How to get Gamecube games to play on my PC?

[Bojangle12]

Was wondering if I can play a gamecube disc on my PC. I'm assuming I would need the right CD/DVD/whatever-it-is-ROM drive to read it, and some kind of gamecube software to read it.

Or is emulating the only way?

 

[Rationale]

The optical drive isn't the issue, the problem is the Gamecube, like most consoles, has a totally different architecture and OS than PCs. Your computer wouldn't know how to use the data the game was feeding it.

I'm pretty sure that emulation is the only way from a basic understanding of how it works, but I would be happy to be proven wrong about that.