Dweezil has asked for a game called Super Smash Brothers Melee (I think that’s the one), which is available only for Gamecube. I pointed that out to him, and he reminded me that Gamecube games can be played on a Wii.
Is any special equipment required for that? I seem to recall hearing there was a connector of some sort.
(oh, and no - I haven’t confused this with SSB Brawl - he has that for the Wii, and loves it).
I don’t know about any connectors, but you might want to get a Gamecube controller or two if you don’t already have any.
As far as I know, you need Gamecube controller(s), and a Gamecube memory card. Both of these should plug in to the top of the Wii, but don’t need any additional connecters.
Oh, you need a Gamecube memory card to save progress in Gamecube games? You cannot just save them onto the hard drive, as you can with Wii games? I did not know that.
I think that’s the case, but don’t hold me to it. I could easily be mistaken.
Well, the Internet backs you up. I’m surprised, though; what an odd design; what needless hassle.
Also, when I decided to pick up a gamecube controller and some games, I was shocked at how short the cord was for the controller. Unless you live in an economy apartment in Tokyo, or in your car, you’ll need an extension. I think mine was a dollar.
Heller Highwater is 100% correct, The Wii comes perfectly capable of playing gamecube games. I believe you can also copy data from the gamecube memory card to the Wii hard drive to open up some space on the card, but the gamecube memory card is necessary to save data.
A warning if you plan to buy a unofficial Gamecube memory card. The first one i bought got stuck in the memory card slot and i had to pry it loose. An extension cable for the controller is also a good idea.
Update: After doing a quick search on google i found that other people also have had problems with stuck memory cards.
Spend the extra tree-fiddy to get a used Wavebird wireless controller.
Thanks for the replies!
I started looking around Amazon and thought I found the controller I needed:
Fortunately I read the description - and this one is specifically for the Wii (attaches through the wireless remote) - AND doesn’t work with gamecube games!
Looks like the Wavebirds are nice - but rather more than 3.50 
So what we really need is something like this, correct?
plus an extension cable like this?
Plus any old SD memory card?
I think my kid knows he needs the classic controller, as that was on his list.
No, I don’t believe it is an SD memory card. It is a proprietary card for the Gamecube. You should be able to find some at a Gamestop or similar place.
Mental Guy is right, you need a memory card made specifically for gamecube, like this one
You could get an offbrand memory card, but I do not recommend it. In my experience, they get caught on a small sliver of metal that is inside the memory card port, and physically damage the Wii.
The controller you linked and the extension cable are exactly what you are looking for.
I did say used Wavebird. Got mine at Gamestop. If you’re lucky, you’ll find one. If you do, get it by preference. Best controller Nintendo made.
Wavebird lacks the rumble feature which Nintendo has always used to great effect.
WaveBird lacks the rumble feature, but is a great controller regardless. I always use one.
You need a Gamecube mem card to save games, but other than that and a controller you’ll be fine. Basically the Wii runs gamecube hardware in a sandbox, so when you launch a gamecube game you’re essentially playing a gamecube inside your wii, it can’t access the Flash Drive or anything, thus requiring a mem card.
It makes sense to me. They have to include the old hardware because people who are upgrading from a 'Cube want to be able to play their old saved games. Once they do that, there’s not a lot of motivation to add a separate system that would be integrated directly with the Wii hardware. In fact, doing so would require layers of emulation and compatibility software, which would be expensive, and would potentially open up some system vulnerabilities that Nintendo didn’t want exploited. If you give Gamecube games access to all the Wii hardware, then the cracks that worked on a Gamecube might work on a Wii with only a little effort.
The only people who would really care about that are people who have a Wii, didn’t already have a Gamecube, and want to play Gamecube games. That’s probably a small fraction of their market.
:::raises hand::: That’d be us, I guess! 
Everyone - thanks for all the info! I had no idea about any of this.
It’d be me too. I guess I had assumed that Gamecube games were already being run through emulation, and that the emulator could just virtualize access to memory cards into optionally accessing the Wii’s native save system instead. But if there’s actually no emulation involved in playing Gamecube games, just an inclusion of the old Gamecube technology directly, then I suppose that’s that.
Yes, there are exploits that let you run homebrew software on your wii, but only in the gamecube sandbox, so it doesn’t, say, allow you to crack your wii wide-open and softhack it to play pirated games (as you can do with a 360, ferinstance)
actually it’s a relatively large portion of their market, considering they’re aiming the system at “non-gamers” and such. Gamecube sold relatively few consoles in it’s day (wikipedia has it as selling 22 million, xbox at 24 million, and ps2 at 140 million) whereas the Wii is selling like hotcakes on a cold day (wikipedia has it at 34.5 mil, and that after only 2 years or so). So given those numbers we can say about 1/3 of all wii owners didn’t own a Gamecube, but that’s assuming all the GC owners bought a wii (though I would assume most did, I don’t think all did). Regardless, 1/3 isn’t that small of a fraction