White Gamecube controllers for Wii

[GagaMan]

The Gamecube wasn't so big in the UK, so finding them in shops here is impossible. Bloody American shops always have more cheap stuff.

[fastbilly1]

OK so I took the hit for the team and order 2 of the white ones off ebay. The seller said they did not have turbo/slowmode (unlike the ones on dealextreme), so I figured I would take the risk. Also if they are crap my friend has stated that he will buy the extensions from me for ten, so if they are crap I just lose $15.

Granted I did just order four replacement N64 joysticks...You all will be hearing from me soon. If the white ones are worthwhile, I am ordering another 10. Four for each gamecube and the wii, not to mention the controllers I already have...

[vlame]

OK so I took the hit for the team and order 2 of the white ones off ebay. The seller said they did not have turbo/slowmode (unlike the ones on dealextreme), so I figured I would take the risk. Also if they are crap my friend has stated that he will buy the extensions from me for ten, so if they are crap I just lose $15.

Granted I did just order four replacement N64 joysticks...You all will be hearing from me soon. If the white ones are worthwhile, I am ordering another 10. Four for each gamecube and the wii, not to mention the controllers I already have...

pic of the ones you bought please? also try switching shells when you get them to tell us if it's possible. a controller with official inards and 3rd shell is better than a 3rd party controller imo.

[fastbilly1]

Will do, I have picked up a couple nasty looking cube controllers from goodwill recently and figured "what the hey, its worth a shot." Ive gotten so much from this site and given so little positively toward it that I thought I could atleast help out on something that I too am curious about. Not to mention that work just decided to give me a bonus for last year with no warning or information beforehand.

Trust me Ive been weary of third party controllers since I got burned on the SNES, but who knows we might get lucky and they could be just as good - ok so I lied, maybe they will be decent enough to warrant use for social functions. Ive seen how people get playing Mario Kart and Smash Bros. Granted I have seen a fist fight breakout because of bomberman... And now onto what you asked for:

[vlame]

IT IS WII COMAPTIBLE

lol

what happened to the snes?

[fastbilly1]

3rd party controller broke in half when fighting Lavos in Chrono Trigger after playing for almost an entire day. Compared with the fact that Ive had first party ones go through a window and still be fine it kinda pissed me off. However it is not possible for me to find first party controllers in my area at all, no store carries more than a couple games, rarely any accessories.

[D.D.D.]

3rd party controller broke in half when fighting Lavos in Chrono Trigger after playing for almost an entire day. Compared with the fact that Ive had first party ones go through a window and still be fine it kinda pissed me off. However it is not possible for me to find first party controllers in my area at all, no store carries more than a couple games, rarely any accessories.

Was it a graham cracker brand? Or were you playing that intensely?

[fastbilly1]

It was a graham cracker of a brand alright. These shipped Monday so I should have them by Friday.

[fastbilly1]

While I always choose first party over third party, these are easily the best third party controllers I have ever used. They are not perfect, rumble is soso, alittle lighter, x button can be a little bit of a hassle, but these are very good controllers. They will take getting use to for Smash Brothers, but they work fine for every other game I tested them on (from Fzero to Odama). So if you want White Gamecube controllers, with or without transferring innards, I think these are the way to go. If you plan on buying them from the guy I bought from, click on a banner ad for ebay (so racket gets alittle for the site) and then head here:
http://stores.ebay.com/Wall-of-Fame-Sup ... idZ2QQtZkm
Pick the ones that look like the ones in my picture already (or in the subsequent ones). Shipping is a bit of a pain but these do not have the turbo/slow buttons on them like others have.

I strongly suggest getting the two pack. One of mine was alittle iffy before I opened it, but the other is fantastic.

Also do not "hate" on the carpet. Its been with me for almost twenty five years now and it is not going anywhere anytime soon.

And with that, how to take a borked official gamecube controller and put it in a white shell:
I found a purple cube controller that had seen better days at my local goodwill one day. It had a sticky residue that felt like Cherry Coke in the crevices and along one of the handles (Degree in food whatelse am I supposed to do with it). Today the white controllers arrived:

To show size with two original (borked purple and black control)


After testing one out I noticed it was slightly lighter and the stick was alittle iffy (later I found out that is because the joystick part was on the potentiometer incorrectly), but it worked just fine for most games. However I knew that since I had two I had to take one apart and see how it looked inside. Well it comes apart the same way as a standard controller (phillips head/cross bit screws instead of triwing), and I was shocked at the insides:

Look pretty similar eh?

The craftmenship of the controller is shockingly accurate. There are however three major differences.
1. The shoulder buttons use a straight spring instead of a spring and lever system (not a huge deal, even in SSBM).
2. The membrane for the buttons is a stepdown, meaning it wont last aslong as a real one.
3. The motor for rumble is smaller (see picture), which accounts for the weight difference. But it provides one major problem for switching innards.


So now you have two choices, either go without rumble (what I did) or solder the leads of the third party rumbler to the first party circuit board (what I will do eventually) - do note that I did not check out the motors very indepth so the second option may not be possible without other modifications.

However, once that is out of the way the swap is simple. The pieces fit almost perfectly.

There is one hiccup here though. The Nintendo wire has a loop held together with a ziptie.

I copped out and just undid the tie - used a penknife blade to hold up the tongue of the ziptie and pulled it apart. Which lead to the last problem, the wire for the third party controller is smaller just slightly. A quick dremel later and you have it.


Screw it back together and there you have it, a first party white gamecube controller, just slightly lighter.

And what do you do with the cast out original shell and third party controller? Well back to the dremel, round out the hole, and you have your dedicated NiGHTS controller...


Note the crystalized Coke on the side (and no it is not perfectly circle on the inside.

[vlame]

very nice. so are both swapped? and rumbleless? i need to try this with 3rd party dual shock2s.

so the upper analog stick was smaller on the official controller?

so these are fine replacments for real controllers? i might just go and buy 3 platinum ones.