SD2SP2 Pro for the Nintendo Gamecube
As someone who loves console tinkering, I recently found out about the SD2SP2 for the Nintendo Gamecube and had to get one for myself. The SD2SP2 is a device that connects to Serial Port 2 on the bottom of the Gamecube, and allows you to do a few different things with the integrated microSD slot. There are a few variants of the SD2SP2 that will either allow you to hide the device under the console’s port cover, or the Pro version that allows the microSD slot to be accessible from the side of the console, should you need, or want, to access the microSD card often. I purchased the SD2SP2 Pro (or as the product says SD2SP2 POR), as I felt it was best suited for my needs from the device.
The first benefit of a SD2SP2 device is playing backups straight from the microSD card, saving wear and tear on your game discs. While I do like preserving Gamecube discs, I also feel this benefit of the SD2SP2 is a bit redundant. To interface with the SD2SP2 you will need, at the very least, a soft modded Gamecube. This is achieved by placing a save exploit on a memory card that tricks the Gamecube into booting the software required to interface with the SD2SP2, among other things. The easiest way to do this is to own an already modded Nintendo Wii. If your Wii is already modded you most likely already have emulators installed, allowing you to play backups from the SD slot. With Nintendont installed you’re pretty much already setup to do exactly what you can do with the SD2SP2 in a Gamecube, without having to do the game save exploit every single time you boot the console. If you don’t already own a modded Wii to get the exploit onto a memory card you can easily purchase everything required online.
With all that being said, a better reason to purchase a SD2SP2 device is if you own a Gameboy Player and are missing the illusive boot disc. Sure, if you own a soft modded Wii you can install a Gameboy emulator, but for those who don’t all the necessary things to interface with the SD2SP2 are available for much less than what it would cost to buy the Gameboy Player boot disc. The added bonus being there are programs you can run from the SD2SP2 that make the games played on the Gameboy Player look much better than the original program on the boot disc ever could. Heck, even if you do own the original boot disc, just pack it away in a vault and buy a SD2SP2 and never have to worry about using it again. Someday a sealed copy of the Gameboy Player boot disc will fetch over $1million, mark my words.
I’ve only had my SD2SP2 Pro for a week, at the time I wrote this, so I’m not completely aware of all its uses, but I’m sure I’ll continue to learn more about it as I go. The main drawback is having to use a game save exploit every single time I want to use it, since my Gamecube isn’t chipped, and knowing that my Wii plays Gamecube games just as well while also allowing me to use the Gamecube controller, so I personally see no real benefit in using it for that. It’s the Gameboy Player aspect that really caught my attention, and where I see the most benefit. Gameboy Players seem to be far more ubiquitous than their boot discs. If you’re on the fence about picking up a Gameboy Player because you’re afraid you’ll never be able to use it without the boot disc, consider a SD2SP2 as your potential salvation.
Peripheral Vision: NES Advantage
When I was a kid I remember having my first encounter with a turbo NES controller and wanting one of my own immediately. At this point we didn’t have Gamestop or FuncoLand yet, but we did have a local chain of used video game stores, whose name I’ve forgotten over the years. One sunny Saturday morning, while my mother grocery shopped at the adjacent grocery store, I walked into the gaming store and took a look around. After browsing the games I walked up to the counter and asked if they had any turbo controllers for the NES. What the employee plunked down on the counter was the most amazing controller I had ever seen.
It was an NES Advantage, and my tiny little, childhood mind was about to explode. The controller was almost as big as the NES console itself, and the employee explained how it all worked. Not only does the NES Advantage have turbo, but you can choose to engage it for A or B, or both, and dial in the exact amount of turbo you need. Right away my child’s mind was alight with all the fun this controller and I were about to have. It has adjustable turbo, slow motion, you can select player 1 or 2, and it has a joystick. The best part though was that it can be placed anywhere and used like a real arcade joystick. I was sold, and I bought it immediately!
At that time I owned Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Arcade Game, and I remember how much better that game was with an NES Advantage. I also owned almost every WWF game on the NES, and again the Advantage seemed to make those games more fun. The NES Advantage also helped me play Gyromite without every having R.O.B., but I might write about that in another piece soon. I loved my NES Advantage, but as things changed I became more a fan of the Sony Playstation. I tried to trade in my NES and Sega Genesis, which is a [horror] story in and of itself, thus the NES Advantage was gone. For years I used the NES Max and a third-part turbo controller I had bought a year or so after buying the Advantage, but it wasn’t the same.
