Looking to emulate some classic GameCube games and in possession of a Meta Quest series headset? We've got everything there is to know about how to play GameCube games on a Meta Quest headset, from the emulator you should use to potential sources of ROMs.
Emulating games from older platforms on a Meta Quest is a great way to revisit some of your old favourites. We recently saw a Meta Quest 3 used to emulate Kingdom Hearts 2, a PlayStation 2 title, that looked stunning with the Quest 3's mixed reality capabilities.
Want to know if the Quest 3 is worth buying to emulate games with? We've compared it to the Quest Pro in the run up to its release.
How can I play GameCube games on a Meta Quest?
First, you'll need to sideload the Dolphin emulator onto your Quest headset. Dolphin is the emulator you'll be using to launch your GameCube games from. To sideload Dolphin, you'll need to make use of SideQuest, a third-party application that allows you to install unofficial software on your Meta Quest device.
Downloading a copy of Dolphin from SideQuest onto your Quest will enable you to launch GameCube ROM files on your headset. You'll have to acquire these yourself, but there are many websites out there which you can download GameCube ROMs. Find a trusted source to get yourself some ROMs, which you can then transfer the files over to your Quest.
Before you launch Dolphin on your Quest, you may need to sideload a third-party file browser, so that you can select the ROM file in Dolphin. There are tons of free file managers out there, but we recommend getting one from SideQuest for the sake of security.
Once you've done this, you'll be able to select your ROM while in the Dolphin application, where the game will appear on the Dolphin menu as shown above.
Now, simply launch the game from the emulator's menu and you should be good to start playing your GameCube game.
That's all there is to know about emulating games on a Meta Quest!
For more Meta Quest 3 news, we've got the latest on the bizarre restrictions being placed on games being ported to the Quest 3. We've also got the latest on when Xbox Cloud Gaming services will be coming to the Quest 3.