Official Gamecube IDE/USB interface thread (PROJECT BEGUN!)

[TheOnlyOneHeFears]

Guess who's back, back again, TOOHF's back, tell a friend!



Thanks for your PM Rain, what with college and exams I haven't really been frequenting the forums much at all, meaning I'd completely forgotten about this (shame on me! ) and missed an extra 15 pages or so of enthusiasm and ramblings Great to see some progress, I'm watching the video blog as we speak, looks as detailed as I'd expect from you I'm now sitting on a fairly large nest egg of cash (the wonders of turning 18 ), but I don't have the time to buy the parts to try this myself. However, I'd be more than happy to buy a completed board from you, if you'd be willing to ship to the UK. Also, I'd also be willing to do a R3ason, and chuck you some funds to get a prototype up and running, if need be. Seeing as you're actually going ahead with this, and seeing as how I was pretty enthusiastic in the beginning, it would be the least I could do. Good luck and keep us posted!

~TOOHF

[Electric Rain]

Hmm... I wonder why everyone's so enthusiastic to throw money and free stuff at me these days. I really appreciate the offer, and although it doesn't make much sense to me to turn down money, I feel it's only right to tell you that I should have all the funding I need thanks to R3ason... for now. But, if something happens and I need a new *insert part here*, then I know who to ask. Thanks. *Points to Splode* But, I still would like to figure out a way to get the boards cheaper...

Anyway, good to have you back, TOOHF. Yeah, I have to start studying for my ACT real soon. Actually, I should have started college this semester, but other things got in the way... I hope to have this thing done before I get TOO busy, though. By the way everyone, it looks like Digikey didn't get their FX2s in stock when they thought they would (Friday). Hopefully they'll get them tomorrow and ship the order out Tuesday or something. The ETA still says the 19th, so there's no telling when they'll actually get them back in stock. But, nonetheless, I will notify you guys when the order finally ships, and when it gets to me (via the second video blog).

TOOHF... on second thought, I think I will take you up on that offer, but later. I want to get the first board built, and then I want to build some other models once I get the first one working... which I'll probably need more funding for. One with a CF card slot on-board, for example, and maybe I'll even try to build one to work with a DVD-ROM drive if there's demand for it. It would be nice if I could have a few different working models with different features for when I start selling them. I also would like to invest in some PCB manufacturing equipment (no, not like... industrial stuff...) so that I can make these boards for next-to-nothing, cutting down on a lot of cost, thus making the boards cheaper for everyone!

[Splode]

I've talked with my friend, and he says he should be able to get some printed, however he's on fresher's week atm so it has to wait. I'll double check next week when he's done partying to make sure.

and damn the notify me of replies option, it worked for about 2 posts, then nothing.

[Electric Rain]

I've talked with my friend, and he says he should be able to get some printed, however he's on fresher's week atm so it has to wait. I'll double check next week when he's done partying to make sure.

Okay, that's cool. I talked to Digikey the other day, and I believe they're supposed to be getting in their FX2s either today or tomorrow, at which point my order will ship out (the same day). So, assuming I get it at the end of this week or the beginning of the next, and taking some time for further board design analysis and possible re-design if necessary, I won't be ready to send the board design out until sometime the week after next anyway.

and damn the notify me of replies option, it worked for about 2 posts, then nothing.

Yeah, it tends to be a bit flaky for me as well... dunno why.

[Ness]

Theres gotta be a way definitely to place it on a hdd. I was in a hotel in TX about a month ago (Wyndam Hotel) and they have the GC thing in a tv sytle machine with lots of games to play. Keep up the great work, you'll get it soon.

[palmertech]

That was n64, not gamecube. I wanna get my hands on one....

[ShockSlayer]

Wow ER! No need to be such an "@$$" What I mean was that when the average joe portablizer like me gets my hands on one: What kind of interface will we use? Some odd form of C or Linux? You had better write some fancy programs, and make it easy to use.

Oh, and its really had to be an @$$ when you spend so much time on something so useful... G.D. man HURRY UP AND MAKE ONE!

SS

EDIT: I type my own smilies, apparently they are case sensitive. =/= :LOL:

SS

[Electric Rain]

Wow ER! No need to be such an "@$$" What I mean was that when the average joe portablizer like me gets my hands on one: What kind of interface will we use? Some odd form of C or Linux? You had better write some fancy programs, and make it easy to use.

Oh, and its really had to be an @$$ when you spend so much time on something so useful... G.D. man HURRY UP AND MAKE ONE!

SS

EDIT: I type my own smilies, apparently they are case sensitive. =/= :LOL:

SS

No real "programming" required. As I understand it, you attach the device via USB, and double-click the .EXE Destop compiled which will detect the FX2 and program the PROM via a "virtual JTAG" connection (shows up in a DOS command prompt, but probably does everything automatically). This is one-time, and will program the PROM indefinitely. The USB streaming is a small mystery, but shouldn't be too hard to figure out.

