Dolphin Gamcube Emulator PLEASE HELP!!!

I have 3 questions about the "Dolphin" gamecube emulator

1. Will it play a game if I just pop it into the CD-ROM drive?
or am I wasting my time trying to find a program(or plugin?) that will make my computer read them?

2. If it will, where can I find the program/plugin so my computer will read the game discs?

3. Does the emulator even work?
I can't find any ISOs to try it, and my computer won't read Sonic Heroes or Smash Bros...

I could just play the games on my Wii, but I can't find a memory card ANYWHERE!
so I keep having to start my game over each time I play.
(and yes, I did try my local Gamestop/EBgames. I actually have three of their stores near my house.)

 

1) You won't be able to run a Gamecube game from any regular kind of PC drive.
2) Some games work, but hardly. Few games actually go in-game, and those that do only get several frames per second, really. It's not really playable at all.

 

oh.
ok.
are there any other emulators that work?

 

Unfortunately, no. Dolphin is the best you'll get. Give it a couple years and maybe GameCube emulation will be nice. Possibly not, who knows. The furthest along last-generation is the PS2, thanks to PCSX2. It'll be years atleast before we see XBox and GCN games emulated properly. :\

 

snooping around should give you some links to some custom gamecube firmware that dolphin can be made to run. it gives a slight speed boost in super smash bros but nothing i can report on - my old crappy fan kept causing my computer CPU to overheat and reboot...

you would have beenlucky to get 25fps, though - really it isn't worth the bother

 

You'd be lucky to get 6 frames in the menus with any realistic modern PC.

 

You should check out the Dreamcast emulator Null DC. It is the best emulator that runs games, maybe the best wording is that it is an emulator that runs the most advanced hardware out there and it is highly playable in most games. With the newest version, you will be amazed. The Dreamcast although not as high on the polygons as the PS2, had better graphical effects and it still shows. It's more of an XBox lite. I know it has nothing to do with the Gamecube, but when I rented a gamecube I thought it was a lot like the Dreamcast.