Tips & Tricks! Supercharge your Nintendo GameCube collection, now with RetroAchievements!​ 🏆 ​

[AstroBob]

Hi Folks,

We’re thrilled to announce that our friends over at RetroAchievements have just added a major new console to their supported platforms. And it’s a big one…

The Nintendo GameCube! 

For those not familiar, RetroAchievements is a service that lets you earn community-made achievements in retro games. We integrate their service directly into LaunchBox and BigBox, allowing you to filter, sort, and create playlists based on RA achievement data. You can learn more about this amazing service on their site —we highly recommend giving it a go.

We want to congratulate everyone involved here for making this happen. It’s been a big undertaking and one that people have been eagerly awaiting. The RA team are even running a launch event during the first 4 months, allowing you to earn some shiny badges for your profile!

If this is your first time diving into Nintendo’s purple lunchbox, or you’re looking for a reason to revisit the cube’s classic library, LaunchBox is the perfect companion for organizing your GameCube collection. Let’s look at a few things you can do to create the perfect nostalgic experience.

 

 

 Setup your RetroAchievements account in LaunchBox 🎖️

If this is your first foray into RetroAchievements, you'll need to sign up for a free account on their site. Then, in LaunchBox go to `Tools > Options > Integrations > RetroAchievements` and enter your credentials. This allows LaunchBox to see which of your games have existing achievement sets.

 

 

Make sure Dolphin is up to date 🧰

Next, you'll need to download the latest dev build of Dolphin which contains the RetroAchievements integration.  As Dolphin recently changed its release versioning, make sure you are on version 2407-68 or higher to access the achievements integration. Since this is currently a dev build, you won't be able to update to this version via LaunchBox, and instead will need to update via the Dolphin app.

If you've never used Dolphin via LaunchBox before, it's as simple as dropping your games into your `LaunchBox/Games/Nintendo GameCube` directory. Upon playing your first game, LaunchBox will download and configure Dolphin for you.

Don't forget to also log into your RetroAchievements account in the Dolphin emulator to start unlocking achievements. You can check out Dolphin's great guide to learn more about configuring the integration

⚠️ A few important notes on compatibility ⚠️
- At the time of writing, the RetroAchievement integration only works with the stand-alone version of Dolphin. The RetroArch core is not currently supported.
- Likewise, the Android version of Dolphin currently doesn't support RetroAchievements yet.

 

 

Scan your library for achievement data 🏅

With over 100 new sets released, we want to know which games in our LaunchBox library have achievement sets. To do this, we're going to run a scan of our library for achievement data by going to `Tools > Achievements > Scan for all games / current platform`. 

If your game uses a supported ROM file and you have badges enabled, you'll start seeing achievement badges next to currently supported GameCube games (how I've dreamt of this day).

 ⚠️ Note ⚠️ 
At the time of writing, LaunchBox will only correctly match the hash of your ROM file if it is a `.iso` file. Other popular formats such as `.rvz` will currently not match the hash correctly, but we are looking to address this in the future.

"I never thought I'd see this day 🥹"

 

 

Create some playlists 📂

Now that we know which games support achievements, why don't we create some playlists using that data?

I'm going to create three playlists using the fields `Achievements > Supports`, `Achievements > Some Earned`, and `Achievements > Complete`. These will denote GameCube games that support achievements but that I haven't started, ones that are in progress, and ones I've completed (aka earned all achievements).

As I get stuck into unlocking achievements, my games will automatically move between playlists depending on how many achievements I've unlocked. I wonder how many I'll get into the `Complete` category? Some of those sets are looking pretty gnarly 🫠

"Now, which one to start with... 🤔"

 

 

Controller Support 🎮

LaunchBox automatically assigns supported controller types to your games, but did you know you can add additional controllers and build playlists based on them?

We're going to use this to add the legendary DK Bongos as a controller type to LaunchBox!

