Gamecube component cable at Gamestop $4.99 YMMV

AsherFischell

AsherFischell

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I was looking around for gamecube component cables when I accidentally stumbled on the Gamestop page. They are only sold in stores, but you might be able to find a Gamestop or two that have them nearby. Although the chances of finding one probably aren't very good, if you've been looking for a component cable and don't want to pay sixty bucks or more for one off of Ebay, you might as well see if any Gamestops have them and for five bucks, it's totally worth going a bit out of your way.

http://www.gamestop.com/Catalog/ProductDetails.aspx?product_id=32149
 
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[quote name='DurbanBrown']Gamecube component cables are supposed to be rare and actually worth something these days...[/QUOTE]

Um they are...
 
[quote name='BigT']To nitpick, your aspect ratio is wrong. Super Mario Sunshine is a 4:3 ratio game. Your HDTV is stretching it.

I got the GC component cable back in the day several years ago by getting lucky and finding one in a gamestop... circa 2008.

Now, to get the best possible graphics, I would just recommend using the Dolphin emulator. Basically, you can upscale the internal rendering resolution of a GC/Wii to greater than 1080p levels if your PC is beefy enough. For GC games, there is also a true widescreen hack that actually changes FOV (not just stretching the image).[/QUOTE]

I set it to 4:3 to start with and it looks better 16:9 even though I know the image is supposedly stretched. There are no signs of it being stretched with image quality loss at least not on this tv.
 
[quote name='ps2emotions']I set it to 4:3 to start with and it looks better 16:9 even though I know the image is supposedly stretched. There are no signs of it being stretched with image quality loss at least not on this tv.[/QUOTE]

LOL, are you serious? Is this the first time you've used an HDTV? You don't think it looks stretched?
 
Those suggesting a Wii, the Wii's video encoder chip is notoriously worse than the GC's. So GC games look worse running off a Wii, than a GC, via 480p. Whether the component cable is worth it to you, considering its rarity/price, is another matter. I got lucky and had a former workmate (ignorant of its value) throw it in a sale of a GC game I bought from him 4 years ago; and to this day I still have my GC hooked up even with a Wii sitting right next to it...
 
[quote name='MakiManPR']I dont wanna play on my PC nor I have a powerful enough(Youll need a gaming PC for Wii/GC emulation) PC. I my perfectly working GC.[/QUOTE]

You mainly just need a relatively powerful processor (most important part) and a reasonable graphics card. Works just fine on my HTPC running an Ivy Bridge Core i5-3570 with a Radeon 7770.

PC games usually depend more on a powerful graphics card. Emulators usually depend more on a powerful CPU.

In either case, it is an option... I wanted to clean up my entertainment center space to just have an HTPC, Xbox360, and PS3. The Wii/GC are now in storage because of Dolphin; PCSX2 has done the same for the PS2.
 
[quote name='Flowstance']LOL, are you serious? Is this the first time you've used an HDTV? You don't think it looks stretched?[/QUOTE]

I've used this hdtv for almost 6 years and am well aware of how stretching will make most old games look worse. But in this case the gamecube outputting 480p shows no affect on making the image look worse therefore I set it widescreen. Why would I not do this if it looks just as good filling up the screen and the distortion is not apparent?
 
I find it interesting that when someone actually uses the Search feature to find a relevant thread we get all these cries of "thread necro!" and when someone pops open a new thread they get shamed for not Searching.

Anyways, even with the better encoding of the Gamecube on GC games over the Wii, this is now even more relevant with the WiiU and newer Wii hardware lacking GC support. When I hook up the WiiU in place of the Wii on Christmas, I will suddenly find myself without an attached venue for playing my old Gamecube games (and there are some real gems in there, notably Viewtiful Joe and Wind Waker, two of my favorites). Now I could keep the Wii hooked up as well, but that means two sensor bars/etc., or hook the Gamecube back up and maybe sell the Wii (I had too keep it for now so I can transfer the content), or give it to a relative. Fortunately I already have the cables (and yes they do make a HUGE difference), I paid full price from Nintendo back in the day for them, and not once regretted the purchase..
 
