How I ended up with three GameCubes

[Grizzmeister]

This was originally written by me back in late 2008 and posted as a series of entries on a forum I used to frequent. I thought some of you might find it interesting.

Originally posted on: Nov 24 2008, 08:12 PM
So I was checking out Craig's List looking for inexpensive used GameCubes games to play on my Wii when I ran across this ad:

Free - two gamecubes needing repair (Mebane, NC)
________________________________________
Reply to: xxxxxxx(at)Craigslist.org
Date: 2008-10-17, 7:09PM EDT

I have two gamecubes here that need repairs. I may not be an electronics expert, but I do happen to know exactly what is wrong with each of them. One Gamecube has a worn CD motor. It can't make the lens move to access different sectors of the disk. This part can be replaced. The other gamecube works fine, except for that the ports where the controllers are plugged in are unreliable. I was using it to play Zelda: Twilight Princess and Link tended to wander to the left when I wasn't using the Joystick.

Anyway, I took these to Gamestop, and they wouldn't even take them for free. The guy said, "I'll put them in the trash for you if you want." That's ********. I know there's folks out there with repair expertise who can get these working again and put them to use, not leave them to rot in a landfill. Email if you're interested.

So I figure what the heck, I'll pick these things up and see if I can fix 'em. After all I'm pretty handy with electronics having successfully installed mod chips in about halfa dozen PSX's without incident. Oops a buddy has dropped by to play some Brawl so I'll have to continue this later...

These entries will get pretty humorous so please stay tuned.

 

[Grizzmeister]

Nov 24 2008, 11:18 PM


Ok that was fun!

So I call the guy and ask him if he still has the GameCubes and he tells me he does. He won't be giving me the power cords or AV hookups for either, however. That makes the deal a lot less exciting as I'll have to pick up a power cable from somewhere and most sites on the Web are generally selling it for about 16 bucks. Not a boat load of money but more than I want to pay for a console that I may not be able to repair. The good thing is that the SNES/N64 AV cable will work on the GC and I have plenty of those lying around. Matter of fact, I even have an S-Video cable that will work on the SNES/N64 or GC.

Instead of buying the power cord I opt to try to haggle with a lady that is selling a GameCube without controller for $25 on Craig's List. She sends me her telephone number to pin down details of the transaction and I give her a call. Her GC has been on CL for almost a month so I figure she's probably going to be open to dropping her price. If I can get her down just 5 bucks then I'm getting a console she claims is still working and the power cord for just a few dollars more than most on-line retailers are asking for just the power cord alone. Right away I mention to this lady that Game Stop is selling complete GC's for $30 and would she be willing to take less. She tells me she can go down to $15. "Will you take ten?" I ask sheepishly. "Oh, OK ten it is", she replied. Then she goes on to tell me that her kids got a Wii so they don't really need the GameCube any longer. SWEET, I got a Black GameCube, composite AV cable and power cord for TEN BUCKS!

Knowing that I've got everything I need no matter what the scenario I drive out to Mebane, NC to pick up the two free GameCubes. Now let me tell you, Mebane is easily 60 miles away from my house and if gas hadn't taken a big drop in price I probably wouldn't be going out there. Looking at it another way I decide to make an adventure out of the trip. I've never been to Mebane and I tell myself that it'll be fun to see a new place.

So I drive out to the country and I see the house. There's firewood stacked about 4 feet high across the entire length of the front porch. I wouldn't call the house dumpy but it's certainly old and a tad dilapidated. Nonetheless, I knock on the door and ask for Ben. The slim mountain man who answers the door looks a little perturbed that I've interrupted whatever he may have been doing and asks me to wait on the porch while he gets the GamesCubes. Then he yells inside at his old lady as to the whereabouts of the GC's. "After all" he says, "They've been sitting by the front door for months". My heart sank to my stomach when I heard that last remark as I could smell the dog and cat piss coming from inside even though the wind was blowing at a fairly steady clip. The guy must have mistaken the look of horror on my face as a sign that I was cold so he invited me in. I told him he didn't have to do that and that I had imposed enough already. He insisted and told me that it might take a while to find both GC's. I was forced to oblige but the second that I walked in the house I could feel my throat starting to close up and my eyes start to water from all the dust, residual chimney smoke and animal hair floating around in the small house.

Darn it! I've got a phone call. I'll have to start up on this again later. Please excuse all the typos and grammatical errors as I've been typing this as fast as my two fingers will allow.

