ATTN GAMECUBE IMPORTERS: The Mod Has Been Revealed!!! (1 Viewer)

[BrianB]

Oh, and thanks from me too Brian - once I see what the all-in charge to Dan including customs comes to, I'll almost certainly be ordering one as well. I can't believe that a Japanese Cube, coming via the US with the insertion of a mod device is coming to about the UK launch price next year!

Welcome to teh world of import gaming... I got my US DC + 2 games for the price of a UK DC on its own. And what, six-eight weeks before the UK launch...
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Nothing In Particular

 

[Dan Brecher]

Whilst browsing Edge magazine's Gamecube forum I was pleased to see he odd post about NCS' customs trickery and messages from people who had got their Japanese cubes from them through UPS with no customs charges. All going well I should be paying no more than £300 for my order of the cube, rogue leader and an s-video cable inclusive of UPS shipping charges.
NCS are low on memory cards so I will have to pay £29 *shudders* for one at CEX whilst in London on Saturday when I go to see Harry Potter. Cheapest I have seen the cards is £26 so I can go easy on the £3 loss with CEX, I may even take some old games in and trade come to think of it, only thing CEX are good for.
Things are looking very good with NCS and I will probably get my PS2 order from them at the end of the month as (for PS2 peripherals) they're slightly cheaper than Tronix. I'll get that shipped with GTA3 and MGS2 and possibly one other, depends on gamecube game lusts. I'll be busy boxing day, I know that much already.

I've had to limit myself to just Rogue Leader right now, which is a bit painful to do. I've no need to lust for any Japanese game release right now with domestic US ones coming next week, but even then I'll be hard pressed to afford ordering one or two more. Certainly a few going on the old Xmas list though and I will buy at least one extra cube title prior to the holiday season.
On the subject of import gaming, I love it! I remember getting stupidly excited when I had my Playstatrion chipped and had Resident Evil way before Blighty, before that I'd often run imports on my SNES and Megadrive though never had the luxury of ordering stuff cheaper off the net since I wasn't online at that point.
Same went for the Dreamcast (which was soon chipped, though PAL games with 60hz were a gift from above). Had I known of NCS at the time I would have immediately got a US machine which I was considering but was dubious of shipping and customs issues...
The cube will be my second imported console, first being the N64. Full screen, full speed, getting titles early... Only way to go!
Dan (UK)
[Edited last by Dan Brecher on November 08, 2001 at 12:16 PM]

 

[Jeff Kleist]

The Saturn Mod was almost as easy
Cut the trace, solder 4 wires, attach to switch, done
Oh, drill hole in case for switch
Jeff Kleist

 

[Michael St. Clair]

The Saturn Mod was almost as easy
Cut the trace, solder 4 wires, attach to switch, done
Oh, drill hole in case for switch
Jeff Kleist

Well, then you are a god. I've modded Playstations and such without breaking a sweat or becoming even slightly irritated.
The Saturn, at least my revision, was a different beast to me.
Oh, I didn't just do the US/JPN switch. I did the US/JPN/EUR switch with the NTSC/PAL switch.
I definitely got frustrated, and did sweat a little.
The surface mount chip in my PC-Engine Duo where I had to pull and ground a pin was TINY, and had a zillion pins...but it was still just one wire.

 

[BertFalasco]

Jeffrey, how do you have the GC so quickly, your job?

 

[Dan Brecher]

Bert,
Jeffrey adopted a Japanese cube not too long ago.
Dan (UK)
[Edited last by Dan Brecher on November 08, 2001 at 05:31 PM]

 

[Jeffrey Forner]

Yep. It's my new baby. I call it Roy.

Here's quick update. I haven't gotten the mod to work yet, but I'm going to work on it a little later tonight with one of the techs where I work. Apparently he's got some experience modding systems (mostly Playstations) and we almost have it.
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-J.Fo
"I believe you'd get your ass kicked saying something like that."
[Edited last by Jeffrey Forner on November 08, 2001 at 05:41 PM]

 

[Dan Brecher]

Roy, huh? Mine shall be known as Dave the Wondercube.
Just fired off a message to NCS, I heard they actually do have memory cards in which would be great since I dont want to spend £30 ($43!!) on one tomorrow.
So, lets dish out the full cost of all this:
Modded cube - $275
3rd party s-video cable - $10
Rogue Leader - (guessing) $50
Memory Card - $20
UPS Worldwide express shipping - $85
total -- $440 (£301)
By estimating cost of the UK Cube, games and peripherals next spring, what I spend now (inclusive of shipping) will only be some £15 more than what I would have to spend on a domestic console next year were I to have ever felt the need to want a PAL console again. That's £240 excluding shipping! If customs issues are averted or come out cheaply, I'll be laughing.
Dan (UK)
[Edited last by Dan Brecher on November 09, 2001 at 09:56 AM]

 

[Michael St. Clair]

I wonder if there is another couple of points to jumper for PAL, like the Saturn.