[quote name='defpally']I find it interesting that when someone actually uses the Search feature to find a relevant thread we get all these cries of "thread necro!" and when someone pops open a new thread they get shamed for not Searching.

Anyways, even with the better encoding of the Gamecube on GC games over the Wii, this is now even more relevant with the WiiU and newer Wii hardware lacking GC support. When I hook up the WiiU in place of the Wii on Christmas, I will suddenly find myself without an attached venue for playing my old Gamecube games (and there are some real gems in there, notably Viewtiful Joe and Wind Waker, two of my favorites). Now I could keep the Wii hooked up as well, but that means two sensor bars/etc., or hook the Gamecube back up and maybe sell the Wii (I had too keep it for now so I can transfer the content), or give it to a relative. Fortunately I already have the cables (and yes they do make a HUGE difference), I paid full price from Nintendo back in the day for them, and not once regretted the purchase..[/QUOTE]


The thread is two years old.
 
[quote name='Kaiser499']The thread is two years old.[/QUOTE]

Yes, and he obviously used the Search feature to find it (you cannot page back that far manually) - then likely didn't notice the date of the last post. I wish more people would use Search.
 
Yeah I searched on Google about it. Sorry...

Thanks for the suggestions. About the emulation i Know emulators need a poweful CPU while PC games relies more on the GPU. I was a PC gamer.

Is the GameCube RegionFree? Or does it need some hacks to play JPN Games?
I know about Wii Homebrew/Hacks but nothing about GameCube.
 
The Gamecube is not region free but there is a relatively easy way to play Japanese games depending on how comfortable you are with a soldering gun and opening up your console.

Solder two wires to the board with a switch and you can switch between Japan and US regions. It's what I have on my Gamecube.

Try searching google for a region toggle switch guide or something similar.

There's also stuff like the Freeloader and other disc based solutions .
 
I have an official nintendo branded gc component cable i picked up from gamestop probably around two years ago for like five bucks...

How much are these worth now days?
 
[quote name='gomikeoh']I have an official nintendo branded gc component cable i picked up from gamestop probably around two years ago for like five bucks...

How much are these worth now days?[/QUOTE]

Looking at completed actions, it looks like they are going from $70-$100 on ebay.
 
I just bought a component cable on ebay for $95 shipped. Just sold the gold club nintendo nunchuk I got for $75 to offset it though.

It's too bad Nintendo can't do another shortrun of Gamecube component cable production and sell them directly from their store. I'm sure people would pay upto $50 direct for them.
 
Why do people want the official cables? There are generic ones that are just as good for a lot less...

I remember paying $40 or whatever these cost from Nintendo, back when I thought brands for cables mattered. Then I found some on Monoprice for like $8.
 
[quote name='Vinny']Why do people want the official cables? There are generic ones that are just as good for a lot less...

I remember paying $40 or whatever these cost from Nintendo, back when I thought brands for cables mattered. Then I found some on Monoprice for like $8.[/QUOTE]

There are no third party/generic Gamecube Component Cables. Only only Wii. The Gamecube ones have a special encoder chip built into the cable itself that was never hacked or produced outside of what Nintendo offered.
 
[quote name='Vinny']Why do people want the official cables? There are generic ones that are just as good for a lot less...

I remember paying $40 or whatever these cost from Nintendo, back when I thought brands for cables mattered. Then I found some on Monoprice for like $8.[/QUOTE]

Only the Nintendo ones allow progressive scan. There is an actual chip in them.
 
[quote name='defpally']Yes, and he obviously used the Search feature to find it (you cannot page back that far manually) - then likely didn't notice the date of the last post. I wish more people would use Search.[/QUOTE]

Agreed. As long as the post is relevant it doesn't matter how old the thread is. I'd much rather have people use search then have 5 threads on the same subject.
 
Damn.. i thought someone had found a good place to get a component cable. I've been looking for one for a while. The $80+ or so theyve been going for on ebay is just too god damn much for me to pay for a friggin cable. It seems that was about a year or so ago. I guess theyre going for well over $100 now.. jesus, people actually pay that shit for a damn component cable?!