1. Edit Metadata: Take a supported game, like Donkey Kong Jungle Beat (classic!). Edit its metadata and go to the `Controller Support` section.
2. Add New Controller: Click on the `Manage Game Controllers` option to add a new controller.
3. Add DK Bongos: I'm going to add DK Bongos and assign it the category "Rhythm".
4. Assign Controller: The final step is to assign this controller to any games that support it.

Now I'm going to create a playlist and auto-populate it with any games that support the DK Bongos controller. Look at that, my games also have a lovely drum badge, since we set the controller type to "Rhythm"!

Now I'm ready to annoy my neighbours by clapping my way to victory in Donkey Kong Jungle Beat (and earning achievements while doing it!) 🥳

 

 

Grab yourself a GameCube-inspired Big Box startup theme 🎞️

Now we're going all in on the nostalgia, why not deck out Big Box to look like an actual GameCube?

If you've never checked out startup videos, we can make Big Box display a custom video when it boots up. Here's a fantastic example from one of our community members, @Kryptic, mimicking Big Box to look like the nostalgic GameCube boot animation.

 

 

Take it one step further by adding a GameCube boot-up sequence 🎁

Speaking of the classic boot-up sequence, why not go all in and use the original GameCube BIOS to give the 100% authentic cube experience! Retro Game Corps has a fantastic guide explaining how you can set this up.

Can you find the two hidden start-up sounds? 😉

 

 

Enhance those graphics by grabbing some texture packs 🖌️

We're not done yet! While GameCube games were originally 480p, we can upscale those to glorious 1080p and beyond. To compliment those gorgeous 3D graphics, we can use custom texture packs to enhance the visual detail and bring new life to classic games. The Dolphin Custom Texture Projects forum is a great place to grab some of these, but there are plenty of amazing recreations that can be found online. Check out Putachi's great guide on how to get these installed.

 

 

So, what GameCube set will you tackle first?

A huge congrats again to the RetroAchievements team for an absolutely monster rollout. With so many great games and sets to choose from (see the full list here) what will you be playing first?

For me personally, the GameCube holds a lot of special memories. Being blown away by the graphics of Metroid Prime, the surprise of discovering secret characters in Super Smash Bros. Melee pre-internet, and the first (and last) time trusting a 3rd party memory card, only to find it spontaneously formatted all my saves! 😡 But I think for me, 20 years later I'm committed to finally beat F-Zero GX's story mode!

These moments made the GameCube an unforgettable part of my gaming history. What are some of your favorite GameCube memories and what sets will you be tackling first? And will you be going for the RA Gold Tier badge? Let us know down below.

Happy gaming!
Andy

 

"My body is ready!" 🙌

[christhed]

Any idea on how long it will take to support the .rvz files ? Would it be worth to switch my whole collection to ISOs or not ?

Thanks

[C-Beats]

I'm unsure if the RetroAchievements team has a plan to update RAHasher to include that file or not. I need to reach out with them to see if it's on their todo list. If not we'd then have to look to see how complicated that process is or reach out to Dolphin and ask about getting a command line argument put in that we could pass in the file and get out the hash value.

[xevious1974]

I know that I cannot ask for a link...
But archive is Gamecube free (collection v5), and I dont know where to get the right version...any "idea"?

 

ty

[xevious1974]

On 7/16/2024 at 2:16 AM, AstroBob said:

 

 

"My body is ready!" 🙌

@AstroBob

In this photo I see a GC controller linked to a little device. What is it? It work on windows? 

I have the gc Bongos, it is that device that enable some games like Jungle beat?

thank you for your time!

[AstroBob]

5 hours ago, xevious1974 said:

@AstroBob

In this photo I see a GC controller linked to a little device. What is it? It work on windows? 

I have the gc Bongos, it is that device that enable some games like Jungle beat?

thank you for your time!

@xevious1974 well spotted 😉 It's the G-Bros adaptor from 8-BitDo. It lets you plug in a GameCube controller and connects wirelessly to a Windows PC or even Nintendo Switch. So yes, it would let you play DK Jungle Beat using your original Bongos (oh how I wish I hadn't sold my Bongo's as a kid 😭). I played through Jungle Beat last week using a controller and it's just not the same 😉

Some other products will let you do the same thing, such as the official GameCube adaptor for WiiU, but I like this one because it's wireless.

