A blast from the past modded onto another blast from the past.
With the current “analog” tech trend encouraging hobbyists to find new ways to exercise their ownership over hardware, console modding is seeing more and more attention. While taking gaming tech apart and putting it back together again has long been incredibly popular, the online communities surrounding it are increasingly breaking into the mainstream. As more individuals enter the modding hobby, the lengths to which tech can be pushed become a competition — leading to some shocking advancements.
Typically, consoles are modded to increase their functionality, such as the decade-old mod that grants GameCube controller functionality to the 3DS. However, the collaborative (and competitive) spirit within modding communities often turns the hobby towards experimentation, pushing consoles to their limits (with classic Doom usually becoming involved at some point). A recent example of this has been the efforts to bring Windows NT 4.0 to the GameCube, which revolves around the groundwork of Entii for Workcubes on GitHub and has most recently seen prominence with a video on the modding process by Jiga Tech.
How modders brought Windows NT to GameCube
This enterprise began last year, when a new build of Windows NT for PowerPC (the long-discontinued 1995/1996 operating system) surfaced. Since both the Wii and GameCube are built on similar PowerPC architecture, modders were able to launch the aforementioned Entii for Workcubes build, which allows hobbyists to bring the 90s PowerPC-based operating system to the GameCube-to-Wii U era of systems. While the practical applications here are scarce, it’s undoubtedly an impressive bit of modding — and will no doubt lead to bigger things in the future.
Of course, it’s another thing entirely to see this type of modding in action. This is where YouTube creator emu_kidid got the ball rolling in February of 2025, with a video that demonstrates the software-side process of getting this build of Windows running on GameCube. Now in 2026, both Jiga Tech and Michael MJD have videos with a large focus on the hardware installation. This process involves removing the disc drive and installing the mod drive beneath, before inserting an SD card trojan-horsed through a GameCube memory card and continuing with the software installation. Both manage to get the system running, with Michael MJD playing some “Solitaire” on the machine while Jiga Tech manages to integrate functionality for both the ASCII GameCube keyboard controller and, to an extent, the DK Bongo controller.
The importance of the GameCube in modding
This level of integration is undeniably impressive, albeit it shouldn’t be too surprising considering, again, the Wii relies on much of the same hardware as the GameCube, including the PowerPC architecture. While the GameCube wasn’t the most powerful sixth-gen console, Nintendo didn’t have to deviate from the console massively into the seventh generation. Though the Wii may have been the weakest on the market there, it was more than able to compete.
Indeed, the use of these older consoles is impressive in its own right, but it’s also indicative of how much Nintendo is fighting modding on newer consoles. While every company outfits their current consoles with measures to prevent major modification, Nintendo’s litigious streak has given it quite the reputation in the community — and has driven modders to focus on older machines. As conversations around tech ownership and game preservation continue to heat up, advancements like this Windows NT mod will likely set the stage for bigger things, allowing those looking to assert their own control over the tech they own to get more power from older hardware.