After being screwed over by a horrible trade in scam at FuncoLand, my NES collection was significantly smaller. At that point I packed away my NES collection and turned to emulation to scratch the itch for the NES days in my life. I never really thought much about the Advantage or felt the need to buy another one. That all changed in 2010, when I decided to start seriously collecting for the NES. I turned to online auctions and found one for a very reasonable buy it now price and made the purchase. After a few weeks of waiting the seller contacted me and said they had forgotten to ship it, and as an apology they packed in a second Advantage and shipped them both immediately. When they arrived they were both in good shape, except one of them has a weird issue where it presses buttons without me actually pressing the button. Either way, I was playing my NES games like I did in the good old days.
As time has passed I found myself wanting to use the NES Advantage less, because of its size. I found a third-party turbo controller and stuck with that for all of my turbo needs on the NES. Although I still retain those memories of using my NES Advantage to beat TMNT II the Arcade Game on Thanksgiving as a little kid, now I just prefer something a little simpler when I need a turbo NES controller. These days I prefer to have them around for the nostalgia and collection factor, more so than functional usage. I even own a Camerica Supersonic, but since it’s wireless and I don’t own the receiver I’ll never be able to use it. The NES Advantage was such an amazing controller, so much so the Ghostbusters used it to control the Statue of Liberty, and to be perfectly honest I’m kind of sad I outgrew it.
Super Mario Kart for the Super Famicom
Super Mario Kart, the game that started the franchise, obviously. Although, as I’ve previously admitted, Super Mario Kart wasn’t where it all started for me. Super Mario Kart 64 was where I got my start and from there it was Double Dash and Mario Kart 7. All of which are really good games, but I really had to see, play and experience where the franchise officially broke ground. When I accidentally won a Super Famicom copy of Super Mario Kart on ebay I figured that was my chance, so here we go!
I started off by using the clear memory button combination so that all records would be my own. Even though I had never played the English version of the game before, navigating the menu was still fairly straight forward. There is a lot of Japanese text in this game, because it’s the Super Famicom version, but I never had any problems getting started. I started off with the 50cc class and it honestly took me a little bit to acclimate to the controls. Each track has a different feel, different traction and different pitfalls. Once I figured out how to maneuver each track I actually found that it wasn’t very challenging, but it was still very good fun.
After I had won the cup for all three series in the 50cc class I decided to try my hand at 100cc. This is where the challenge started to really ramp up. I understood that each coin increased the speed of my kart, but the ability to collect them, and retain them, was more of a challenge, as well as the fact the competition seem to have honed their skills since I defeated them all in the 50cc class. Needless to say I am still working on the 100cc class, but I am having a good time learning the tracks and doing better each time I try.
Facing defeat in the 100cc class has taught me that placing anywhere below third will cost me a life, of which I start out with three and can earn extra lives. The question blocks are clearly secret weapons that can be used, although I find the red shell doesn’t always hit the person I want it to hit when I thought that was its sole purpose. And don’t get me started on how second place seems to have an endless supply of their personalized secret weapons, and they know exactly how and when to use them. Ah yes, the old turbo start, something that I thought I had down from playing the other Mario Kart games, but for Super Mario Kart it is very hit or miss, but it’s still in there.
My only real complaint, and it might just be me and my aging eyes, is that some of the tracks spinning around in Mode 7 give me a headache. Back in the day the mode 7 stuff really looked great, but some tracks have textures that are really jagged and flash that my eyes and brain just can’t handle. Most of the tracks are perfectly fine, but there are a handful that hurt my eyes and give me a headache.
Now that I now own some form of Super Mario Kart I’m really sad that young me never got the chance to experience Super Mario Kart. Sure I saw people playing it, sure I thought about it from time to time, but it never fell into place like I had hoped it would. I thought surely a copy of the game would have popped up in a thrift store or flea market for a couple bucks, but somehow it never did. Maybe because it’s genuinely a really good game that has held it’s play value and nobody around here wants to get rid of it. Regardless of the reason I’m glad it panned out this way as I now own the Super Famicom version and I’m super glad I do.
N64 Controller Showdown
This year has allowed me to spend more time with my Nintendo 64 than ever before. This extra time allowance also helped me to decide that acquiring more games and controllers for the console would be a beneficial move. After thoroughly enjoying most of the games I’ve acquired, I have to admit that I’m also quite fond of the controllers I now own. After giving each of my new controllers quite a bit of play time I feel I can now discuss the three different N64 controllers and how I feel about them.
