Nintendo Wii Emulator

100% Working Wii Emulator

A number of our visitors have sent us emails to various sources stating that the creators have working Wii Emulators. We’d like to thank all of you for the time you have taken to send us these tips!

So, are they real?

As with most things when something sounds too good to be true it probably is. A claim that there exists a 100% working Wii Emulator, seemingly out of nowhere, when there is no fully working GameCube Emulator yet definitely sounds too good to be real. Especially when the person who claims to have created it has no known background in the emulation scene.

Video of “Working” Wii Emulator

Most of the “Emulators” we have seen look like (PIP) Picture in Picture or TV tuner cards running a real Nintendo Wii. One such example came from reader Ben, who sent us a link to a video on youtube, of a Wii Emulator. The video shows the Wiimote working menus and games on the computer.

Video Analysis

If you take a closer look you’ll notice that in the video the windows XP theme is set to the old windows 98 style but curiously the Wii Emulator window frame seems to be a blue color and has no header. This suggests that either the emulator was created to look like that or the more logical answer is that the Emulator is just a Wii hooked up to a pc monitor running PIP (Picture In Picture). We were further inclined to disbelieve the emulator when we posted a comment to the video which was soon after deleted.

Final Verdict

With that said we wont deny any of the stories out there but rather we’ll let you be the judge.

True Wii Homebrew Around the Corner

There is a new product which promises to open up the Nintendo Wii to Homebrew Development. This device called the Drive Doctor, by Datel, will allow you to view and modify memory currently running on your Wii. This capability allows you to run any code you want but unfortunately the Drive Doctor does have a limitation; you need to solder in a few wires. On the other hand having access to runtime memory may lead to some advances towards softmods allowing homebrew without special hardware.

More Detailed Information

Drive Doctor connects to your PC via a high speed USB (cable supplied). It allows you to view and modify the DVD drive’s memory in real-time. Drive Doctor’s powerful ARM7 processor, running at 60MHz, makes read and write operations quick and easy. You can then review its innermost operations, watching your Wii software in action through Drive Doctor’s PC application. You can even add data of your own, all from your PC. Drive Doctor’s memory and command views give you a unique insight into the innermost workings of your Wii’s drive memory, and even lets you make on-the-fly adjustments. You can read status, write data, send control commands, report the drive status and more. By injecting your own code into the data stream, you can create your own effects and experiment with modifying the program. It’s fun! And as the Wii home brew scene grows and prospers, the device will also come in handy for playing freely-downloadable software straight from your console.

Still Intrested?

If the thought of playing with cryptic hexadecimal values gets you excited then maybe you should head over to the UK codejunkies website for even more info including purchase info.

WAB team searches for elusive gap in Wii security

Over the past week few weeks we have been watching the WAB team make attempts at figuring out what makes the Wii tick. After many attempts and long nights dumping data on several chips they have found out that the bios is in fact encrypted along with most other chips. With everything being encrypted the data that was dumped is not very useful at all. This isnt too much of a surprise to us considering where past modchips came from. The thing that is catching our attention is their dedication to open up the wii to homebrew even after many failed attempts.

They have now shifted gears to try to work around the encryptions and access the Wii NAND RAM chips in order to perhaps find something useful in there.

The procedure goes something like this:

- Wire up the RAM
- Start up the Wii
- Do something interesting
- Turn off the power but keep an external power supply to the RAM
- Read the RAM
- Find something useful

Sounds pretty simple right? Until you actually consider some of the complexities. We hope they can dig something up and perhaps in a few months we will finally be able to write some true Wii homebrew.

Pictures of their soldering work

edit: the WAB website seems to be down at the moment.

More Information

read the forums as the story unfolds

Wii and GC Coding Contest 2007

What better way to get the home brew wagon going then to post a coding competition! DCEmu via its Wii-News and Gamecube Emulation Sites have announced a coding competition with the first place prize being $300 at the GP2X Store. Hopefully some talented people will get in on it and write some cool little applications. The prizes might be enough of an incentive for us to get in on the action too.

When is the code due?

The Competition Entries should be submitted on or before 6th July 2007.

What can we develop?

Entries can be Emulators, Homebrew Games, Demos or Applications that work directly on the Gamecube/Nintendo Wii.

