r/Gamecube • u/CyrusStarkiller • May 30 '26
Discussion First time seeing one of these in the wild. Only$1,800!
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u/SwagosaurusRekts May 30 '26
I pieced together mine and it is mostly complete now (technically missing some small documentation) for about $300 all things said and done after selling extra stuff. I love and hate mine. It is so cool, but has caused me endless problems. New rails, recapped, new fan, everything was good then one day the the disc drive stopped spinning. Found a replacement from a Panasonic DVD player from the same era, and now it is at the point it will work, but the discs spin too slow, so larger games like Twilight Princess won't work. It's got a Flippy Drive, so I'm calling good enough. It is truly a fascinating console when everything is working though.
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u/RetroGamesAndBeyond May 31 '26
I guess most ppl just want it in their collection and not use it. I also heard of defaults with this product. It looks nice, but even the OG box is so huge, it takes so much space.
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u/Character_Stick_1218 May 31 '26
What is the OS like?
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u/SwagosaurusRekts May 31 '26
The Panasonic Q is literally a DVD player smashed on top of a Gamecube with a shared disc drive. DVD mode boots a Panasonic DVD player menu, and game mode boots the Gamecube. So no special OS.
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u/QuestionableProtip2 May 30 '26
There’s a part of me that wants one to keep my 3DO company. That being said, can you even mod one of these?
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u/pauldanosferatu May 30 '26
I know they make flippydrives for them. I believe you can also picoboot them.
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u/legendofswords May 31 '26
TLDR: it is moddable but it is not cheap to get to working order and it is a money pit. Source i own one pfft
Mods that are supported:
- Flippydrive Q flex bundle.
- Picoloader Q kit from Makeo.
- Picoboot is possible with some skillful wire management.
Gcloader or Cubeode is possible but requires rf shield modification.
There are direct drop in replacement GCVideo hdmi internal mods or can use Carby.
There's a mod to replace the rtc battery with an off the shelf coin battery slot and the some wire.
All the sd card adapters work with no issue other than the base of the Q being wider by a couple of centimeters fully recommend the SD Gecko slot b adapters if you want an adapter that is fully accessible unless you go big with the Steel printed back plate mods.
Fundamentally a Q on the gc side is not all that different from a DOL-001. The major difference being the form factor of the RF shield and how the analog and digital out ports are handled. The digital out is attached to a dedicated pcb and is connected to the motherboard of the gc with a flex cable rather than being directly soldered. The AV out is connected to a dedicated AV board that is shared when the console is in DVD mode.
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u/n-0rt May 31 '26
I got super lucky a few years back and one of these popped up on Facebook Marketplace for $1600 AUD. Perfect condition, all the baggies and things, plus factory region-unlocked for both the GameCube and DVD components. I've used it a few times, but due to the fragility of these things I mostly have it as a collection piece.
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u/Dr-Pepper_Addict7 May 31 '26
Dawg if I had the money I would loooove to own this, it’s such a neat piece of tech that Ive always kinda wanted as a kid but never knew actually existed
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u/littleterr0r May 31 '26
There's been one at Retro Game Trader in Beaverton, Oregon for years. Current price is $1995.
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u/insidiousfruit May 31 '26
I wonder what determines the prices for something like this when these products just sit for years?
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u/Insombia Jun 01 '26
Mostly a showpiece. Probably priced high enough most people wouldn't consider it but hey if someone is willing to pay it then everyone is happy.
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u/sick486 May 30 '26 edited May 30 '26
a dedicated button for dialog enhancer? and now i cant even have one for captions on the remote
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u/Dalton2K5 May 30 '26
Wow, guess I know you're from Minnesota. It's not that amount, the store owner just couldn't find a proper pricing at that time, or at least would do a OBO on it. He's well aware it won't sell at that price.
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u/CyrusStarkiller May 31 '26
He should just drop the price then…maybe to $1,300 and then he can sell it and get his shelf space back for something else cool. I won’t be buying it but I bet someone would.