Hope you're enjoying the GameCube sets! 

[xevious1974]

15 hours ago, AstroBob said:

@xevious1974 well spotted 😉 It's the G-Bros adaptor from 8-BitDo. It lets you plug in a GameCube controller and connects wirelessly to a Windows PC or even Nintendo Switch. So yes, it would let you play DK Jungle Beat using your original Bongos (oh how I wish I hadn't sold my Bongo's as a kid 😭). I played through Jungle Beat last week using a controller and it's just not the same 😉

Some other products will let you do the same thing, such as the official GameCube adaptor for WiiU, but I like this one because it's wireless.

Hope you're enjoying the GameCube sets! 

Thank you very much for your reply! I'll try it for sure. Do you think that dolphin will recognize easily this adapter? I cannot wait to play Jungle Beat!!!
Atm I am playing F-zero GX, it is very hard! I have played the first one on SNES and I completed it on my console, but this one...too hard!

 

And thank you for your tip for the GC boot-up sequence! I have inserted it immediately!

 

[retroNUC]

@C-Beats I've logged this over at the RALibretro repro to see whether RVZ reading support could be added to RAHasher - https://github.com/RetroAchievements/RALibretro/issues/415

There's also DolphinTool.exe in the emulator's directory, which is a command-line tool for converting and verifying all formats that Dolphin supports:

> dolphintool.exe verify -i "file.rvz" -a crc32
9d473312

Would just need a new type added like "rahash" that could be returned for you folks to use.

Edited July 23 by retroNUC

[AstroBob]

7 hours ago, xevious1974 said:

Thank you very much for your reply! I'll try it for sure. Do you think that dolphin will recognize easily this adapter? I cannot wait to play Jungle Beat!!!
Atm I am playing F-zero GX, it is very hard! I have played the first one on SNES and I completed it on my console, but this one...too hard!

 

And thank you for your tip for the GC boot-up sequence! I have inserted it immediately!

 

Absolutely, Dolphin recognises it as a standard D-Input / X-Input device, so you can easily map it inside of Dolphin. One thing to note, if you do use it make sure you update the firmware on it. There were some updates to allow it to recognise the GameCube's analogue trigger inputs.

Same! I'm also making my way through F-Zero GX, it's hard as nails, but loving every moment of it (especially with the original controller! 🎮) 

[xevious1974]

12 hours ago, AstroBob said:

 One thing to note, if you do use it make sure you update the firmware on it. There were some updates to allow it to recognise the GameCube's analogue trigger inputs.
 

First, thank you again for you reply!

I have to update the Bongos firmware? I can do it using pc?

12 hours ago, AstroBob said:

Same! I'm also making my way through F-Zero GX, it's hard as nails, but loving every moment of it (especially with the original controller! 🎮) 

I love RA. It allows me to play games that I have never played with a new interest and it allows me to play again games that I have already finished descovering new way to play it and keeping me on titles that I love and that you usually dont play when you finish it.

I have read that C64 and DOS are on the way...cant wait!!!! ❤️

 

[C-Beats]

15 hours ago, retroNUC said:

@C-Beats I've logged this over at the RALibretro repro to see whether RVZ reading support could be added to RAHasher - https://github.com/RetroAchievements/RALibretro/issues/415

There's also DolphinTool.exe in the emulator's directory, which is a command-line tool for converting and verifying all formats that Dolphin supports:

> dolphintool.exe verify -i "file.rvz" -a crc32
9d473312

Would just need a new type added like "rahash" that could be returned for you folks to use.

Yeah, it'd be nice if one of them had a way to grab that hash via command line. Not being able to support that format is a pretty big let down.

[AstroBob]

12 hours ago, xevious1974 said:

I have to update the Bongos firmware? I can do it using pc?

Apologies, when I said you have to update the firmware, I was referring to the 8BitDo G-Bros adaptor. Just something to double-check if you do pick one up since some can ship with older firmware.