Fine Print

- Any submissions must have sources released if theres a GPL on that sourcecode.
- Entries for the competition must work on either Nintendo Wii or Nintendo Gamecube or both via SD Load.
- All entrys must work with SD Load or with an as yet Unreleased Exploit for Nintendo Wii. Modchip Versions of any releases must have a corresponding SD Load Version.
- All submissions must have DCEmu Forums as the homepage until after the competition ends.
- New releases of already released software will be allowed but there must be a good update if thats the case.
- All submissions must use either of these splashscreens Here or Here.
- All Submissions can be posted in the DCEmu Submit News Forum, beta testing of any submissions before actual final submissions can be done in the Nintendo Wii and Gamecube Development Forum
- Multiple entries are allowed although only the best entry will win prizes.
- Entries must be freeware so that when tournament ends they can be distributed.

Prize Details

1st Prize $300 at GP2X Store

2nd Prize $150 at GP2X Store

3nd Prize $50 at GP2X Store

Ready to get started?

Full details are available at Wii-News

Datel releases Homebrew SDMedia Launcher

True Nintendo Wii homebrew is inching forward day by day and with this latest release from datel you are able to launch GameCube homebrew natively on the Wii. Before we had to enter countless numbers of Action Replay codes to run homebrew using the AR method. But now all you need to do is merely plug the Datel SDmedia launcher device in. This means that you now have much faster access to any homebrew applications such as Emulators. Sadly the device does not yet support Wii homebrew just yet but it is most defiantly a step in the right direction.

There’s a wealth of really excellent home brew material out there for the GameCube, but how do you get it to run on your happening console? Our GameCube/Wii SD Media Launcher has the answer…

With GameCube/Wii SD Media Launcher, you can run all your home brew Cube software on an unmodified GameCube, or on a Nintendo Wii in GameCube Mode. All you need to do is download the program of your choice from one of the many web pages dedicated to amateur programming on the Cube (Google for ‘GameCube home brew’ to find dozens of sites). Drag and drop it onto the 1GB or 2GB SD card supplied with the Media Launcher, then plug it into your Wii or GameCube. Launch the application CD on your console and the home brew program is run from there. Easy!

Everything you need is in the box. The pack includes a software CD, 1GB or 2GB high-speed SD card, a USB SD card adapter and an SD media adapter to fit in your Cube’s memory card slot.

More information and price details are available at codejunkies

New Nintendo Wii Modchip, the CYCLO-WIZ

CYCLO-WIZ, by Team Cyclops, is the only upgradeable Wii modchip out on the market at the moment. This chip allows you to play all your Nintendo Wii and GameCube backups and GameCube Homebrew software. It does not however run Wii Homebrew. This is still a great chip though because now you wont need to use a GameCube Action Replay and SDload to run GameCube Homebrew on a Wii.

Features

- FULLY UPGRADABLE via dvd.
- Quicksolder (no wires required)
- Plays Homebrew (GC format)
- Play GC Imports (swap needed)
- Plays Wii CDR/DVD±R
- Plays GC CDR/DVD±R
- Built-in Audiofix (no patch needed)
- Compatible with Multi-Disc
- Optional chip disable wire
- Stealth mode.
- Multi-purpose LED
- ESD packing.

Easy Install

This chip has a very straight forward install process. Even someone with little soldering experience will be able to install it since it is a quicksolder chip. The English install manual can be found here.

How do I purchase one?

Simply click here and follow Divineo’s checkout process.

How do I pay?

Divineo provides COD (Cash On Delivery) for USA and Canadian residents. This means that you do NOT need a credit card or paypal account to buy the modchip. You simply pay the mail man cash when the chip arrives at your door.

Who’s Divineo?

We have decided to partner up with Divineo.com to provide you the modchip. Our reasons for this are rather simple. We have made purchases through them in the past and have always been very satisfied.

Disclaimer

In many countries it is legal to install and use a Modchip. The copying of games is illegal in many countries. Some countries laws don’t allow you to use backups, even if you own the original, you MUST check your own country’s laws, and respect them. Wiiemulator.net does NOT condone the illegal copying and/or distribution of games.

Create your own Nintendo Wii “back-up” games

Good news for those of you who claim you are only backing up your games for archiving purposes. As luck would have it you can now create backups of your Nintendo Wii game collection via PC. But at 50 hours per Wii disc dump this is not for the faint of heart. Only the dedicated will emerge 2 days later with their backup copy only to find that there is still no way to put it to any use. Until the Nintendo Wii can play a copied disc this is nothing more than a proof of concept.