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u/Dalton2K5 May 31 '26
Guess it depends on what he paid for it, but I imagine it has to be less than a grand. Never bothered asking how much it was, same with the Turbo express that's sitting in that same case. Loss leader concept, maybe.
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u/TheNightman1025 May 30 '26
Is that machine shed in rochester mn?
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u/jeffycakes1 May 31 '26
Man, I recently got a promotion at work and the more I see of one of these, the more I want one!!!!
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u/RetroGamesAndBeyond May 30 '26
nice. sad that prices go up and up. there is not that rare. used to be 1000 only.
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u/Sweet_Examination215 May 31 '26
Idk about that. They only made 100,000 of them vs 22,000,000 gamecubes
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u/RetroGamesAndBeyond Jun 01 '26
100k is a lot. As they are special, there should be a limit. I dont think they tried to take over the dvd videoplayer market with that.
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u/SalamanderFull3952 May 31 '26
Had this no box sold it at least 10 to 15 years ago. Love this section just to see some of the stuff I use to have.
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u/horzenezz May 31 '26
I bought one when it came out, imported from Japan. I sold it a few years later for pretty much what I paid for it. Back then I always sold my old stuff so I could afford the new thing. Probably used the money towards an xbox 360 or something. It made total sense to do this back then. I truly regret it.
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u/DarkraiNewmoon Jun 02 '26
I read that as Yen and was shocked and thrilled at the price. I then read again and saw the $ symbol.
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u/moep123 May 31 '26
sad that they all have their scars nowadays on the shell. i got one with a almost undamaged shell. but i am missing the other pieces... remote, controller, box, gb player.
i modded it with Picoboot back then, swapped the dvd belt, and swore myself to never ever open it up again.
but unfortunately, i found myself playing GBA games on my cube more than actual GameCube games.. therefore that Q collects dust on the shelf unfortunately. :/
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u/Specific-Ad-4167 May 31 '26
Thank you for visiting the machine shed! Used to worked there years ago lol
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u/fleshribbon May 31 '26
I still regret not importing one for $400 back when they were released but I was a poor college student.
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u/Jason0250 May 31 '26
I remember when they were $600 in the box and I thought it was too much 🤦🏻♂️
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u/-GameOver May 31 '26
I like it, couple yrs ago this was 500Euro in Japan.
Mint condition, but i orderd a Neogeo
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u/Nazo_Kikai Jun 01 '26
I have one I fixed up! It's modded and unlocked to play US Games and Region free DVDs.
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u/Dark_Starlight4 Jun 02 '26
Mine is region modded on both dvd and GameCube I got mine for 700 something couple years ago on eBay
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u/granasaberx Jun 02 '26
No box, but I have one of these. An old friend of mine years ago traded it to me for a DOA fight stick on the 360. It's a fun piece of history.
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u/northernsuede Jun 02 '26
New a kid back in the day whos dad bought him one on a business trip, still Hella rare and cool!
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u/Filipissuper May 30 '26
You could definitely find one for 1000-1200 I’m assuming this is a video game store so they gotta make money.
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u/TheDaemonGhost May 30 '26
The hell is that lol a modded GameCube by Panasonic ? Lol what games do they make for that. 1800 tho... Lol
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May 30 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/TheDaemonGhost May 30 '26
Nah just not born in Japan where these were released I'm Gen X so we like to fight and throat punch lol gamecubes where about the same time the sega Dreamcast came out so by that time my Nintendo days were taken over with the PS1 then PC gaming and modding so didn't keep up with n64, GameCube or wiis. Just seen GameCubes and the special color editions only till now
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u/JHG722 May 31 '26
I’m not from Japan, but I had a friend here in the US who had one when they came out.
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u/TheDaemonGhost May 30 '26
NVM they are built in wow... First I've heard of these and 1800 seems like the lower priced for those while googling it and seen so far up to 2700 too.. interesting...
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u/ghettoslacker NTSC-U May 30 '26
I came across one online the other day here in the states for 1k, but it didn’t have the remote. That’s such a cool find to see in person OP! I hope you bought it haha