The World’s Smallest Fully-Functional Nintendo GameCube

The GameCube was a bit of a black sheep in the Nintendo console lineup, and never achieved the commercial success of either its predecessor, the Nintendo 64, or its successor, the Nintendo Wii. But in recent years, the GameCube has been a cult favorite among Nintendo fans due to its fantastic catalog of games and quirky features. As such, a lot of those fans enjoy modding GameCubes. YouTuber Madmorda has taken that to an extreme level and created the world’s smallest fully-functional GameCube.

Madmorda’s explanation of the build in her video is quite humble, but this is a very impressive build. It’s not just a small computer running a GameCube emulator that has been shoved into a 3D-printed case. It actually has a Nintendo Wii motherboard inside, because the Wii was capable of playing GameCube games that are stored on an SD card. In order to make the Wii motherboard as small as possible, Madmorda trimmed it down to remove unnecessary portions of the board. Games are stored on the SD card, so the optical disc drive wasn’t necessary anymore.

She then put that inside of a gummy case that was designed to look like the GameCube. That case was modified for airflow and to add a working power button, power LED, controller ports, video output, USB ports, and a USB power input. The controller ports are actually 3.5mm headphone jacks that can be used with an adapter to connect regular GameCube controllers. Madmorda even built a functional miniature controller from a keychain toy sold at GameStop, which is scaled perfectly to fit the tiny GameCube. As you can see in the video, the console is completely playable, runs games just as well as the original, and can even run for a few hours off of a cheap USB powerbank.