[quote name='defpally']Yes, and he obviously used the Search feature to find it (you cannot page back that far manually) - then likely didn't notice the date of the last post. I wish more people would use Search.[/QUOTE]

Seriously.. why is everyone bitching about the thread being bumped? I thought searching and bumping a relevant thread instead of posting a brand new identical one was what you were SUPPOSED to do, isn't it?


and btw @ps2emotions... ya, BigT and others are totally right. The aspect ratio was way off there. If you like viewing your images all distorted and screwed up just so you dont have black bars, then knock yourself out. But its definitely distorted and not correct.

[quote name='Destro']Those suggesting a Wii, the Wii's video encoder chip is notoriously worse than the GC's. So GC games look worse running off a Wii, than a GC, via 480p. Whether the component cable is worth it to you, considering its rarity/price, is another matter. I got lucky and had a former workmate (ignorant of its value) throw it in a sale of a GC game I bought from him 4 years ago; and to this day I still have my GC hooked up even with a Wii sitting right next to it...[/QUOTE]

Hmm the wii is bad eh? Then i really need the component cables. For some reason my Wii in general looks kinda crappy on my 60" Hd throug the component hookups. Gamecube games actually tend to look better upscaled through it for some reason. I.E. I think the Wii Fire emblem game looks FAR worse than Gamecubes Path of Radiance playing on the same Wii but upscaled.
 
[quote name='Gosha']There are no third party/generic Gamecube Component Cables. Only only Wii. The Gamecube ones have a special encoder chip built into the cable itself that was never hacked or produced outside of what Nintendo offered.[/QUOTE]

[quote name='seanmcc']Only the Nintendo ones allow progressive scan. There is an actual chip in them.[/QUOTE]

It still gets me that no one has made a reasonable knockoff yet. Wish Nintendo would make an adapter that lets you use a Wii component cable on a Gamecube.
 
[quote name='Saix_XIII']They only have 3 colors, since they do not include the red and white audio cables. Yes they are the ones going for a lot on eBay. The fact that Nintendo didn't release them stateside and they made very few of them in Japan (because only early GameCubes can even use them) resulted in them becoming rare are sought after.[/QUOTE]

Lol. That's a joke. These eBay sellers deem anything rare, even if it's just a freaking cable. It's things like this that make me want to make an account and just fake bid some people. I'm too lazy to, though...
 
[quote name='PetersHere']Lol. That's a joke. These eBay sellers deem anything rare, even if it's just a freaking cable. It's things like this that make me want to make an account and just fake bid some people. I'm too lazy to, though...[/QUOTE]

Rare: Not occurring very often.
Synonyms: uncommon - unusual - scarce - infrequent - sparse


Anything can be rare, just because it's a cable or a rock (which gemstones are as far as I'm concerned) does not exclude it from being so. It's not like ebay sellers are saying "DUR we want $100 for this cable...lol ha ha". Tt's more like "Wow...people will pay $100+ for this cable" and then they list it and then someone buys it.

People are willing to pay that much, if they weren't then the value of the cable would drop because the market would not bear that price. It is simple supply and demand. Just because you dislike it does not mean it's wrong.
 
[quote name='Gosha']There are no third party/generic Gamecube Component Cables. Only only Wii. The Gamecube ones have a special encoder chip built into the cable itself that was never hacked or produced outside of what Nintendo offered.[/QUOTE]

Wow, I didn't know that. I could have sworn I got some generics but I guess I must have confused Wii cables for GC cables.
 
So I guess the working N64/GC link is no more?
End of an era.[quote name='ps2emotions']I've used this hdtv for almost 6 years and am well aware of how stretching will make most old games look worse. But in this case the gamecube outputting 480p shows no affect on making the image look worse therefore I set it widescreen. Why would I not do this if it looks just as good filling up the screen and the distortion is not apparent?[/QUOTE]

lol
Of course it's stretching it. It's just that it's "good enough" for you whereas to me it looks like crap.
 
