoad or PSUL to save the data to the memory card. I like using PSUL for other things.. so I'm going to use that one.

Select "Save User Data with PSUL", click Load

A window should pop up saying it's waiting for a connection, now we head back to the GC.
(Ensure your crossover cable is firmly connected at both ends)

Step 4: Create a Character for Online Play

Go to Online Game, you'll be prompted to make a character. (skip the stupid FMV)
It REALLY doesn't matter who you pick, and unless you play the game (which I have for only 30 seconds), you're never going to see your character, so don't waste time making them look pretty unless you really care. (I just made a HUmar called Bob)

Now you see the agreement you're going to get very used to. Read it if you wish, but select Agree to continue.

You now have to enter a serial number, an access key, and a password. The first two are provided with your copy of PSO1&2, but we're not actually playing online, so just enter whatever numbers you want. Save the password to the memory card to avoid having to type it in every time (suppose you could lock your little brother out of your GC this way, unless he's smart enough to erase your settings and setup the network config again)

Be sure the PC is ready and waiting for connection, then continue. The Gamecube should connect to the PC, the PC will save the data to the memory card, and the gamecube will tell you it lost connection (this is a good thing, as long as the window on the PC side closed. If the PC side is still waiting for a connection, go back, you did something wrong, try again)

Your gamecube should now be set up to accept streamed games from your PC.

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Phase 2: Get a Game Disc Image

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This can be achieved through Cubesoft Phoenix 2.3 if you have a game you'd like to copy to your computer, and it is compatible (check the compatability lists).

For the sake of this tutorial however, I will assume you already have a game disc image, whether it be downloaded or ripped personally.

(Don't download ISOs to games you don't own, that's illegal)
(Don't ask me where to get them either, that's against forum rules)

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Phase 3: Stream Game Disc Image to Gamecube

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Tools Needed: Cubesoft Phoenix 2.3
Download Here: Find it on Google
Initialized Memory Card (See Phase 1)
Phantasy Star Online Game Disc
Gamecube Broadband Adapter

Step 1: Phoenix Startup

Fire up Phoenix (unless it's still open from when you did the save game/ripping).
Ok, here's where the multitude of options arise. Often the compatability lists will tell you which loader is best, if not, trial and error becomes your new friend.

Pick the "Loaders" tab.
under Select an Image: Click the "..."
Select your game cube image file.

Select your GC Loader: Typically I've found that Animal Crossing Loader 1.4 (ACL 1.4) works best for most games, I've found a game or two that prefer GCL 1.0, and most seem to run fine on the MGS loader, I suggest you try ACL 1.4 first, if the gamecube loads to a black screen, or if performance is generally crappy, try a different loader until you find the one that works best.

Select the PC Server: I've found that "Standard PC Server" seems to be 300% more reliable than "Phoenix PC Server". Figure out which one works best for you.

The only other real option there is here is under "Options" (go figure)
At the bottom you have a choice of DOL loaders (the program that uploads the initial loader code to the gamecube before the game is streamed). If PSOLoad doesn't seem to be working, try PSUL.

Back at the "Loaders" tab, click "Load"

On your Gamecube:

Go to Online Game,
Select the Character you created, Confirm.
Agree to the agreement.
Watch the fancy stars going...

Now the magic happens and the GC should connect to the PC, download the loader, and you should see it fired up on the screen. If you want to turn on Save Hack (if supported by the loader), Hold Z, Press start, release Z when "Loading..." is gone. Otherwise, just hit start, the game should load.

If your gamecube freezes at a black screen at this point. Try a different loader, a different DOL loader, a different server. If everything fails even though the game is listed as 'compatible' on the list, your image of the game may be bad.

Otherwise, you should be in the game, enjoying the fact that you just hacked your gamecube.

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Known Issues:

Remember you are streaming game data to the Gamecube at 10 Megabits/sec. The broadband adapter is capable of transferring data at 100 Megabits/sec., however, since the good folks at Sega assumed nobody has Internet faster than 10 Megabits, they decided to lock the transfer speed down to that rate. There is currently as of this writing to known fix for this but I hear something is in the works. Games with lots of FMV may run choppy due to peformance issues with the network speed and in-game music is usually affected as well.

The broadband adapter, and the memory cards, operate on the same bus. This being the case, the gamecube may freeze when it is trying to save and load data from your PC at the same time. To avoid complications, I recommend the following:
When the intro screen loads (Starcube, or whatever loader you have), remove your save cartridge, do not put it back in until the game requests it, and remove it immediately after loading/saving is complete.

If your game is one that streams music through the loading (Spiderman 2.. the very first save in billy hatcher), the gamecube may freeze when you try to save, to get around this, use the Save Hack included in some loaders, when you hold up or left on the control pad, the broadband adapter will stop accepting incoming data. If you're already in the menu ready to save, and all it has to load is the music in the background, this is fine. However if you hit those buttons when something critical is loading, you will crash your game.

Hey.. nobody said this setup was perfect

Feel free to add to this tutorial, I could use somebody doing a full Phase 2 with real ripping instructions.

Thanks to Icemonkey for writing the original tutorial, to nintendo for giving us the gamecube, and to the guys at Sonic Team for leaving a nice exploit hole in their game.

