Gamecube Controller Cable Repair

Last year I wrote an article about a platinum Gamecube controller I bought from the outlet store many years ago. For unknown reasons the plug had been completely cut off, rendering the controller effectively useless. Regardless of any possible reasons, I decided it would be well worth my time to spend the small change on the poor thing. If for nothing else other than to use it as parts for potential future Gamecube controllers.

This past weekend I was at the new outlet store and came across a pair of Gamecube controller cable extensions. At first I tossed them into my bag just because they were video game related, but after bringing them home and finding that one of them didn't work, other plans started to formulate. The port in which you plug the controller into wasn't working correctly, so I decided to snip off that end and use the cable to repair the little platinum Gamecube controller that could.

The controller and donor extension cable.

After cutting off the end and exposing all the wires, I decided to map out which wire went where; lucky for me the color codes matched exact to the normal Gamecube controller cable. All I had to do was carefully remove the OEM controller cable, tin up the ends of the extension cable wires and solder them into place.

My haphazard way of connecting the new cable

The OEM way of connecting the cable

Admittedly my soldering skills aren't the prettiest, nor is my soldering iron, but after a few minutes of sharp concentration I had all 6 wires soldered into place. Again, she ain't pretty, but she'll do! She'll do...

After a quick test the controller is now fully functional again. I'm still cautiously optimistic, to say the least, but for now everything works as it should. Even with my soldering skills this was a fairly simple undertaking. In researching how to change out the cables I've found the typical, lazy internet answer of "No way man!", "Can't be done", "Impossible", and many other answers from people who are too lazy or stupid to try it for themselves.

The finished product!

If you're thinking about doing this project I highly suggest you understand how to map the pinout for the controller, as I felt that's the hardest part. I mean, look at that soldering job, it's hideous! But it works, and as long as it continues to work, that's all I need. Just another case of outlet store trash being turned into a fully working product once more.

Gamecube game cases vs carrying case?

Even though I haven't been to the Goodwill outlet store in over 19 months, the urge is still dwelling deep within to go and have a root around in the big ole blue tubs of mystery. One of the first things I remember picking up from there happened to be empty Nintendo Gamecube game cases. After I had acquired so many I actually started to tune them out, as I had too many empty cases and not enough games to fill them with.

You may remember that I spoke briefly about this phenomena before, with empty N64 boxes and Xbox 360 cases (here). I actually collected just about any empty case that I could. Playstation, PS2, Xbox, Xbox 360, Nintendo DS, 3DS, Gamecube, empty cardboard game boxes; literally anything that I could either swap out an old shitty case for with a fresh new one, or one that I could someday fill with a decent condition copy of the game it once housed.

After removing the Madden and Tiger Woods paraphernalia from inside the case, they were fresh, empty cases, waiting to be swapped out with anything from a flea market, or even the outlet store, that had a torn case and needed a new home. Well, that didn't happen as often as I wished it would. The flea markets were all devoid of any Gamecube life, be it cased or loose games. The outlet store offered a bounty of empty cases, but only on exceedingly rare occasions would I find a Gamecube case in any condition.

That is until one day I happened to find a few of the small Gamecube game carrying cases. The first one was empty, but I liked it so much that I decided to keep it anyway, even though I already had a large backlog of empty Gamecube cases sitting at home. The second happened to actually have a few games inside, including Mario Kart Double Dash and bonus disc, Mario Superstar Baseball, Tony Hawk Pro Skater 4 and Need for Speed Carbon.

Although my OCD to have these games complete was really nagging at me, I couldn't pass these games up! Paying by the pound for these things was essentially buying gold at the price of bubble wrap! Mario Kart was rehoused in a Tiger Woods double disc case with the cover from an old (too scratched to be repaired) copy of Mario Kart I had.

Some cases were just too complete for me to really tear down and destroy for the sake of rehousing another game. As you can see below I've got a few really good cases, without the discs to house within. Most of these are complete and only 3 are without manuals. The black one on the far right is the dead copy of Mario Kart. Besides these cases, I still have a dozen or so completely empty Gamecube cases. Needless to say, I don't seem to mind where I house my Gamecube games, as long as I have plenty of them to keep me entertained!

Bunch of Savages: The Gamecube controller

The story begins as I was trying to hunt down a microphone for the Nintendo Gamecube that I had found at the outlet store a few years back. I saw one on the internet that piqued my interested, as well as reminding me that I even had one, so I had to hunt mine down. The problem was that I have a lot of stuff that I found at the outlet store, so that means I had a lot of stuff to sort through as well as a lot of places to look before I could ever hope to find it.

All the outlet store stuff has long since been packed into video game carrying bags, which themselves had been organized and packed away into my closet. The problem is only furthered by the fact that I have about a dozen of these bags, all brimming with outlet store finds that I had either forgotten or never got around to properly organizing. And that is when I found the forgotten Gamecube controller.

