How to Take Your GameCube Online With a Raspberry Pi and psx-pi-smbshare

Yes, people are still playing GameCube online - believe it or not, there are dozens of us. Maybe even a hundred! The only problem is that the more distance there is between players, the more the game will look like a slo-mo scene from The Matrix (see above for a recent race between someone in the US and someone in Chile). It doesn’t help that, even if you have everything necessary to go online, setting things up can be a pain in the ass. So, in the interest of getting more people to join the GameCube online community and hopefully make the games a bit more playable for everyone, here’s the simplest connection method (that uses a real GameCube) I’ve seen yet. What you need:

A GameCube, duh
A GameCube Broadband Adapter (NOT the cheaper Modem Adapter, sorry)
A Raspberry Pi, any model with an Ethernet port will do
A Micro-SD card with at least 4GB
Two Ethernet cables, one for the GameCube Broadband Adapter and one for the Pi

If you don’t have easy access to your router, might want to get an Ethernet hub. Alternatively, you could use a Wi-Fi USB adapter (or the Raspberry Pi 3′s built-in Wi-Fi), but that will probably add some lag/slo-mo to your games. Stick with Ethernet, trust me.

STEP 1: Preparing the Raspberry Pi

1.1. Go to https://github.com/toolboc/psx-pi-smbshare/releases/ and download the latest release (the file ending in tar.gz). Extract the .img file inside.

1.2. Go to http://etcher.io and download Etcher for Windows, if you have Windows, or Etcher for The Other Things, if you have The Other Things. Install it.

1.3. Open Etcher, click “select image”, and select the .img file we extracted up there. If you insert your Micro-SD card into your computer now, Etcher will probably recognize it automatically, but if not, click “Select a drive” and pick your SD card. Then click “Flash!” (ahh-ah) and let the program do its thing.

Once it’s done flashing, your computer will tell you you need to format the SD card, but don’t listen to it. You can just remove it and put it in your Raspberry Pi now.

1.4. OPTIONAL: If you’re going to use Wi-Fi, go to https://github.com/toolboc/psx-pi-smbshare and follow the instructions in the “Configuring Wireless Network” section to enter your Wi-Fi’s name and password.

STEP 2: Get wired up

2.1. Use the two Ethernet cables to connect both your GameCube (via the Broadband Adapter) and the Raspberry Pi (via the built-in Ethernet port) to your router, or to a hub connected to your router.

2.1B. ALTERNATIVELY: You can also connect the GameCube directly to the Raspberry Pi, but now we need a way to get the Pi online. A good option is getting a USB to Ethernet adapter, hooking it up to one of the Pi’s USB ports, and using that to connect your Pi to your router or hub. A less good option is going with Wi-Fi, but that way lies heartache. Simply connect a USB Wi-Fi adapter to one of the Pi’s USB ports. If you did everything right (see step 1.4 above) and still can’t go online, it’s possible your USB Wi-Fi adapter isn’t getting enough power from the Pi. You can solve that by connecting the adapter to a powered USB hub, then connecting the USB hub to the Pi.

2.2. Turn on the Raspberry Pi.

STEP 3: Set up Xlink Kai

3.1. On your computer, go to https://www.teamxlink.co.uk/?go=register and register an account.

3.2. Now go to http://smbshare:34522. If your Raspberry is online, you’ll see the Xlink Kai login screen here. Enter the username and password you just created.

3.3. Click “Configuration”, scroll down, and check the box that says “Automatically assign IP for: Gamecube”. Click save and go back to the main Xlink Kai page. (You might have to refresh your browser and log in again. If it doesn’t work, turn the Pi off and on, then give it a few seconds.)

STEP 4: Go online

4.1. Turn on your GameCube with any LAN-compatible game in it. Yes, ANY of the four that exist! Okay, let’s not kid ourselves, you’re playing Mario Kart: Double Dash!!. Go lo LAN Mode on the title screen, and your GameCube will start looking for other consoles.

4.2. While your console is looking, go back to Xlink Kai on your browser and click “Metrics”. After “Reachable” it should say “Yes”, and if you scroll down, you should see your GameCube listed under “Found Consoles”.

4.3. Click “Game Arenas”, then GameCube, then the game you’re playing, and finally the game’s region. There, you’ll see everyone else who is looking for a match on Xlink Kai at that moment. So, uh... no one, probably.

But fear not! You can go to the GameCube Online Discord and find other players among the GameCube-obsessed maniacs who live there.

4.4. Once another Xlink Kai-connected player goes online, your consoles should detect each other. Whoever presses “Start” during this screen gets to pick the settings. If the other player is using Dolphin, you should let them press “Start”. They can enable certain options on their end to reduce lag.

STEP 5: Play!

As mentioned, you’ll get way, way better results if the other players are close to you and if you’re all connected via Ethernet and not Wi-Fi. Here are some pretty good races between two people in different cities in the US, one using Dolphin and one using a real GameCube with a Raspberry Pi:

On the other hand, here’s a race between three people in different continents:

It looks like a race between three unusually violent grandmas. However, the more people from all over the world join the GameCube online community, the less likely those situations will be, so if you’re interested please spread the word!

Other Methods

Of course, there are other ways to play GameCube games online... just not on the real console. One that works really well (7 players from all over the world with no slo-mo!) is using a combination of the Dolphin emulator, Parsec, and Xlink Kai. For more details, check out the GameCube Online Discord: https://discord.gg/285UrWd

SPECIAL THANKS: toolboc for creating this Raspberry Pi image, the folks at the GameCube Online Discord for help testing, and the Wachowskis for directing that last gameplay video.