[xevious1974]

14 hours ago, AstroBob said:

Apologies, when I said you have to update the firmware, I was referring to the 8BitDo G-Bros adaptor. Just something to double-check if you do pick one up since some can ship with older firmware.

Ok, dont worry, you are very kind!

Thank you again!!

[name1ess_hero]

for the record you can still get .rvz files to show achievements in launchbox. but theres some effort required. the way you get the achievements to display in launchbox is as follows: in your launchbox folder navigate to Data\Platforms and open Nintendo GameCube.xml. you'll find a ton of various information hit ctrl+f to use the find function in whatever editor you're using to edit the xml. type the name of the game and hit enter. at the bottom of each game information set you'll find 

    <AndroidVideoPath />

    <RetroAchievementsHash></RetroAchievementsHash>

    <HasCloudSynced>false</HasCloudSynced>

 

in this section you will add the hash listed on the retroachievements supported files tab.

so it will then look like

    <AndroidVideoPath />

    <RetroAchievementsHash>7ce867c45865ab18339425a3a6292cea</RetroAchievementsHash>

    <HasCloudSynced>false</HasCloudSynced>

 

thats it. now it will show in launchbox. if it has no line for <retroachievementshash> you can safely add it. if it says couldntfilehash on this line just replace it with the hash as well. launchbox will have achievements for rvz games and they'll update properly. this doesnt just apply to rvz games either. if you have a game that retroachievements shows achievements for in your emulator but launchbox doesnt hash it properly you can use this method to get it to work correctly. its a manual method of adding achievement hashes to the xml files. 

Edited July 26 by name1ess_hero

[xevious1974]

On 7/24/2024 at 1:20 AM, AstroBob said:

Absolutely, Dolphin recognises it as a standard D-Input / X-Input device, so you can easily map it inside of Dolphin. One thing to note, if you do use it make sure you update the firmware on it. There were some updates to allow it to recognise the GameCube's analogue trigger inputs.

 

I have bought a simplier version. I dont like bt device.

This adapter can be installed using Zadig software. it is adviced in the Dolphin site

https://it.dolphin-emu.org/docs/guides/how-use-official-gc-controller-adapter-wii-u/?cr=it

Very useful if anyone wants to use it.

I am very happy atm 

[davemk]

Have launchbox managed to impliment the .RCZ yet, or if RA updated the RAHasher with this?

[AstroBob]

On 8/19/2024 at 4:49 AM, davemk said:

Have launchbox managed to impliment the .RCZ yet, or if RA updated the RAHasher with this?

@davemk Unfortunately, the RAHasher hasn't been updated to support this yet, and we're currently dependent on it. We'll be keeping an eye on this though as hopefully, it's something the RA team will get to.

Apologies I don't have a better update as of right now, I'm also itching to get those badges for my GameCube collection, as I've already re-completed a fair few 🤩

[retroNUC]

On 7/24/2024 at 2:12 PM, C-Beats said:

Yeah, it'd be nice if one of them had a way to grab that hash via command line. Not being able to support that format is a pretty big let down.

 

On 8/20/2024 at 2:12 AM, AstroBob said:

@davemk Unfortunately, the RAHasher hasn't been updated to support this yet, and we're currently dependent on it. We'll be keeping an eye on this though as hopefully, it's something the RA team will get to.

Apologies I don't have a better update as of right now, I'm also itching to get those badges for my GameCube collection, as I've already re-completed a fair few 🤩

If this PR gets accepted, you should be able to get the hash over command-line directly from Dolphin 🤞

https://github.com/dolphin-emu/dolphin/pull/13035

[retroNUC]

The pull request has now been merged, and will be in version 2409-32 or later.

Hopefully you should be able to use this combined with the Dolphin path from a user's emulator setup and we can get these badges working on .rvz?  

> .\dolphintool.exe verify -i "game.rvz" -a rchash
9be90fd0a49908be157f8c001794699e

 

Edited Sunday at 09:41 PM by retroNUC