This is old news but I just learned of Hori GC style 2.4ghz pads in the works by Retro-bit:
There’s a different one on thingiverse
https://www.thingiverse.com/search?q=SD2SP2&type=things&sort=relevant
With that design you can’t access the SD card with a GBPlayer attached afaik
Talking with Extrems, it makes no improvement in compatibility vs memory card port SD card. It’s the same bus in a different location. He put in a lot of work to make the ISO loading in swiss better, some recent changes even fixed fmv skipping in most remaining games.
Wow, I always thought it came much later in the cycle.
I noticed Hori’s D-Pad Joy-Con uses exactly the same parts as the official controller for aspects like the analogue stick and (from what I recall) the shoulder buttons, so like you point out it does make you wonder if it was a case of Hori being privy to what was in development for GameCube or something else entirely.
That would explain why Hori’s products are always so much better than other 3rd party controllers on Nintendo systems.
I’ve never actually tried a Hori Pad Mini before. Is it as good as it looks? How accurate is that stick for Smash?
Also, I imagine that D-Pad is unusable in that location. Is it?
Yeah the only reason I’d want a GC loader I guess is for FMV/music issues and various compatibility stuff… but I might be happy with just a newer version of Swiss!
Besides that it works great and like @D.Lo I fill a big card up and rarely touch it again.
Love the dang GameCube.
Yep! I use it together with my GC Loader to save Swiss settings because the GC Loader itself doesn’t allow writing to the SD card (just yet).
I had a look too, but could only find resellers, with different release dates.
I am very inexperienced at researching in Japanese though.
If we take '99 for a release date, it seems likely there was a bit of back and forth development between R&D3 and Hori on the design.
But this is just wild speculation! 
It seems like it could do nicely as a substitute Sega controller too. Sacrilege 
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Could it be that Hori makes Nintendo’s controllers?
Mitsumi made Fami/SuFami/NES/SNES pre-2006 GC, and early Wii controllers. Not sure about N64. Mitsumi also made a lot of the PlayStation controllers.
It is possible HORI just bought parts direct from Mitsumi if they didnt have some agreement with Nintendo, though its notable HORI was making 3rd party licensed controllers as far back as the Super Game Boy Commander.
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Thanks for the summary.
The oldest Hori controllers I know of are for Famicom.
- Hori Mini Commander
- Hori Commander
- Hori Joystick-7
- Hori Track Controller
Which aligns with the info on their website https://stores.horiusa.com/company/
working closely with games console manufacturers from 1983
Would love to know the story behind the mini N64 controller, I’m still surprised to find out it launched in 1999!
I’d also like to know this. I also wonder if playing Super Mario 64 will feel like blasphemy on it - like Mario’s movements and wider turning circle compared with Sunshine were almost designed for the N64 stick’s wide angle of rotation from its centre.
There’s an SD2SP2 design on eBay that lets you access the card from the side when you have a GBPlayer attached, it’s not as slick as the design posted earlier but it is a real thing you can buy:
RazorLeafAttack shared this pic of it in action
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Buying.
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Also bought one
Hori Mini pad on N64? Had one for… many many years.
It’s amazing for most games. Basically Gamecube-like but with N64 button layout. I use it for all platformers, but use an original pad for FPS an anything dpad based.
The only annoying part is the shoulder buttons are a bit small, and that includes the replacement Z-triggers.
So can you do GBI with this?
Yeah, it acts the same as those memory card SD launchers. So you can get something like Swiss to read from serial port 2 and boot GBI
So long as you have a way to boot Swiss. So you’ll still need an SD media launcher, memory card exploit or GC Loader.