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Any cool GameCube controller modifications?

Paradoxium

Smash Master
Joined
Sep 7, 2012
Messages
3,019
Location
New Sand Fall
I recently opened up the old gcc for the first time to clean out the dust. While cleaning it out, I noticed the R trigger and a large space within its spring. So I yoinked out that bad boy and now I barely have to touch it for the button to activate. This rocks cus the button generally took longer to press, and now I can be all about dat wavedash doe. Next I gave the buttons and bottom shell to my buddy and he spray painted them all blue. So now this beast has a white top shell and the bottom shell is blue along with all the buttons. This thing is pretty friggin sexy.

So I just wanna know, what kind of cool things have you done to your GameCube controllers? And have any of the modifications improved your gameplay?
 

Strong Badam

Super Elite
Administrator
Premium
BRoomer
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Feb 27, 2008
Messages
26,545
my 'troller is pearl top, clear bottom, and lights up with red LEDs when it rumbles (rumble pack does not function). it also has a tag by the port section hanging off that has a pic of Strong Bad and my name on it. it's pretty sick.
the guts are also frankensteined from like 3 controllers over the 5 years I've been playing. i have a backup that's very similar, as well.

https://sphotos-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash3/883542_10151492669479214_2087126016_o.jpg

further modification will probably be replacing the currently white cord with a pearl cord and putting a Strong Bad-related sticker on the top of it.
 

Strong Badam

Super Elite
Administrator
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No one has complained about it so far. I can always turn off Rumble if it's requested.
 

Brim

Smash Ace
Joined
Apr 6, 2010
Messages
819
NNID
Bitterbub
my 'troller is pearl top, clear bottom, and lights up with red LEDs when it rumbles (rumble pack does not function). it also has a tag by the port section hanging off that has a pic of Strong Bad and my name on it. it's pretty sick.
the guts are also frankensteined from like 3 controllers over the 5 years I've been playing. i have a backup that's very similar, as well.

https://sphotos-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash3/883542_10151492669479214_2087126016_o.jpg

further modification will probably be replacing the currently white cord with a pearl cord and putting a Strong Bad-related sticker on the top of it.
Cool.
 

metroid1117

Smash Master
Joined
Sep 1, 2005
Messages
3,786
Location
Chester, IL
A glowing glint from the bottom corner of your eye seems like it would get distracting.
It might sound distracting, but it really isn't. After playing Strong Bad several times, I can say it's pretty subtle and isn't really an issue; the lights only glow from the bottom of the controller anyway, so it's hard to notice unless you somehow saw the floor under Strong Bad lighting up lol.
 

xXSciophobiaXx

Smash Apprentice
Joined
Jul 9, 2008
Messages
131
Does anyone have any link to information about how to remove springs properly? Is it easy?
 

standardtoaster

Tubacabra
Joined
Nov 26, 2009
Messages
9,253
Location
Eau Claire, Wisconsin
Removing the spring is very easy.

Open the controller and you should see this.



Remove the black panel from the shoulder button you want to remove the spring from.



Pull out the shoulder button. Once you've removed the shoulder button, you can easily remove the spring.



When you put the controller back together, make sure both shoulder buttons are completely up. You also need to make sure that the sliders they hook on to are all the way up.

 

xXSciophobiaXx

Smash Apprentice
Joined
Jul 9, 2008
Messages
131
Looks easy. Could you describe the effect that spring removal has? Is it like the trigger are "pulled" in to the point where they just "click" when you apply pressure? Normally the R or L button will "activate" after a certain amount of pressure is applied, how does it work when theres no spring anymore?
 

The_NZA

Smash Lord
Joined
Apr 7, 2007
Messages
1,979
what kind of screw driver do I need and any tips on the best place to buy it? Also, there was a tutorial of putting nunchuck joy sticks into analog sticks. Anyone know where i could find that?
 

MonkUnit

Project M Back Roomer
Joined
Nov 29, 2009
Messages
6,075
Location
Eau Claire, Wisconsin
You need a triwing screwdriver to open up your gamecube controller and nunchuck(IIRC) or you can use a small flathead. You can swap the stick caps by opening both controllers and then just taking the caps off of both and swapping them.
 
D

Deleted member

Guest
i have 2 controllers. one of them is a teal controller i imported from japan through vidjogamer and dac when they still worked at anime conventions. the other is the club nintendo controller that chillindude used to play with before it got passed to mew2king and then to me. more importantly, both of them work flawlessly.

i wonder, if i sold a controller owned by chillindude, mew2king, and umbreon if anyone would buy it. dirty fox players lol.
 

standardtoaster

Tubacabra
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Nov 26, 2009
Messages
9,253
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Eau Claire, Wisconsin
I originally removed the spring in my R button for easier powershields in melee. Now I use it exclusively for needle cancels and powershielding. I can't needle cancel now if the controller has a spring in R, haha.
 

Wrestlemania

The Steel Chair
Joined
Aug 3, 2012
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242
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A Steel Cage
I need to buy a new controller, and was thinking of just getting a plain Jane 3rd party due to cost, has anyone had any problem with them.
I mean I can get a Nintendo brand controller if there is a difference, I'm just cheap lol.
 

standardtoaster

Tubacabra
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Eau Claire, Wisconsin
Third party gamecube controllers are always terrible. They do not last as long as official controllers. Their sticks and buttons can be good or bad but break down very fast compared to an official controller. Trust me, the official controller is worth the cost if you are going to be playing this game a lot.
 