 

[Dan Brecher]

Whoa, just looked at game prices over at DVD Box Office in Canada and they have Monkey Ball for £28 with no other GC game going for more than £35! HELLO!
Dan (UK)
-- Luigi AND monkey Ball for £62. Oh baby!
[Edited last by Dan Brecher on November 09, 2001 at 05:10 PM]

 

[Jeffrey Forner]

What a week this has been. I've pretty much encountered every emotion possible thanks to this news of the mod. It truly has been a roller coaster week for me. Here's why:
On Tuesday evening I learn of the mod through the IGN boards and I think, "Great! I can finally get this thing done and be ready for Rogue Leader when it arrives!" I'm so excited, in fact, that I decided to leave work an hour early (with my supervisor's permission of course) just so that I can go home and rip apart my Cube.
Once I had everything taken apart, I found the location of the magic mod spot and figured out how I was going to get this done. I don't have any soldering tools at home, but we have them at work, so I figured I could bring my Cube with me Wednesday night and attach the switch during my lunch break. I stopped off a Radio Shack before I went to work the next day, picked up a switch, and grabbed some wire. After five hours that seemed like an eternity, the lunch break finally arrived, and with everyone gone, I finally got the chance to do my mod.
Once I actually sat down with the soldering iron, the wire, the switch, and the Gamecube, I began to realize how difficult this mod actually was. The points you have to solder together are tiny, and the wire I had brought with me was way too big to fit in those holes. Of course, I didn't realize this until after the fact. You see, I have done some soldering before, but nothing that small. Sadly, I overestimated my abilities and have since paid for it. During my frantic attempts at completing the mod, I accidentally knocked loose one of the resistors nearby and fried it. Furthermore, I never got the switch installed "This can't be good," I thought. By the time my lunch break had ended, I began to wonder how I would ever solve this problem.
Thankfully, 15 minutes after we got back to work, I started talking with a tech who is into videogames and has experience modding Playstation systems. I told him about my problem and he promised to take a look at it during my next break. I had found that ray of sunshine in the bleak clouds of doom.
When my next break finally arrived, he met me at my locker and I explained to him what I wanted to do, and how the mod worked. I also explained the situation with the missing resistor. That particular information alarmed him, since removing those things can and will cause major problems on a circuit board. I told him, to just close off those two points with solder and/or metal for now, and it may still work. He disappeared for an hour and came back with two much smaller wires attached to the appropriate points on the Gamecube motherboard. We then grabbed the switch and soldered that onto the ends of the wires.
Since I only had part of the Gamecube with me, I had to wait until I got home that night before I could try it out. Once I arrived home, I stuck everything back together, and fired it up. If the mod had worked correctly, I would see English text in the system menu in U.S. mode and Japanese text in the other mode. With the switch off, I could still play Japanese games, but with it on, I only saw a blank screen. The fan on the side of the Cube came on, but the unit didn't boot up.
I turned to the Internet boards for info, only to discover that someone had found another, slightly easier way to pull off the mod. ( Link Removed
Special Note to Ben: Sorry, I don't mean to talk about you as if you don't read these boards. It's just that you never post, so know own has any frickin' clue who you are.

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-J.Fo
"I believe you'd get your ass kicked saying something like that."
[Edited last by Jeffrey Forner on November 10, 2001 at 03:46 AM]

 

[Dan Brecher]

Damn, J-FO, I hope you have some luck with this. At least now I know why you e-mailed me about NCS, eh?

Dan (UK)

 

[Jeffrey Forner]

Dan;
Let me put it this way: My friend's father won't be able to look at my system until the week of Thanksgiving (if all goes well). To make matters worse, I found a copy of Rogue Leader at Funcoland yesterday, and I have it sitting at home right now.
Waiting that long to play this game when I already have it would be like spending an afternoon in that torture machine Vader hooked Han up to in Empire.
In other words I really, really want to blow up the Death Star right now!
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-J.Fo
"I believe you'd get your ass kicked saying something like that."

 

[Dan Brecher]

Not heard back from NCS about my e-mail asking them to add a memory card the other day. Hope the did and that my (and now yours too, Jeffrey) order will ship today as planned. Domestic US shipping will have your Cube with you before I get mine, though I am hoping mine will be here no later than Friday...
Dan (UK)

 

[Bob_Babcock]

Jeff,
As your Bst friend in the whole world let me just say these two things. "Remember when...." and for some reason this reminds me of a certen Calvin and Hobbes story involing a bennie hat.
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"Don't Stop Belevin' that Someday Soon the KWYJIBO will Escape by using the Force"

 

[Dan Brecher]

Gah, airports, bridges and tunnels closed in NY again. Unlikely my cube will reach me this week then. NCS didnt say anything though in their e-mail to me just after 1pm NY time, they just confirmed a memory card.
Dan (UK)

 

[Michael St. Clair]

I always do system mods at home, in a comfortable workspace, with all the tools and lighting that I need, and all the time in the world.
Never rush a mod. Any sense of urgency greatly increases the chance of error, and surface-mount PCBs have little margin of error.

 

[Dan Brecher]

Arghhh, as expected it didn't ship yesterday.
Dan (UK)

 

[John Thomas]

One question:
Why would anyone want to modify their Gamecube? You overclocking it or something?

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Spoiler:One Thousand Words
My Top 10 Movies of 2000 of 2001
Fox: Please release P.C.U. on DVD!

 

[Dean DeMass]

Dan,
Yesterday was Veteran's Day here in the states, so the mail did not run yesterday.
-Dean-
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My HT Equipment
"I've seen you and you are not cool."