First up I’ll discuss the unbranded fire orange N64 controller. With its OEM design this controller stirs up a lot of nostalgia from all the great memories I’ve had using the trident shaped controller. The controller feels great in my hands, the buttons have a good snappy response when pressed and the analog stick is something I wish I had for all my OEM N64 controllers. However, this controller is not perfect. A small gripe is that the sleeve on the controller plug is grey instead of a matching fire orange. I also don’t like the area where, on the OEM controllers, the logo would be. I feel they should have just left that area out of the casting entirely. The real problem with this controller though is that after a week of minimal use the plastic by the analog stick started cracking. I’m not sure whether more cracks will start in the future, or even whether this crack will continue to grow and ruin the controller entirely, but if the crack never happened I honestly wouldn’t have anything negative to say about this controller.
Next is Retro-bit’s Tribute 64. What can I say that hasn’t already been said? From its comfortable yet compact Hori mini style design to the satisfying feel of pressing the buttons and even the analog stick that feels almost exactly like a Gamecube, this controller just ticks all the boxes. At first I was afraid it might be a bit too small for my hands, but that never became an issue. This controller is almost perfect, almost. My only real complaints are that plugging the controller into, and removing from, the console is a bit of a hassle. It’s just too tight. Also, if you plan to use a rumble pak you’re in for a bit of a balancing act. That’s not to say it’s unbearable, but it does become noticeably top heavy when a rumble pak is inserted.
Finally we have the Retro Fighters Brawler64. If you’re looking for a more modern design with complete functionality for the N64, the Brawler64 is your controller. Very comfortable design, buttons are easy to access and the layout is very modern. The analog stick is really nice, but nothing more extraordinary than the two other controllers. The Brawler64 does have one feature the other two don’t, and that’s a turbo function. I’m not always a fan of turbo but each button can be programmed or cleared individually at your will. If I had any complaints about the Brawler64, personally, it would be that the design is a bit too modern for my liking. Don’t get me wrong I love modern controllers, but somewhere in my brain there is a bit of a disconnect where a controller has to fit the console I’m playing. One extremely small thing to note is that the analog cap made my thumb sticky for a little while after using the Brawler64 for the first time, other than that this controller really is amazing.
I personally feel all three controllers serve their purpose and have their own strengths and minor weaknesses, but I truly like them all. If I were forced to pick one and only one of these I would most likely pick the unbranded fire orange, even though it’s the lowest quality of the bunch. I know, I can hear your sighs of derision from here, but hear me out. While the Brawler64 and Tribute 64 are both absolutely amazing controllers, my brain just has that muscle memory of holding the trident design of the original controller when I play N64 games. This may be what has put me off using any of my other third-party N64 controllers more than the OEM controllers. Without a doubt I will definitely be using all three of these controllers at one time or another, but I just feel there is no substitute for the weird controller design Nintendo originally released with the console, love it or hate it.
Building the Ultimate Game Boy
Throughout my thrift store journeys I’ve purchased a handful of Game Boy consoles, most of which were in desperate need of repair or restoration. Some only needed elbow grease and care, but the others, sadly, were so far gone they became relegated to the parts bin. A few years ago I looked into my parts bin and saw an AGS-101 and a AGB-001 sitting there. I could feel the desire to become a part of something better burning deep within their souls, so I decided it was time to make my own backlit GBA (or as I call it the GBA-101).
The GBA I found had a broken screen and a heavily worn shell, but the rest of the console worked perfectly. The GBA SP I found worked perfectly, but its shell was heavily damaged and the moisture detector on the motherboard had turned pink, causing me concern about the console’s long-term reliability. Having previously reshelled a GBA I had a few shell options in which to place the newly formed GBA-101. I decided to mix and match and settled on an indigo front with the transparent back, inspired by the Gamecube controller with the same color scheme.
Having all the ingredients sitting there before me I only needed one more thing to pull this off, the ribbon cable adapter. For anyone thinking about creating their own GBA-101 you must take into consideration that the GBA has 2 motherboard variations: 32 and 40 pins. To see which type of ribbon cable adapter you need take the battery cover off the GBA and you’ll see a number at the top where the battery cover clips in. If the numbers start with a 1, it’s a 32 pin and you will need a type B ribbon cable. If the numbers start with a 0, it’s a 40 pin and you need a type A ribbon cable. While you’re ordering the ribbon cable you might want to buy an aftermarket shell, buttons and glass front lens for the GBA, but that’s all up to your personal desire.