I had opened the dirty, misshaped Sega Dreamcast bag at least 100 times within the last few years, including a dozen or so this year. I knew there was a silver (platinum for the technical fans) Gamecube controller in there, I just assumed it was my silver Wavebird, as all I could really ever see was the handle of the controller. Curiosity dictated that I take everything out of the bag that night, to make sure the microphone wasn't hiding under anything.

Once I removed the controller I was shocked to see that it had a cord on it, even more so that the end of the cord had been snipped completely off. "Oh yeah!", I thought to myself. I remember picking this controller up with the hopes of adding a new end to the cable, or at least using most of it for spare parts to fix other, more well taken care of, Gamecube controllers. You see, this controller wasn't just missing the end of the cable, no, it had obviously been given a cola bath by someone, who then snipped the end off the cable and tossed it in a box, later to be donated to Goodwill and shipped on to the outlet store, where I eventually found and purchased it.

As you can clearly see this controller was in terrible shape. I'm assuming that the end of the cable was snipped off after the genius who owned it gave it the cola bath, because the controller no longer worked. Sadly I can not confirm or refute this as the fucking end of the cable has been SNIPPED OFF! After I gave everything but the board, obviously, a soak in hot, soapy water, it all cleaned up quite nicely, sans a few spots where the silver paint had been worn down naturally anyway. I have no way of testing the board, and I believe it may only be a waste of time to track down or even replace the cable, as the board may indeed be fried, although there really wasn't any cola on the main circuitry.

As a mandatory organ donor this controller's first donation was to give up it's Z button to a black controller that I had found (shockingly at the outlet store) with a shattered Z button. The Z button was in 4 different pieces, only 2 of which remain and it does still work, sort of. I will be keeping it as a parts controller, but I will always wonder what was going through the previous owner's head as they not only, obviously, bathed this thing in soda, but also cut off the end so that it could never be used again. Stupid, stupid, STUPID!

This story does, however, have a happy ending. Along with the silver controller donating the life saving Z button to the black controller, I happened to find a spare Wavebird receiver while hunting through the many bags. I also happened to find the microphone!

Animal Crossing: Revisiting Hell

Given a week in the City (Animal Crossing: City Folk), I decided to head back to my roots and see what was going on in my original Hell. The last time I played was shortly after I acquired an Action Replay to cheat in a ton of things I knew I could never get otherwise. Since the Nintendo Wii is backwards compatible it was just an easy disc swap, and away I went!

Instantly I saw the major difference in textures, although everything else seems to be pretty much the same. I do have to say I don't miss the Zelda-esque map grid they did with the towns, but it did help quite a bit when it comes to figuring out how to keep your town clean and happy. Needless to say my town was once more overgrown with weeds, everywhere! I'm going to have to find the spirit who will do me a favor the next time I'm on there and get that sorted out.

After a quick jaunt around the town, at 1am, I realized there wasn't much I could do. My inventory was nearly overloaded with gifts sent to me by the villagers from my birthday earlier in the year, which I obviously missed. With only a handful of slots I found the money rock and gained a bit of cash, after which I ran across the golden statue of myself, which reminded me that I had no loan to pay off!

I went around and visited some of my favorite neighbors and said hello, most of them were upset at me for being gone 19 months, which I think is impossible, but who am I to argue? After seeing some of my favorite villagers I wondered around the town and the layout came rushing back to me, all the bridges and hills, lakes and trees. Everything came back as if it had been just a few days, instead of 19 months.

So why do I doubt the all knowing and all powerful villagers of my town called Hell? Simple, I only acquired the Action Replay a few weeks before my birthday in March, to the best of my knowledge; even before that I did the Halloween event, but I do remember not saving that night and having to deal with Mr. Resetti the time I booted up to use the Action Replay. With that mystery set aside I do have to say that now my house is filled to the brim with the neat Nintendo items they packed into this game.

Is Animal Crossing on the Game Cube still my favorite of the series? Yes! Without a doubt! City Folk has come into its own; I've learned a lot about the game and there are a lot of redeeming qualities that took a few days of consistent playing to discover. One major feature from the original Animal Crossing that I miss is that the villager dialog options offered you the chance to do a task for them, and if they didn't have anything they would simply say no, in Wild World and City Folk you have to wait for them to come to you. I want to feel more helpful, not USED!

Despite everything feeling too similar, at least to me, between the original and City Folk, they're still both their own game, and more diverse than I originally thought. I've had a ton of fun with the original throughout the years and I plan to have even more fun with City Folk.

But perhaps Animal Crossing's downfall, if anything, is that it took never ending to a completely new level; the constant need to upkeep everything. Its ok for a game like GTA (namely San Andreas) to just never end and leave the ending up to the player, post story. Animal Crossing, however, feels like a chore, a never ending task of pulling weeds, tending to personalities to keep them pasified, and even if you want to take a break you know there is the dread of having those chores compounded by the length of time you've been away.

Regardless of the chore factor, I still like checking in on the personalities I grew to enjoy, and I can already feel myself growing attached to animals in City Folk. I just wish my DS would straighten up so maybe I could give Wild World another crack, there are a few personalities I miss on there already. Even so, I still prefer to play Animal Crossing on a console, instead of on the go.