Nintendo did something neat as a favor to old Super Smash Bros. fans. Now, fans are doing something even neater.
Gamers have found a way to make the Wii U GameCube Controller adapter work on PCs. When Nintendo released Super Smash Bros. for Wii U last month, the publisher also released a special USB dongle for its home console that connects four GameCube controllers to the new system. So you can play just released version of Smash Bros. with a gamepad that is more than a decade old. But fans have immediately seized on the adapter for its potential to have GameCube controllers work with PCs, and one group of coders has already succeeded.
[aditude-amp id="flyingcarpet" targeting='{"env":"staging","page_type":"article","post_id":1615907,"post_type":"story","post_chan":"none","tags":null,"ai":false,"category":"none","all_categories":"games,","session":"C"}']Over the weekend, a hacker known as Elmassivo released software that enables the GameCube Adapter to work on Windows 7 and Windows 8 PCs. He provided the install files you need as well as the instructions to install it. I tried it out and got it working with the Dolphin emulator, and you can see the results in the video below:
If you want to mess around with this yourself, you can get the latest download file by clicking here.
Once you have the file, follow these instructions to get it working:
- The very first thing you need to do is reboot your Windows 8 PC into a special mode that will enable you to install drivers that are not signed by Microsoft. Here is the step-by-step guide to doing that.
- Plug the black USB cord from the adapter into your PC.
- Wait for the USB install to fail.
- Now, run the install file that you downloaded as an administrator.
- Agree to installing the unsigned driver (at your own risk).
- Install the bundled vJoy program, which lets the GameCube controller speak to the PC.
- The GC adapter program will boot up, and you will need to click the “Start” button to enable it to work.
- Calibrate the analog sticks on your controllers by clicking on the Windows Gamepad Info button from the GCN adapter program and selecting the properties.
- If you want to use the controller with Dolphin, download these configuration files.
- Copy the files into the Dolphin folder (found at documents\dolphin\emulator\config\profiles\GCPad\).
- Boot up the Dolphin emulator, select GCPad, and load the profile.
When calibrating your controller, keep the following in mind:
- Z-axis is referring to L trigger (Do not click the trigger. Pull it in until just before it is about to click)
- X-rotation is the C-sticks horizontal X axis
- Y-rotation is the C-sticks vertical Y axis
- Z-rotation is the R trigger (Again, do not click)
- The other things it asks you to calibrate do not matter. Just hit A to move through them.
If you have any issues, try booting up vJoy or restarting your PC after installing everything.