[quote name='dallow']So I guess the working N64/GC link is no more?
End of an era.

lol
Of course it's stretching it. It's just that it's "good enough" for you whereas to me it looks like crap.[/QUOTE]

I'm a fanatic when it comes to image quality and used component cables for my PS2 before most knew what component cables were. I set this to standard starting off and figured widescreen would distort it bad but to my suprise mario looked just the same. I don't know how it's achieving this because the game is 4:3. When I switched it to widescreen it seemed to just stretch the outer part but mario stayed the same and everything looked just as clear. I don't go by specs I can see and judge for myself and I'm telling you no one would play it 4:3 on my hdtv. You can read what it should be doing til you are blue in the face but I trust my eyes more than a number. Maybe my hdtv and gamecube scaling chip just go together very well I'm not sure but don't fool yourselves by not trying it in widescreen first on your hdtv's because you might be pleasantly surprised. Saying it looks like crap when you've not even seen it just shows you already made your mind up that it will look bad no matter what based on the numbers lol.
 
I tried finding one a couple of years ago in Gamestops and everytime when I got to the store it was something else that was mislabled. I finally got one from someone selling his gamecube on my local craigslist. I got the cable, gamecube, wavebird and another corded controller for $35 which was a good deal as far as I was concerned. Still use my GC for the gameboy player and my daughter took the spare GC with her to college.
 
[quote name='jthieme']Still use my GC for the gameboy player and my daughter took the spare GC with her to college.[/QUOTE]

Me too! Love that player.
 
[quote name='ps2emotions']I'm a fanatic when it comes to image quality and used component cables for my PS2 before most knew what component cables were. I set this to standard starting off and figured widescreen would distort it bad but to my suprise mario looked just the same. I don't know how it's achieving this because the game is 4:3. When I switched it to widescreen it seemed to just stretch the outer part but mario stayed the same and everything looked just as clear. I don't go by specs I can see and judge for myself and I'm telling you no one would play it 4:3 on my hdtv. You can read what it should be doing til you are blue in the face but I trust my eyes more than a number. Maybe my hdtv and gamecube scaling chip just go together very well I'm not sure but don't fool yourselves by not trying it in widescreen first on your hdtv's because you might be pleasantly surprised. Saying it looks like crap when you've not even seen it just shows you already made your mind up that it will look bad no matter what based on the numbers lol.[/QUOTE]
Yup, lol math.
The game isn't magic and knows what setting your TV is on.

I know exactly what it looks like stretched as my cousin zooms and stretches game to fill his HDTV no matter what, including his GC collection.
Some games look worse than others depending on the art/design, but they ARE stretched.
 
[quote name='ps2emotions']I'm a fanatic when it comes to image quality and used component cables for my PS2 before most knew what component cables were. I set this to standard starting off and figured widescreen would distort it bad but to my suprise mario looked just the same. I don't know how it's achieving this because the game is 4:3. When I switched it to widescreen it seemed to just stretch the outer part but mario stayed the same and everything looked just as clear. I don't go by specs I can see and judge for myself and I'm telling you no one would play it 4:3 on my hdtv. You can read what it should be doing til you are blue in the face but I trust my eyes more than a number. Maybe my hdtv and gamecube scaling chip just go together very well I'm not sure but don't fool yourselves by not trying it in widescreen first on your hdtv's because you might be pleasantly surprised. Saying it looks like crap when you've not even seen it just shows you already made your mind up that it will look bad no matter what based on the numbers lol.[/QUOTE]

Your TV may be doing a non-linear zoom/stretch mode; basically, it's when the middle part of the image isn't stretched much and the outer parts get most of the stretching effect.
 
[quote name='Deader2818']little off topic but does anyone know of any good PS2 component cables?[/QUOTE]

I recommend the offical sony component cable for the PS2. I spent $60 years ago on a monster component cable for my ps2 and one of the little wires broke where the connector threaded off. You can find a set of sony ones for around $20 I would guess and they work just great.
 