 

[Grizzmeister]

Nov 25 2008, 02:52 PM

Just then the dog of the house comes up to me and insists on sniffing my crotch. I laugh it off and gently nudge him away but for whatever reason he won't be discouraged. Between my throat tightening to the point where I'm having a hard time breathing, my eyes irritated so badly that I probably look like a stoner or at least seriously Chinese and this pooch having a love affair with my jock I'm wondering if two free broken GameCubes are really worth it! Thankfully within moments a young girl of about 14 years old comes from one of the back bedrooms with the GC's in tow. She's carrying them towards me by their handles and looking at me as if I'm the Messiah sent to resurrect two old dear friends. In fact, she almost looks at me with awe as if I'm the necromancer that can restore these machines that obviously brought her much joy to their former glory. A lesser man might have been turned on by such a feeling of power and in fact I might have even been if I wasn't about to pass out from asphyxiation. Yeah this slim young girl was an Anime fans wet dream as she stood just under 5 feet with straight shoulder length dark hair and big blue eyes that almost matched the color of her Carolina blue sweater. As she handed me the two consoles she mumbled, "We had one GameCube and then our neighbor gave us the second one" then she paused with a brief sigh, "but they both stopped working at about the same time". I was somewhat touched and felt the need to assure the girl and her parents that I would make my best attempt to repair the machines and with that I quickly started moving towards the door.

As I walked outside it was as if someone had lifted a 100 pound anvil off my chest. AIR! The further I got from the house the deeper I was able to breath and with that my senses and my peripheral vision returned. Moving towards my car I was able to get a good look at the two GC's and noticed that they didn't really look too bad. Sure, I could smell animal urine (I guess it was animal

) on them and both had a very fine dust, about the consistency of talc, on them but aside from that they both seemed in fair shape. Anyhow I opted not to take any chances and quickly deposited both of the machines in the trunk of my car and made haste back to my house.

Ok, it's my lunch time. Let me take a break and I'll come back to this a little later...

 

[Grizzmeister]

Nov 26 2008, 01:33 PM

The ride back from Mebane to my quaint home town of Wake Forest takes just a little more than an hour. During that time I reflect back on some issues pertaining to my quest to own a working Nintendo GameCube. I thought about my motivation- I thought about practicality, and I also thought about the deep blue eyes of that young girl who had expressed, even more forcefully than her words, her sincere desire to have those two GameCubes brought back to life so they could continue to spread even more joy to others. I felt as if I had to live up to that little lady's high expectations and I also wondered why no one else had. Oh yes, no doubt much of the problem revolved around removing those darn Nintendo screws.

For those who aren't aware, Nintendo uses an odd 4.5 mm screw to hold the casing of the GameCube together. Why they do this I'm not completely certain as the mini disc that GC games are on is probably a strong enough deterrent for most pirates but I guess the screws act as an added line of defense. Regardless, the Grizzmeister knows how to circumvent such nuisances to achieve his ambitions. Allow me to share a video that shows how to easily remove those dang Nintendo screws.

When I arrived at my house I opened the trunk and the smell of urine, animal hair and soot brought back, in vivid detail, all of the memories of the house I had just rescued the two GameCubes from. Job one was going to be to remove the cases off of these babies and wash them with an anti-bacterial dish soap that my wife keeps handy. Immediately I set to work creating my Bic pen 4.5 mm tool with unerring skill that would even make John MacGyver proud.

Moments later I had the casing off of the first unit and then the other. In to the drink they go as I dip them both in to a kitchen sink full of scolding hot water, and start going over them with a Scrunge sponge coated with the aforementioned anti-bacterial soap. I allow them to soak about five minutes and then extract them so I can dry both units with a towel. Once that's done I set them on my back deck to finish drying completely in the warm rays of the North Carolina sun.

Now on to the base unit where the electronics are mounted; since I can't just toss this part in to water for obvious reasons I decide to take my nearly industrial strength vacuum cleaner and have it suck off as much debris as it can. And believe me it did! Both GameCube's internal fans and circuit boards were crusted with dust and hair.

Again I feel a cold chill run through me as I suspect that neglect and house pet attacks may have rendered the GC's too badly abused to be restored without incurring major expense. I think to myself, there's no way that a cat or dog has pissed on these things without seriously ruining the fine electronics inside. With that in the back of my head I must admit to not being particularly ginger when going over the Cubes with the brush tip of my vacuum. The words of Ivan Drago reverberate though my head, "If he dies, he dies".

