PAL Gamecube and the Gameboy Player in NTSC ?

[Ziggy]

Yeah, the 50Hz / 60Hz timing is separate from the color encoding (NTSC / PAL). And as I just found out, RGB is it's own color encoding separate from NTSC or PAL.

The PAL GCN can operate at 50 or 60Hz without any modding. Apparently some games have the option to run in 60Hz. With software, you can force 60Hz on games that do not support it.

Like theclaw said, RGB is outputted from the analog AV output. While the PAL GCN outputs RGB and the NTSC GCN does not, the NTSC GCN outputs S-Video while the PAL GCN does not.

A PAL GCN RGB SCART cable requires 220µF caps on the RGB lines, which is the same requirement as an NTSC RGB SCART cable (which are made specially these days).

https://gamesx.com/wiki/doku.php?id=av:nintendomultiav

VGA is possible, but not without modding. People use to hack component cables for VGA with good results, but that doesn't seem like a good option anymore with the cost and availability of those cables. What is a good option is homebrew adapters for the digital video port. Someone was able to finally utilize the digital video output with an FPGA, and they were nice enough to open source it. There's a number of ready made HDMI adapters for the GCN now. I haven't seen any VGA adapters, but that's absolutely possible using the same method.

[theclaw]

It's the wastefulness that stumps me. Nintendo went through the trouble to commission the MX chip to include VGA.

[Ziggy]

Let me ask this, since HDMI is now possible via an FPGA solution, why would one want VGA instead of HDMI ?

[theclaw]

Let me ask this, since HDMI is now possible via an FPGA solution, why would one want VGA instead of HDMI ?

If you prefer a CRT.
But I was simply referring to what Nintendo did.

[Ziggy]

So I finally got my PAL Gamecube and had a chance to install a mod chip. I got a cheap XenoGC off eBay and installed it.

One weird thing I noticed is the activity light on the chip. It's said that the light is red at boot up then changes to green or orange (depending on which version chip you have) after it successfully patches the drive. Well, mine stays red. But despite this, I'm still able to boot a DVD-R.

One thing I'm wondering though... I guess the software controls whether it's a 50 or 60 Hz output. I boot a burn of the Gameboy Player Start Up Disc or the Game Boy Interface and it outputs 60 Hz and everything looks fine. But when I initially boot the console, the start up screen is 50 Hz. This means if I'm not booting a disc, the system menus are in 50 Hz and wont display on my PVM (unfortunately my PVM only displays 60 Hz). Is there any way to get the system menu in 60 Hz? I've read that with the XenoGC you can hold down X or Y to force 50 or 60 Hz, but it doesn't seem to work for the system menu when booting the console.

[theclaw]

Not that I'm aware of. The system menu is baked into the BIOS.
Though XenoGC lacks the bells and whistles of other mod chips. (internal SD slot, 480p forcing, fancy boot screens, all that jazz)

[Ziggy]

Hmm, I guess it doesn't matter since I'm only using this for the Gameboy Player. The only thing you can do in the system menu is set the date / time and use the memory card manager. None of that is useful for my purposes. Is there anything I can do if I boot Swiss from a disc? Like replace the need for the system menu? I really don't know what Swiss can do outside of booting media.

The interesting thing about the XenoGC though is that the author released the code for it, and it's easily found online. And although you can get PCBs for it, you don't even need one. An ATmega8L AVR is really all you need, with 1 cap and 1 resistor. But even then, it was not much more to just purchase one off eBay. I got mine for $7.46 shipped from the USA, but you can even get one for $2.99 with free shipping from China!

The other drive chips that were / are available for the Gamecube don't seem to be as cheap or easy to obtain, nor are any others able to be produced at home. At least, none that I found.

[theclaw]

Swiss primarily makes homebrew more convenient. You can run apps from SD Gecko, save burnt discs for games that need it.
Video mode and language options too among other things. Cheat codes, disc dumping...

A major improvement for a few Japanese GC titles. PAL systems don't have a region switch mod.