[Troz1820]

Cables and service not currently available. Sorry.

Frustrated with the lack of Gamecube connectivity for the GameBoy Micro? This thread will show you how to restore that functionality. No modifications on the GameBoy Micro itself are necessary, only of the cable to link the Micro and the Gamecube. For this you will need:

1) An Official Nintendo Game Boy Micro Game Link Cable.
2) Any Gameboy Advance to Gamecube Link Cable. The directions below show how to use the following link cables:
- Official Nintendo Gamecube to Game Boy Advance Connector Cable
- Nyko CubeLink cable (No longer available)
- MadCatz SystemLink cable (For both GCN & GBA connectivity via the GBM)
3) Soldering skills

Cable Service Information

I offer a cable building service if you do not feel you have the soldering skills necessary to build a cable. Unfortunately I cannot supply the cables myself. For the service you must send me the official Nintendo Gameboy Micro Link Cable and any GC->GBA Link Cable. I charge $20 for the service, which includes return shipping. The final cable will have the electronics enclosed in a small project box, the same box you can see in the photos here. I am sorry but I cannot source the cables for international orders anymore. Send me a Private Message if you are interested.

Official Nintendo Gamecube to Game Boy Advance Connector Cable Directions
(My preferred method)

First step is to cut the GameBoy Micro Link Cable next to the connector box, strip the shielding, and strip/tin the wires. Only the RED, BLUE, and ORANGE wires are necessary, along with the ground shield. You should be left with something like this:

Please note that I've only stripped the wires a tiny bit. You'll see why in the next photo.

Now, solder the wires onto the GC->GBA cables as shown, taking great care not to short any pins together. When I do these cables, I connect the ground shield to the left "post" on the circuitboard, then bridge it to pin 6 with some solder as you can see in the photo.


After you've finished this, you can try to stuff it back into the GC connector housing. If you do, be sure to cover your work with electrical tape and provide some strain relief on the cable. I end up using a small project box to enclose the electronics.

Nyko CubeLink Directions

I don't have any fancy pictures for this method but it should be self-explanatory. The completed cable is shown above.

First, cut the GBA end from the Nyko cable and cut one of the two Micro cables at the central "hub". Strip the wires so you can wrap them and make a nice solid connection. The wires link like this:

Nyko Cable -> Micro Cable
Black -> Wire shielding
Orange -> Green
Brown -> Brown
Green -> Orange
Blue -> Red
White -> Blue

Wrap everything up with electrical tape making sure that none of the wires touch another, or use heat-shrink tubing. I wrapped each individual wire with electrical tape and then carefully placed all of them in the shielding that I grabbed from the Nyko cable. I used small zip ties on the cables to decrease the stress on the solder joints in case the cable is pulled. Everything is contained in the shield on the right.

It's been a very long time since I've come across this cable. It's possible that only the RED, BLUE, ORANGE, and ground shielding wires are needed from the GameBoy Micro Link Cable. If I ever run into one of these again, I'll test it and post the results

MadCatz System Link

This method is very similar to using the Official Nintendo GBA->GC cable except it uses more wires to provide the additional GBA connectivity.

The rest will be coming soon...

Old method for the Official Nintendo Cable

Spoiler

First step is to procure the cable you’ll use to connect the two Nintendo cables we’re going to hack. You need a cable with at least 6 wires in it. I ended up cutting an old Playstation controller extension cord I had lying around. I was never using it since I use mostly wireless controllers now, plus it was cheap.

Next step is to open up both of the Nintendo cables. The Gamecube cable has two screws to unscrew and then needs to be pulled apart carefully. You don’t want to break the tabs holding the casing together so be careful. The same goes for the GB Micro cable. You need to unscrew the two screws then carefully pry apart the two sides.



Follow the diagram above for the connection points. These are fairly tiny spots that you need to solder to so take your time and plan ahead. I’ll admit that my solder jobs aren’t the greatest, as you can see, but they get the job done.




I needed to scrape away some of the plastic on the Gamecube connector as shown here:



When putting the connector back together I used a few cable ties, as you can see in the bottom of the picture above, to prevent stress on the solder joints from when the cable gets pulled. I also wrapped two on the cable as seen below.



For the GB Micro cable, I needed to drill a new hole in the plastic case. I drilled it just a little smaller than the new cable since I needed the cable held by friction. There is no extra room here for cable ties so the friction will have to do to help prevent the solder joints from being stressed.


http://www.twistedra.../micro_newcable

Thanks to UncleBob for pushing me to start this and CheapyD for locating supplies for the first batch of cables back when I started this.

Edited by Troz1820, 04 September 2009 - 03:02 PM.
Cables are sold out

[SpottedNigel]

Very cool, thanks! Got my micro on x-mas, and i havent put it down since. I also got Sonic Adventure 2 so this would help with transfering Chao data from Sonic Pinball.

[cochesecochese]

Awesome. Too bad I just got an SP :(

[banpeikun]

You should sell these on your website

[Troz1820]

I thought about selling them but I think the cost of the final product would scare people away. You have to think that it's $10x2 for the Official Nintendo cables + $5 for shipping from them. I'd want to add at least $15 to transaction for myself to cover my time and the supplies needed. Add shipping onto that and you've got a cable that ends up around $45! Unless there is very high demand I simply can't see people paying for that (although I guess I did).

I'm hoping that someone can find a better or cheaper way to do this. It really is a shame that Nintendo doesn't seem to be supporting the Micro very much. Obviousily the demand for a Gamecube->Micro cable is the same as the demand for the Gamecube Component cable in their eyes, as unfortunate as that is.

[Darkside Hazuki]

Fantastic work.

[CheapyD]

Amazing work!
I would likely burn off a finger trying to do this.