9bit_alt

Banned via Warnings
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Jan 31, 2013
Messages
108
Location
Elgin, IL
I'm finally getting a triwing screwdriver in a few days so I'm gonna bust open my controller, remove the springs from L and R, and try out a nunchuck control stick. Current (stock) control stick is so worn down the damn thing is downright slippery.
 

9bit_alt

Banned via Warnings
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Jan 31, 2013
Messages
108
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Elgin, IL
I've read that. I do have extra sticks from controllers lying around that I can use if I have to, but I'm thinking I might actually like the added height.

Well, I'll find out soon enough. Come on Amazon / UPS.
 

Arcalyth

GLS | root
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West MI

Phaiyte

Smash Ace
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Jul 6, 2010
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932
I got a 3rd party controller out of desperation at one point and it was the worst decision ever made. I press my buttons pretty lightly for many performance reasons. On an official controller, any pressure on the buttons will make the game read that input. But on this controller, you can press the button all the way down and nothing would happen. They worked like L/R triggers to where you have to "click" the button to make it actually do something, and to do so you basically had to falcon punch the button to make it do that.
 

Vashimus

Smash Master
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Jan 1, 2013
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Newark, NJ
Took apart my broken third party controllers as practice, but when taking out the springs, there is no metal piece that holds the button up like in standardtoasters photos above. Pressing down the shoulder button just has it get stuck.

Now I'm afraid to open up my official Nintendo controllers. :(
 

standardtoaster

Tubacabra
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Messages
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Eau Claire, Wisconsin
I have no idea how third party controllers are in the inside. Third party controllers are usually set up a lot differently. Removing springs isn't a hard task at all. It's pretty much impossible to screw it up, vashimus. :p
 

Arcalyth

GLS | root
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Oct 1, 2012
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650
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Official controllers are stupidly easy to assemble/disassemble. Don't worry about it, Vash.
 

9bit_alt

Banned via Warnings
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Jan 31, 2013
Messages
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Elgin, IL
Took apart my broken third party controllers as practice, but when taking out the springs, there is no metal piece that holds the button up like in standardtoasters photos above. Pressing down the shoulder button just has it get stuck.

Now I'm afraid to open up my official Nintendo controllers. :(
Actually, those little metal things don't hold the button up.

I also just took apart a third party controller and had a similar issue with the shoulder button getting stuck in the down position, but the problem was actually: on the underside of the circuit board, there are two slider nubs. Those have to be inside the shoulder button's holes that stick out. That solved it for me.

Having said that, the official Nintendo controllers are SO much easier to work with, like Arcalyth said.

- - -

OK so now that I have the springs out of my shoulder buttons, I'm looking for a solution to keep them from sliding all the way out. I want to keep them in the "in" position. Thinking about just attaching some plastic stoppers in there and securing them with electrical tape. Will report back.

Update: what I did was, I layered like 6 - 7 sheets of electrical tape on top of itself so it was thick. Then I cut it to the right size and stuck it on the inside of the L and R triggers so that the tape's thickness would hit a bit of plastic inside the controller and stop from going out all the way.

If this "solution" lasts a week or two, I'll post pictures of what it looks like on the inside in case anyone is unclear.
 

SpiderMad

Smash Master
Joined
May 6, 2012
Messages
4,968
I'm finally getting a triwing screwdriver in a few days so I'm gonna bust open my controller, remove the springs from L and R, and try out a nunchuck control stick. Current (stock) control stick is so worn down the damn thing is downright slippery.
People wouldn't have to remove their springs if everyone used the superior light press air dodge. Also my current controller was the one my friend used to use when he played and it's totally smooth and I actually like the feel since it has like 0 abrasiveness to my finger (just like light press air dodge doesn't hurt your hands at all), and everything else about the controller is perfect (besides the control stick has some play towards the left, I limit my moonwalks a little to not cause more damage).

I got a tri-wing and opened various controllers more than a few times now, I still don't like doing it but it's not THAT bad and I always hope I don't open it the opposite way where all the stuff comes flying out. And then I've also like twice now put the d-pad's rubber the wrong way so it won't work and I have to re-open it and flip it.

If anyone is lucky enough to find like used GCCs at their gamestop and able to feel them: 99% of the time horrible buttons can feel like new ones once you just open it and clean it, the thing about buying used controllers online is that's the easy part and they usually make-shift a bunch of crappy controllers so everything works except the most important part for when I ordered one was the control stick had horrible play (which makes it unusable, so essentially controller play or C-stick play is the only important aspect that's unfix-able and the only thing you should care about since most everything else can be fixed).

Also The Official White controllers (and the newer Platinums) are in my opinion many ways worse than the original official controllers (besides longer cable and longer lasting control sticks). This info is useless though since original controllers are only used now.
 

Minor Pandemic

Smash Apprentice
Joined
Apr 28, 2013
Messages
142
Also The Official White controllers (and the newer Platinums) are in my opinion many ways worse than the original official controllers (besides longer cable and longer lasting control sticks). This info is useless though since original controllers are only used now.
Would you mind clarifying why this is? I'm getting a Wii soon for my friends and I to play Project M on at uni next year and I want to make sure I get the right controller.
 

SpiderMad

Smash Master
Joined
May 6, 2012
Messages
4,968
It's still decent but: The rubber peels off sooner as well as feels worse, the B and Y are farther apart making multi-shines harder, the Y and X both stick out so much SH'ing with hard to SH characters can be more difficult. The overall feel is slightly bigger, the sensitivity of the control stick is less (easier to run, harder to walk) although more durable (because they inserted a 2nd thingamabobur)
 
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