Before the AGS screen will fit inside of the AGB, the shell has to be modified first. This part can be a bit tricky if you don’t have the right tools. I happen to have a very useful X-acto blade (X-Acto blade 17) that is flat and works really well in achieving the necessary cuts on the front of the shell. Carefully cut all the necessary parts down flush and you’re almost ready to finish up.
When you’re done modifying the front of the shell, you can now put everything back together, taking care to align the new, bigger screen. Put everything back together and make sure you plugged the screen into the ribbon cable correctly and you’re ready to go. Yes, on my first attempt I plugged the screen in backwards, no harm was done but nothing worked until I flipped the connector around. Some ribbon cables come with brightness switches, some come with an extra cable attached and some are just plain A to B ribbon cables. Mine came with an extra wire, which I didn’t solder onto the board, and it works perfectly fine.
I did previously make a GBA Macro (or as I call it the DS Boy Advance), which is the bottom half of a Nintendo DS modified slightly to become a backlit GBA, but those only play GBA cartridges. The benefit of the GBA-101 is that you’re not limited as to which Game Boy library you want to play. From the classic grey carts to the transparent GBC carts all the way to the GBA carts, you can play them all. I’ve always loved my main AGS-101, but my hands tend to cramp up after a few hours of playing a game. The AGB-001 form factor is perfect, so this modification was exactly what I wanted in a Game Boy.
Now I have to say I would never take apart two perfectly good working units to make one of these. There are kits available with screens and ribbon cables that don’t require cannibalizing an AGS-101. Had my AGS-101 simply needed to be reshelled I would have done so, but, again, the water indicator on the motherboard was pink indicating some moisture had come in contact with the board. The motherboard could be perfectly fine, but I personally wouldn’t want to spend the money to reshell it and the board short out sometime down the road, so I chose to make the GBA-101. Here are the conditions of both units as I found them at Goodwill:
Me and my Game Boy
While being slightly ashamed of this fact I’ve also tried to make it clear that I didn’t start gaming like most everyone else that I know. It wasn’t until my parents bought an Atari 2600 in the early to mid-90s, by which time the SNES was already in full control of the market, that video games had any place in my life. Needless to say I’ve spent the rest of my life playing catch up. There was, however, one console I owned that was still fairly relevant while I owned it, and that was the Nintendo Game Boy.
I don’t remember exactly which packaging my original Game Boy came with but I do remember getting it for Christmas with a copy of Kirby’s Dream Land. My birthday, being three months later, brought me a Doc’s Rechargeable battery pack with a wall adapter that did double duty of recharging the battery and running the system. From there I would go on to acquire F-1 Race, Metroid II, Micro Machines, NBA Jam, Super Mario Land and a few other games from kids in school and around the neighborhood who undoubtedly thought I was insane for wanting their old Game Boy games. I didn’t care, I still loved that plastic brick.
In fact, one year after Christmas break I remember returning to school and hearing a kid complaining loudly to his friends that his mother bought him NBA Jam T.E. for the Game Boy and not for the console he wanted. I remember being angry at his arrogance because I still truly loved the Game Boy. No matter how most kids my age looked down upon the grey block I still adored it and still do to this day. That was until I couldn’t pass a level on a certain game, that game’s name escapes me now. I gave in to childhood stupidity and bashed the screen of the Game Boy into the corner of a table over and over again, until the green of the screen turned to a thick, black mass. It only took a few seconds for my stupidity to settle in. I had ruined my favorite console, no longer could I play the games I adored so much. I had sunk into a selfish mentality myself and ruined the best thing in my childhood.
After concocting a story so horrible, like only a child’s mind could, about how the dog scared me with a bark and the Game Boy leapt out of my hands and landed perfectly onto the corner of the table and the screen shattered beyond any of my control, I was immediately punished. I wasn’t punished physically or verbally, no, I had to live without my Nintendo Game Boy. I called the 1-800 number on the back of the Game Boy and got the number to a repair center that was 45 minutes away from my house. My parents refused to drive me there, I had screwed up that badly. Such was my punishment.