[quote name='BigT']Your TV may be doing a non-linear zoom/stretch mode; basically, it's when the middle part of the image isn't stretched much and the outer parts get most of the stretching effect.[/QUOTE]

Makes sense and I would guess this is what mine is doing. Also I did discover that the only PS2 games that look anygood on it are the ones that are progressive scan like God of War 2 and Gran Turismo 4 in 1080i looks amazing. A game like snake eater and gta III looks like total crap. I'd love to find a 32" lcd that would make all PS2 games look decent but from what I've read the PS2 has no sort of scaling chip whatsoever which is why only games made for 480p or 1080i (gt4 only 1080i ps2 game I know of) look good on hdtv.
 
[quote name='Monoxide1986']http://www.monoprice.com/products/p...=11402&cs_id=1140202&p_id=4009&seq=1&format=2

I have that cable and it works great.[/QUOTE]
I have that same cable, works well for my PS2 on my HDTV, don't pay anything more than $10 for a PS2 component cable, unless you have an abnormal amount of EMF / RF interference around your cables that would require higher shielding. Even then I would still try the cheap cable anyways.

Also, kind of on / off topic, I stretch my GCN games on my Wii for my HDTV (does linear stretching), personally I hate the side bars and I can deal with my Mario / Link looking a little pudgy.
 
[quote name='Destro']Those suggesting a Wii, the Wii's video encoder chip is notoriously worse than the GC's. So GC games look worse running off a Wii, than a GC, via 480p. Whether the component cable is worth it to you, considering its rarity/price, is another matter. I got lucky and had a former workmate (ignorant of its value) throw it in a sale of a GC game I bought from him 4 years ago; and to this day I still have my GC hooked up even with a Wii sitting right next to it...[/QUOTE]

I can vouch for this. People will say you don't know what you're talking about and are spreading BS when you say this, but it's true. I remember when I got my Wii how disappointed I was in how GC games looked, even with the components. Gamecube games on my GC with component cables look much better than GC games on my Wii with component cables. I would go so far as to say that GC games on my GC /w component cables look better than the majority of Wii games w/ component cables.
 
I really want to go back to Twilight Princess, my options are:
a) Buy a Wii and play it with component cables
b) Buy component cables for my GC (which is compatible with component cables)
c) Play it on my GC using composite (RCA) cables

I will be gaming on a 42 in plasma TV. I could always get component cables and sell them after finishing the game. Or I could buy a Wii and get rid of my GC. It's a tough decision but I might go for the GC component cables... Any advice?
 
If you actually stumble upon one of these at a GameStop, treasure it. I just paid ~$95 for a set on eBay. Finally gonna play my copy of Eternal Darkness. :D
 
[quote name='bloodling']I really want to go back to Twilight Princess, my options are:

a) Buy a Wii and play it with component cables

b) Buy component cables for my GC (which is compatible with component cables)

c) Play it on my GC using composite (RCA) cables



I will be gaming on a 42 in plasma TV. I could always get component cables and sell them after finishing the game. Or I could buy a Wii and get rid of my GC. It's a tough decision but I might go for the GC component cables... Any advice?[/QUOTE]



From these three options id say b). GameCube Games look so much better on the GC with Component than on Wii with Component.
 
[quote name='bloodling']I really want to go back to Twilight Princess, my options are:
a) Buy a Wii and play it with component cables
b) Buy component cables for my GC (which is compatible with component cables)
c) Play it on my GC using composite (RCA) cables

I will be gaming on a 42 in plasma TV. I could always get component cables and sell them after finishing the game. Or I could buy a Wii and get rid of my GC. It's a tough decision but I might go for the GC component cables... Any advice?[/QUOTE]

My choice is A. Granted the games won't look as good on as on the GC with component, but you also get access to all the Wii/WW/VC games out there for like $40 more than just the component cables.
 
I'd like to have a set of these but not for $100. And they were $100 when I tried looking several years ago. I just don't understand why this was bumped when the link isn't even valid, and if you search gamestop's site it doesn't even find anything
 
I got a set back in... 2006/07 for about $45 after shipping. I'm simultaneously horrified and happy that they have continued to climb in price.

Mine aren't for sale. Someday I'll need to play my Gameboy Player in 480p glory.
 
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