 

Thanks for the tutorial. Great help ! Got me GC working like a dream! Still the 10MBPs transfer rate can be a bit sticky at times. A 100MBPs hack would be nice So you can kiss me ace!

 

i want to try this out, but i am buying a preowned copy of PSO 1&2, and it doesn't come with the online serials. All i need to do is put in my own password, not something that comes with the game, right?

 

You don't need a serial to make this exploit work. See the instructions in tutorial for setting up a character for online play for information on what you need to do.

 

if you looked at some previous post you would have seen that i have posted a guide to using the phoenix loaders... but oh well no one looks at the old ones.

good guide anyways.

also there is a 100mbps hack but pso doesnt work very well and most games will freeze since gamecube games run at 25mbps but it does work on a couple games (some games that are very choppy will work but they will freeze when loading usually) and dont ask me for the it, i found my copy on an irc help channel for gamecube backing up (not to download games) just search for it on google its fairly small and its called:

bbadebug

and know i wont send it to you even if you claim to post it on a website like someother people who never did

 

Here's a link to my post about the 100mbit 'fix'

http://forums.afterdawn.com/thread_view.cfm/96741

 

Where can I get Phoenix 2.3?

 

http://www.xtremeconsole.com

 

when i try to connect the pc to the gc my pc says "A network cable is unplugged" can anyone help

 

I feel dumb asking this, but what exactly is a "crossover cable" and where can I get one?

 

When I click load on SAVE USER DATA WITH PSUL V1.1 in Phoenix Loader,and then hit yes on the PSO game at the very end of the registration process on the Gamecube.It shows the warp screen,and then I get network disconnected,before I can even save the information to the memory card.You know in the tutorial where it says load the SAVE USER DATA WITH PSUL and a DOS screen should come up saying waiting for internet connection.........should the DOS screen say saving to the memory card or is this normal that the internet connection just disconnects.I have everything setup right also.I can see I am connected when I turn on my GameCube and I pinged the connection also and it gives me the 4 packets sent also.I was wondering could somebody hook me up with a solution or something,because I got everything right.The crossover cable,PSO 1 and 2,broadband adapter,and the CUBESOFT PHOENIX Loader V2.3 build 133.I can't figure out what I am doing wrong.I also posted a thread trying to get the save to work,but haven't had any help on it.I am just trying to get the GameCube connected then I can continue on from there,any help is appreciated.Oh and AmyLee you can find the crossover cable at http://www.provantage.com they have them there.It is a ethernet cable not a straight cable but they call it crossover.I was looking and this is just to narrow down what you need to look at off of the site http://www.provantage.com/buy-22030...-rj45-cat-5e-utp-crossover-cable-shopping.htm .They should have the belkin RJ45 CAT 5e UTP Crossover cable.I am thinking you might want to get it like 10 feet long or longer if you want.It just depends on how far away your GameCube is.Anyways could somebody please help me out on getting PSUL to save to my memory card in Phoenix.

 

I did eveything in the tutorial ive changed my ips and Dns numbers as told on the tutorial. but when i am Initialize my memory card i get the lost connection error on my gamecube but the black window says it is still waiting for connection Ive used PSOLOAD and PSUL and Gamcube DVD browser 1.5 none of them seem to work. I was wondering if maybe it was my network card since its a motherboard ehternet port not a PCI slot one is this the problem, PLease help i cant seem to get my computer to talk to my gamecube.

 

Hey KaNaDa777 make sure you use an official nintendo memory card(a memory card from Nintendo).You will also have to go into the ethernet card you have hooked up to the GameCube and set it to 10 half duplex.The problem should be solved if you use these settings.

 

Sorry man but that still didnt help me. can you tell me all the options you have on cubesoft phoenix like your Ip and stuff and what options is your network card are running at.....also....do you need to have free space in the memory card for the initialization to work. I still think the problem is that my ethernet port is a motherboard one not PCI. Still need help I am using the official Nintendo memory card. 59 blocks

 

Alright my setting for the PC side are:

PC
IP adress:192.168.1.100
Subnet Mask:255.255.255.0
Default Gateway:leave it blank

The settings for PSO are:

GameCube
IP adress:192.168.1.32
Subnet Mask:255.255.255.0
Defualt Gateway:192.168.1.100
Primary DNS:192.168.1.100

If you keep it as these settings it should work.

 

In Phoenix Loader my IP adresses are as stated:

GameCube IP adress:192.168.1.32
Computer IP adress:192.168.1.100

I have my GC Loader set to ACL 1.4 by default
My PC server is set to Standard PC Server.

I used the PSUL utility which might be different.

 

Be sure you're using a crossover cable, direct from GC to your PC. The fact that it's an onboard (motherboard) lan adapter shouldn't matter, that's what I use.

 

is http://www.xtremeconsole.com where you get Pheonix 2.3? I tryed on that site and I didnt find it unless you had to be a member. If you could send me other sites where I could get Pheonix 2.3

 

Sorry if this is a newbish question....

 

I've got some troubles running the Pokemon Colosseum Bunus Disk NTSC on a PAL gamecube.
anyone got any ideas what settings I could use?