For what felt like forever I sat through a whole summer without having my Game Boy by my side. The games sat dormant as the console lay silent, broken and in my mind dead. Days ached on as I tried my best to enjoy the summer. At some point life returned to a normal pace, as it does when you’re a kid, and my mind focused on Christmas once more. The Game Boy was the furthest thing from my mind, I wanted something better, I wanted a dirt bike! When I woke up on Christmas and didn’t see anything even remotely shaped like a dirt bike, I continued to open my presents, but noticed Mom had a few set off to the side. After the shirts, socks, underwear and other normal Christmas presents you have to smile and bear were opened my Mom handed me the other gifts. Inside was a Game Boy fanny pack, my excitement was quickly quelled as I remembered my Game Boy was dead. The next was a game, again I can’t remember the name, but the biggest was saved for last — it was a brand new black Play it Loud Game Boy in the clear plastic case!
I think my mother had watched me suffer through most of the summer and knew I had learned my lesson, and indeed I had. Nothing bad was going to happen to this Game Boy. The following summer I purchased myself a copy of Pokemon Red and absolutely loved every minute of it. A few friends and I wanted to hold a Pokemon tournament, but we never did. By this time I had learned to keep all the packaging for my video games so I had a beautiful CIB copy of Pokemon Red. My girlfriend at the time must have become jealous of all the time I was spending with Pokemon Red and asked to borrow it. Me being a teenager in love, I allowed her. Another lesson learned because I never saw it again!
Without my favorite Game Boy game to play the system fell into disuse. By now I had quite a few consoles to choose from and I was choosing them far more than my Game Boy. Eventually the years went by and that Game Boy stayed with me, even though I never used it. A time came in my life when guitars in pawn stores became far more important than some old games I hadn’t played in years, so the sacrifice was made. My Game Boy was listed on ebay and shipped out, never to be seen again. I still miss it to this day, as I haven’t seen another black Game Boy for a price I’m comfortable with. I just can’t justify paying what they sell for just to own one for pure nostalgia.
Today I own many Game Boys in varying states of functionality, a Super Game Boy, many Game Boy Colors, a few Game Boy Advances and even a Game Boy Macro, you know the bottom half of a DS modified to be a backlit GBA. Regardless of how many I own today I still miss the Play it Loud that I let slip away all those years ago, and even more so the Game Boy I needlessly destroyed in a moment of stupidity and frustration. Sure the frontlit and backlit consoles are pretty cool and all, but in my childhood mind that grey building block will always be the best.
Wave Race for the Nintendo Game Boy
Believe it or not I didn’t know the Wave Race series began on the Nintendo Game Boy until I found and purchased a copy a few years ago. Produced by the ever popular Shigeru Miyamoto, Wave Race was released on the Game Boy all the way back in 1992, but only for North America. Europe had to wait until June 1997, making it feel more like a portable sequel to Wave Race 64, while Japan seemingly never received a local release of Wave Race at all. Wave Race still sold well enough on the Game Boy that it achieved Player’s Choice status. Is it any good? Let’s find out.
Wave Race allows the player to play alone against AI, practice alone or compete against up to 3 of their friends, pending everyone has a copy of the game, a link cable and someone has the four player adapter. The overall goal of Wave Race is to race through 16 different circuits in 8 different locations and earn enough points to unlock faster, although also more difficult to control, watercrafts. There are two styles of racing available: circuits will see the player competing in a lapped series of races where finishing in a higher position will gain more points. The other style is slalom, which will pit the player against other players to see who can collect points pylons. Points here are solely dependent on collecting pylons and the race is over once all points pylons have been collected.
Along side competition, the player must also contend with varying track conditions and the inertia of the watercraft itself. Strewn about the tracks might be shallows, whirlpools or heavy currents that may all cause the player problems in their attempt to compete. To combat these setbacks there are also power ups in the form of a dolphin or octopus. Once a power up is collected the watercraft will flash and afford the player one of two abilities: collecting a dolphin will give the player easier maneuverability while collecting an octopus will allow the player to bump into opponents and steal some of their turbo.
Speaking of turbo, the only thing that confused me about this game was the button arrangement. B is throttle and A is turbo, where I’m far more familiar with things being the opposite way around, but that’s just a minor gripe. Competition, however, is pretty fierce and will bump and jump your watercraft off the course. If you manage to miss a pylon on the circuit tracks you will be forced to go back and go around it properly, and the AI knows this.
I have to be honest here, the whole time I played Wave Race I felt like someone cut down Micro Machines to just the boat stages and made it the whole game. That’s not to say Wave Race isn’t a great game in its own right, in fact I think the fact that it made me think of Micro Machines should be considered a good sign. I’m more familiar with Wave Race 64, so finding out the series began life on the Game Boy was a shock, but Wave Race is a really fun game and I’m seeing now why it achieved Player’s Choice status.