The FX2 needs drivers, just like any other USB device. But, Destop has not included compiled drivers for the FX2; they're still in C++ source form. Once these are compiled, which will probably take some trial-and-error, they will be installed like any other driver, and the OS will recognize the FX2 as I believe a Human Interface Device... possibly. From there, it's just a matter of booting up Destop's ISO streaming program, which is already compiled, and loading an ISO to stream.

Loading games onto the HDD can be done one of two ways (I think). Destop provides a loader program in C++ source that, to my knowledge, has never been compiled by anyone but myself. A screenshot and a link to the compiled version hosted on my server is available several pages back. Its UI seems pretty straight-forward. It uses what seems to be a proprietary file system that Destop made up, basically. The two ways to load games onto the HDD through this program are by attaching the HDD directly to your computer via IDE, or by sending it over USB through the FX2. I'm not sure exactly how the latter option works, but I think it has in fact been implemented. I'll look more into that when I can actually play around with it (when I have the thing built and sitting next to my computer).

The devices will NOT ship pre-programmed. Destop's code is not copyrighted, but I still don't quite feel right about "selling" it. Besides, if all goes as planned, users won't need any special hardware to program them anyway. I do, however, plan to put together a downloadable ZIP file with the necessary compiled software, and host it on my server once I'm ready to sell these. I'll probably also include a PDF with detailed instructions on how to use the software, how to attach the hardware... blah blah blah. I can't think about all of that right now though. I still don't have the prototype built.

Hope that clarifies some things for everyone. ****, I do talk a lot. Oh well... at least some of it's helpful and not all just mindless rambling... right?

[Dark-Aries]

Hm...so it's soon ready to go! awesome!

[Electric Rain]

Okay, having some problems with Digi-Key... my order was canceled because of something stupid. Don't worry though, it will all be worked out soon... I'll keep you guys informed. As a result, my second video blog won't be coming as soon as expected.

But, that's not what I'm posting about. I had a question that some of you may be able to speculate about. Nobody will know the answer until we see for ourselves, but we can guess at it...

Hot-swapping: How is it done? E.G. a multi-disk game... When you need to insert disk two, it pops up on the screen and tells you to do so. You are able to open the drive cover and replace the disk without turning off or even resetting the console. Well, how exactly is this done with this interface? Is it even possible? I don't think it is with the current software. As I understand, there is a single boot-loader program per hard drive. The current "test" loading program is in the form of an ISO within Destop's files ("hdd_loader_iso/test.iso"). This, as well as the ISO (or I think BIN or GCM) files of the games/programs you wish to load onto the HDD, are written to the drive via the loader program (the one I compiled; source files in "gc_hdd_storage_tool"). When the GC boots, it will load the test.iso boot-loader as though it were a game by itself; a single game disk. From there, there is a simple menu that allows you to select which game on the HDD you wish to boot, but at this point, the Gamecube doesn't know it's loading a different game. It simply thinks it's running some game titled "CZN HDD LOADER". The boot loader takes care of everything from there.

Conclusion: Unless someone can explain an alternate way this is supposed to work, I don't think hot-swapping is possible. That's really too bad, but I guess it's not that big of a deal. I don't remember if I told you guys about this, but I successfully booted the "test.iso" file in the Dolphin gamecube emulator a while ago. Here's a screen-shot to further prove my above theory, and to hold you guys over 'till I have something more exciting to show.


You can see where the files would be listed (if there were any) when loaded properly onto the hard drive and booted on the 'cube. Oh, and don't laugh at my frame rate! I was using my old 1.2GHz Celeron.

Oh, and something else I thought was interesting... the banner (that will appear in the 'cubes GUI) attached to the loader program is from a game called Star Soldier. Interesting, no?

[R3ason]

Cool

Yeah, the hot-swapping is an interesting question... I will try and dedicate some brain power to thinking about it over the weekend...

[grossaffe]

That was n64, not gamecube. I wanna get my hands on one....

They have Wiis with built-in games (real games, not just wiiware/VC) in some hospitals.

[tom61]

What games are multi-disc for the GC?

Most multi-disc games from other systems I've used don't require hot-swapping, just that the required save game be present, so it'd be a minor annoyance most likely.

[Electric Rain]

Baten Kaitos: Eternal Wings and the Lost Ocean
Baten Kaitos Origins
Conan: The Dark Axe
Enter The Matrix
Freaky Flyers
GoldenEye: Rogue Agent
Homeland
Killer7
The Lord of the Rings: The Third Age
Medal of Honor: Rising Sun
Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes
Resident Evil 0
Resident Evil
Resident Evil 4
Resident Evil: Code Veronica X
Ribbit King
Tales of Symphonia
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2: Battle Nexus
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 3: Mutant Nightmare
Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2004
Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2005
Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory
Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Double Agent

...What? You asked... You're right, though. Hot-swapping isn't really necessary I suppose. I was mostly thinking about "hack" disks like SDload or GCLinux... don't those need to be hot-swapped? Eh, I really don't know how that works, I guess... The GC scene was never very well documented IMO.

[palmertech]

The gamecube scene reminds me of the PSX homebrew scene... Fragmented, badly documented, and all the authors drop off the face of the earth after a few years.