[cgpwns]

Hey, CheapyD! In Japan, does Nintendo talk about the Micro being limited edition and not support it?

I always thought it would have been cool if the Micro had a wireless adapter that could work with the Gamecube and other Gameboys.

[trunks982]

You are a GENIUS!! thats too much work for me and its too risky. Nice work BTW!

[Troz1820]

I've made a poll to gauge potential interest in making these cables. I think I can get the cost down to $25 shipped per link cable and would be willing to make them for the CAG community with little to no profit. The price would be even cheaper if I could find a large number of used Official Nintendo Gamecube->GBA link cables. The cables would be a Gamecube->Micro/GBA link ONLY and not a Micro->Micro link cable as I've made above.

Over the next few days I'm going to try to get my hands on some of the third-party link cables to see if I could do the same thing with them.

[SpottedNigel]

If you have a gamerush nearby, they have the link cables as low as 2.99 (official ones to boot). That may make it at least a bit cheaper for ya

[Troz1820]

Thanks, I'll check the shops around me for those. I figure the price could be around $17-20 depending on the price of the used cable.

[banpeikun]

I voted yes despite not owning a GBM. I wanted to express that I felt that it was the correct pricepoint.

[LaseK]

I plan on picking up a GBM soon, and yes, I would definitely buy this if you ship to Canada.

[brianmoy]

To lower your price, you could offer an option to have people send you the 2 cables, then you could just charge for the labor and shipping. That way, you could offer a lower price option, plus people could send in their own cables so you wouldn't have to go buy them yourself.

Just a thought.

[Troz1820]

^Yeah, I think that's going to be part of my plan. I've searched high and low around here for used link cables and haven't found a single one yet. My next step is to grab one of the MadCatz All-in-One link cables to try hacking with.

[hooo]

It's cool that you took the time to make the link cable, but does the Game Boy micro Converter Connector also available on Nintendo's website not work with a GC/GBA link cable to get the same job done for cheaper and without any soldering? From the pics, it looks like you patched the link cable directly into the micro cable so if that works, I'd guess the adapter would too. Anyone tried it?

[almasy82]

Also wonders if the link convertor would work...if not I would definetly get one off of you )

[Troz1820]

...does the Game Boy micro Converter Connector also available on Nintendo's website not work with a GC/GBA link cable to get the same job done for cheaper and without any soldering?

I purchased that converter and its only purpose is to convert the GB Micro Link Cable connection to a GBA connection. It can't be used for the Gamecube link cable.

[almasy82]

well count me in for one ) I would like one for sure

[MorPhiend]

I would likely buy one. Maybe two.

[redgopher]

tag!

[AdamInPlaidum]

Tagaroo. Very interesting.

[erehwon]

That's pretty cool. You should try and get it posted on GameSX.com along with all the other great mods there. I'm sure plenty of other people would love to try this.

[Purkeynator]

Let us know how you decide to work it as I am interested as well and have my own cables.

[hooo]

I purchased that converter and its only purpose is to convert the GB Micro Link Cable connection to a GBA connection. It can't be used for the Gamecube link cable.

Do the adapters just not fit? or does it just not work? If it doesn't work, it's pretty worthless since it won't even support one cart play with other gba's. I have to wonder what that adapter is good for at all then.

[Troz1820]

Do the adapters just not fit? or does it just not work? If it doesn't work, it's pretty worthless since it won't even support one cart play with other gba's. I have to wonder what that adapter is good for at all then.

The adapters work in conjunction with the GB Micro Link cable. They allow a GBM->GBASP connection. So currently if you want to play multiplayer with one GBA and one GBM you need to fork over $18 + tax + shipping to Nintendo for the Micro Link Cable and Micro Convertor Adapter.

[CZroe]

OK, first of all, I always planned on making a premium cable for the original GBA which could power it off the controller port but I never got around to doing it or figuring it out. The GCN has 3.3v & 5v on the controller ports but I don't know a thing about voltage regulation. Anyway, if these cables could also power the GBm then I believe they would be just interesting enough (And exclusive) to justify a higher price. If you've got the technical know-how, DO IT!

Also, instead of hacking apart two cables to make something that can be used for only one purpose, why not make a general adapter with a GBA port on one end for the original GCN cable OR a wireless adapter OR and original GBA link cable to plug in? Heck, you may even be able to make a way for the original accessories to clip in for a perfect mount!

[Troz1820]

OK, first of all, I always planned on making a premium cable for the original GBA which could power it off the controller port but I never got around to doing it or figuring it out. The GCN has 3.3v & 5v on the controller ports but I don't know a thing about voltage regulation. Anyway, if these cables could also power the GBm then I believe they would be just interesting enough (And exclusive) to justify a higher price. If you've got the technical know-how, DO IT!

I wish I knew how but I don't have the technical know-how for that kind of stuff. If anyone else does I'd love to talk with them. The link cables have all 8 wires running through them so this could be a possibility. I'll take a look around online and see what I can find out...

Also, instead of hacking apart two cables to make something that can be used for only one purpose, why not make a general adapter with a GBA port on one end for the original GCN cable OR a wireless adapter OR and original GBA link cable to plug in? Heck, you may even be able to make a way for the original accessories to clip in for a perfect mount!

This was my first thought as well (apart for the wireless adapter). The problem is that I cannot find a source for the GBA link plugs, female ends I believe, in order to make an adapter cable. I need the same plug that resides inside the GBA. I found that the Official GBA link cables have one but purchasing a bunch of cables for the sole purpose of robbing the plug from them is not worth it.

I'm still working on making this as cheap as possible so that it can be accessible to anyone on here that wants one.

[magilacudy]

Awesome job. I'm just curious, how did you determine which pins you had to solder on each end?