More interruptions! Guess I'll have to start again later... I hope.

 

[Grizzmeister]

Nov 28 2008, 11:28 AM

While there's no doubt that the Cubes had indeed gotten moist from animal waste, the person who posted the original ad on Craig's List claimed that both units were working to some extent. Thinking back to that ad which had led me to believe that I could cannibalize parts from the two GameCubes to possibly restore one, I was again inclined towards the hope that had set me on this epic quest in the first place.

It was time to ascertain for myself what exactly the problem with the two GameCubes really was. After doing the best that I could with the vacuum cleaner; that is, after making sure I'd removed all the visible hair and dust from the electronic components and laser of each GameCube I connected the proprietary power cord to the more ragged of the two machines. I anxiously watched for a few moments just to make sure nothing sparked or started to smoke. After that test passed successfully I then connected the AV cable to the back of the GC and gently placed Wave Race Blue Storm on the spindle above the laser. I didn't expect much to happen when I switched on the power but to my surprise the GameCube logo came up immediately! I didn't allow that to excite me too much as I figured the logo was probably embedded on RAM and the unit wasn't actually reading the disc. Boy was I surprised when the Wave Race title screen along with jaunty race theme came up just a brief moment later!! Was this the unit with the faulty controller port, I thought to myself? The laser seemed to be moving across the disc with no problem as evidenced by the fact that the music wasn't skipping or even slightly garbled. Yeah this had to be the GameCube with defective controller inputs I again reasoned; so I grabbed my trusty platinum GameCube controller that I've been using with my Wii to enjoy Mario Kart and Super Smash Bros. Brawl, and plugged it in to controller port 1 of the plucky little purple GameCube. F**k me!!! When I hit start on the controller the game responded with out even a whimper from the GameCube's internals. Then on to the next test, I selected the first course in the game as that would quickly demonstrate whether subtle controller inputs from the analog stick were also being received and interpreted correctly from what I was starting to believe was a bulletproof piece of Nintendo engineering genius. Sure enough, I went through all the tracks in the beginner championship with the Cube responding flawlessly to my masterful control of the virtual Jet Ski. I had won first place on every course and correspondingly also gone on to win the overall championship.

As the Wave Race victory ceremony commenced on screen I thought, dang... I'm now the proud owner of yet another working GameCube. This was certainly the unit that the original owner had concluded "has a worn CD motor" but in all probability only had a dirty laser. In that somewhat hypnotic moment of satisfaction I was again hauntingly reminded of those sorrow filled blue eyes of that precocious young girl in that smoky country house back in Mebane, North Carolina.

To be continued...

 

[Grizzmeister]

Before you start to believe that this story is going to take a turn towards Nabokov's Lolita please keep in mind that I'm a happily married man who prefers women to young girls.

It is sad that the young lady back in Mebane had lost something of value to her which was so easily repaired, but rest assured that in a couple short years her fancy will be far removed from something as frivolous as a Nintendo GameCube. Adolescence awaits her and with it much greater joys and sorrows than those game machines could ever possibly provide.

The question has been asked as to why I would undertake this burden. Why would a person who owns a Wii an Xbox 360 and even a fully operable GameCube feel moved to repair two forlorn GameCubes? I could give the same cryptic answer that mountain climbers give for undertaking the hardship of scaling to a peak, "because it's there" but the more honest answer is- because I can.

So at this point in the story I now have two working GameCubes. What can I do with them? Sell one to make enough profit so that the one I keep is actually free. Sure I could do that but I could just as well purchase some Nintendo Broadband Adapters and use them to create a LAN for one of my all-time favorite games Mario Kart Double Dash.

Mario Kart: Double Dash!! is actually an incredible piece of software that was overlooked by many fans who never experienced the game as it was truly meant to be. At the bare minimum, players should go through the courses in co-op with one person acting as the driver and the other in the rear of the kart assuming the role of gunner. It is only then that the game starts to reveal the layers of depth that Nintendo brilliantly bestowed upon it. To fully appreciate the genius of this masterpiece further a proper LAN configuration is in order and I now almost have that capability within my grasp.

Excuse my digression, but as you can see multiple GameCubes only add more possibilities to enrich LAN gaming. It was with this thought in mind that I set to work on the second GameCube given to me. Would I be as lucky with it as I had been with the other?

