One of the biggest challenges for organizing tournament streams or house streams for Super Smash Bros Melee is capturing the gameplay itself. Melee came out in 2001 and streaming was in its infancy until relatively recently, so the hardware and software developed for capturing gameplay often isn’t compatible with the hardware we use to play the game. This leaves us with limited options, and often with a long string of trial and error before finding a capture solution that is elegant, affordable, and convenient.

With this guide, I hope to dispel many misconceptions surrounding video capture on legacy devices like the Nintendo GameCube and Nintendo Wii, providing a concise, yet comprehensive, overlook at your options as a streamer.

For Super Smash Bros Melee, you have three options when it comes to the source of your gameplay: PC, Wii, or GameCube. You can emulate Super Smash Bros Melee on any PC via the Dolphin Emulator. We must preface that you will need to own your own legal copy of Super Smash Bros Melee. Although this doesn’t come as news to many users, there are several advantages to using Dolphin for streaming Melee over the Wii or GameCube.

The first is convenience. Every streaming setup uses a PC, so having your video source on the same machine removes much of the headache associated with streaming including extra hardware, software, and cabling. The next is custom textures. There are many custom texture packs that can be loaded into the Dolphin emulator to allow higher resolution gameplay, and if you’re feeling particularly adventurous, it will allow you to use custom skins and stages to give your stream a unique look. There are also several training hack packs that can broaden the toolset available to the players and viewers allowing for custom CPU AI, hitbox/hurtbox visualization, and netplay, or the ability to play online, something not afforded to the original consoles.

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As much as this option appeals to house streamers, tournament streamers do not benefit from emulating the gameplay over capturing gameplay on original hardware. In fact, most tournament participants will prefer to play on a CRT, which is only easily possible with the use of original hardware. As far as original hardware goes, you have a choice between the original console, the GameCube, and its successor, the Wii.

Both options natively output analog signals in a variety of flavors. Before the advent of digital televisions, analog displays (like consumer CRTs) had a plethora of video input options. From lowest to highest quality, the GameCube and Wii natively support Composite, S-Video, and Component video outputs.

Composite and S-Video can both be easily captured using a USB capture device like the GV-USB2. As far as setup, you only need to split the source using a Y-splitter from the Wii or GameCube cables going into the TV and going into your USB capture device. Many third-party S-Video cables come with a composite cable bundled, which means you can plug in the composite directly into the TV and connect the S-Video directly into the capture device.

Both Composite and S-Video are interlaced signals, meaning in a video signal with 480 horizontal lines, two 240 lines signal alternate at 60 frames per second to create the illusion of a single image refreshing at 60Hz. Because of this, raw Composite and S-Video signals can appear jagged and disjointed if not properly deinterlaced. Most modern streaming software come bundled with their own deinterlacing solutions. A playlist of all the OBS deinterlacers are available in the playlist below.

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But this still leaves us with Component video, which is inarguably the highest quality analog signal available from the original hardware. The only issue surrounding this video signal is its cost. Component cables for the GameCube can cost more than $300, and a capture device that can capture and, more importantly, convert the signal into an input available on most consumer CRTs is another $200. Moreover, if you want to capture a progressive signal, one that displays all 480 horizontal lines of video every frame and forgoes the need for a software deinterlacer, you will most likely require a professional video monitor for the players to use, which can cost well over $400. Yes, there are ways to cut costs such as using a Wii instead of a GameCube which has far more affordable component cables, but it isn’t reasonably scalable from a more affordable solution like S-Video, which provides near similar results for a fraction of the cost.

There is an additional option for capturing an even higher quality signal than component, but it is only available for the GameCube, and the waiting list for the required hardware is very long.

On the back of the original GameCube, there is an input marked “Digital AV Out”, which only officially was used for the original component cables released by Nintendo. This proprietary port is home to unlocking a native digital signal from the generations old console, but until recently, had remained an enigma. Over a decade of hard work produced GCVideo, an open source code and schematics for modifying the original GameCube to output an HDMI signal. The modified GameCube allows you as a streamer to output digital and analog signals simultaneously (often by replacing the Digital AV Out port or by adding a new port by cutting a hole out) without the worry of deinterlacing the signal or splitting the signal from the system to the TV and your PC. However, until recently, the only way to get such a GameCube would be to purchase one from a modder, which means they can be expensive and very in quality.

Enter ZeldaXPro, creator of the GC PNP, a plug and play adapter for the Digital AV Out port on the GameCube to output HDMI natively without the need for modification. The adapter, which sells for around $100, has a long waiting list, but is very much worth the wait. The output exceeds the quality of Component video signal, is compatible with mainstream capture devices, and does not require software deinterlacing.

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The solution, then, is to use a GCVideo solution to pull native 480i via HDMI by way of the Digital AV port that goes directly to any number of HDMI capture cards on the market today, and at the same time run Composite or S-Video from the Analog AV Out to the players' display. This way you can have a crisp, high fidelity signal going to the stream without affecting the way most Melee players are used to playing the game.

I recommend for newer or smaller streamers to use S-video out to a GV-USB2 and using OBS' Yadif deinterlacing setting or similar deinterlacing setting from a third-party software deinterlacer. Component is a small step above S-Video, but the price for that step is quite steep. Streams should never be streaming with composite video. Component is an option for those who have access to a component capture card like the BlackMagic Intensity Shuttle, but I would not recommend going out of your way for such equipment, especially for local streams.

For those with a bigger budget, and possibly more time to wait, a GCVideo solution like Zelda XPro PNP 3.0, or possibly a revision of eon's GCHD solution (once they make a version that doesn't block the Analog AV port) running interlaced signal with built in linedoubling function directly to an HDMI capture card, and the Analog AV port outputting a signal of your choice to a CRT in parallel is one of the most cost effective and futureproof options for Melee streamers.

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