 

[Grizzmeister]

And then there were 3​

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I had a pretty good idea what to expect when I started working on the second purple GameCube that had been so generously donated to me. Since the control inputs on the first unit worked perfectly I deduced that this second unit was the one with the control problems. One look in controller ports 1 and 2 told me immediately what the issue was. Upon close inspection I noticed corrosion had built up around the metal contacts within those receptacles. The buildup on the contacts was the typical type that electrical components form when exposed to extreme moisture. You've probably seen it yourself as it tends to look a bit moldy green with a white powdery substance around it. Before even hazarding to turn this unit on I used alcohol on a cotton Q-tip swab to rub off as much of the corrosion as possible, then I took a small file and scratched off any residual corrosion I could reach.

I fired up this unit and the GameCube intro screen came up but even though I had a game inside the system wasn't reading it. Maybe I had gotten really lucky with that first unit after all. Again I reached for a Q-tip only this time I doused it in Windex glass cleaner and used that to clean the laser lens. Sure enough, after that simple maintenance procedure the GameCube started reading game data off the disc with no problem whatsoever.

Time to take F-Zero GX for a test run and see if the controller response still has issues; if it did this game would immediately make it evident. F-Zero GX is probably one of the fastest and most difficult racing titles I've ever had the pleasure of playing. Sure it's utterly ridiculous because the game has you believe that you're traveling at speeds roughly around 900 miles per hour, but I must admit that the sense of speed that the game provides is unparalleled on any home console or arcade machine. I chose the insanely difficult track Lightning Half Pipe because one lap on it would tell me everything I needed to know about control inconsistencies. Although I didn't beat my track record I did respectably well and realized that I had fixed this machine too.

So here it is, I now own three working GameCubes. Again I took a moment to reflect on why I had attempted this repair task on consoles that many people consider obsolete. Then it hit me; it must be the God complex that most Armored Core fans are victim to. We just instinctively wish to create and sometime go even further and breath life back in to lifeless things. I suspect subconsciously that's why I did it. I don't know, maybe I was just bored.

*The End*​

 

[3Bismyname]

i got 3 as well.
first one is my old one from when i got it for Xmas from my mom.
2nd one i got earlier this year cause i was working at Gamestop and someone came in, got pissed cause we cant take Gamecubes anymore and said "**** it u can keep it." so theres that
3rd one i got about a month ago. at my other job where im an elementary school teacher, i was cleaning out a closet and found one sitting there with Pikmin inside .

so now i got 1 purple one and 2 black Gamecubes. yay me. i havent tested out the newest one yet cause it has no cords and i dont feel like hooking it all up but hey i still got 3 Gamecubes.

 

[Grizzmeister]

I'm embarrassed to admit it but I have about 6 GameCubes now. I just kept finding them at various places dirt cheap. So now I have everything I need for a really nice Mario Kart: Double Dash!! LAN setup as I snatched-up several Broadband adapters back when Gamestop had 'em on sale for just a dollar.

 

[Alexo30]

Nice, Mario Kart: DD is amazing. Entertaining story. I like COD4 stting there lol.

@3Bismyname, lol in an Elementary school, that's awesome.

 

[Sahfarry]

Dude I only have one Gamecube. That's because the Wii was the first console I ever got. I used to only play handheld games (GBA), and I don't think I even knew consoles existed I still play GC games on my Wii, and I'm happy to see another F-Zero GX player :D

 

[rpotts]

Excellent story, Grizz. I particularly enjoyed the verbiage -

starting to believe was a bulletproof piece of Nintendo engineering genius

Then it hit me; it must be the God complex that most Armored Core fans are victim to

She's carrying them towards me by their handles and looking at me as if I'm the Messiah sent to resurrect two old dear friends. In fact, she almost looks at me with awe as if I'm the necromancer that can restore these machines that obviously brought her much joy to their former glory. A lesser man might have been turned on by such a feeling of power and in fact I might have even been if I wasn't about to pass out from asphyxiation.

 

[Grizzmeister]

Excellent story, Grizz. I particularly enjoyed the verbiage -

Thank you.

BTW, one of those GameCubes finally died the other day. I wasn't too upset since I got an extra six years of life out of it. Actually this has worked out well because now I have room on my shelf for the Wii U which I'll be picking up to play Mario Kart 8. I'm really looking forward to that game!