Requirements for Dumping a Wii disc

Dumping the entire Nintendo Wii game disc only works with LG and Hitachi drives. Specifically one of the LG-8164b, LG-8163b or LG-8162b DVD-ROM drives. You will also need .NET framework 2.0 installed on your PC.

The instructions in full can be found here:

Wii Dumper Instructions

Nintendo Wii Emulation

The Wii is a game console made by Nintendo. It uses very similar hardware to that found in the Nintendo GameCube. So we should see an Emulator for the Nintendo Wii in the near future. The Nintendo Wii also allows you to play Nintendo GameCube games, which opens the Wii Console to a whole world of exploits, homebrew applications, and emulators that were originally designed and created for the GameCube. Using this knowledge all we have to do to get a Wii Emulator box going is use a GameCube exploit of choice.

Requirements for Nintendo Wii Emulation

You will need Datel’s Action Replay, software called SDload, the official Nintendo SD card adapter, and of course your Emulator of choice.

Running an Emulator on the Nintendo Wii

1) Plug your SD card into your computer and format the SD card to either FAT or FAT16, After formatting use SDload to run sdpatch.exe through the command line as follows:

sdpatch.exe (drive letter):/

Now copy SDLOADER.BIN to the root directory of the card, at this point you can load it up with Emulators .dol format. They can be in any directory as long as SDLOADER.BIN is in the root.

2) Insert SD card into your Nintendo Wii in memory slot A and the Action Replay Card into B. Slide your Action Replay disc into your Nintendo Wii.

3) When AR boots up pick the USA flag and then ADD NEW GAME. SDLOAD is the game name and push done. Then enter (M) as the code name. Enter the following code

7YPR-RKZZ-MH6W5
D26A-PE4J-1XX2W
ZJHY-B1ZH-6P00G

Then select ADD NEW CODE and name it SDLOAD. Enter the following code

AF4H-JPF5-H1B5J
MVAB-7TQE-ABZPB
V2CK-QQ1A-Y6P72
M5N6-CMMH-9EURT
0JFM-3A6C-VZ6VK
KYV8-0JGV-0GR1N
2EGU-HVKF-NDMCN
7AH0-J9JZ-HHGNJ
4MHU-G8XT-ZRYCJ
9474-KF41-8KG34
QMEV-G90N-A8RV0
KD4G-5QHV-74D46
V97K-652Q-Y4TEY
6M4W-9GPT-E99NG
QPFY-DJAF-E01FV
2Z6E-P2WY-24WV4
6NHW-G3NH-HP31Y
A2KF-MCKN-D645J
K5V8-EF9W-7GFQC
XTU3-269T-VH5NE
H9GP-C4PP-6FGF9
HF77-R45C-ZXPDV
22Y3-D98C-50AJM
WTWZ-EC88-U5ZTV
36G1-UGDG-J2G84
DUMT-15KR-DXJ8K
JV55-6VF5-2Z02T
D4R8-MVJ5-QGR21
1G3C-APD7-1CUVD

Select the code named SDLOAD and check the box next to it, press start and Open and close the lid of disc drive when prompted. Then it starts up and you can take it from there and run any Emulator you want.

Nintendo GC & Wii Security Flaws

Tmbinc did a speech at a Video Game Console Conference the other day. The video is up on youtube and has some very interesting info about security flaws in the GameCube which led to it’s modchips, and subsequently the flaws in the Wii which open the door for modchips.

GameCube flaws inherited by the Wii?

It comes down to 2 flaws which allowed GameCube Homebrew and ISO Backups. This first is a little bit more difficult to exploit than the second but both opened huge doorways. The interesting bit is that Nintendo did not learn from their past mistakes with the GameCube and some of the flaws are still present in the Nintendo Wii. Perhaps they don’t really care that much since game console hacking may be inevitable nowadays. That may have been a reason to include the Virtual Console on the Nintendo Wii. By providing “Emulation” software the need for homebrew emulators is reduced.

Anyways the video is very insightful if u have free time and you can get you’re self to stop pocking fun at tmbinc’s accent.

Watch it here:

Nintendo Wii Introducing Geeks to Physical Activity

The fact is there are some of us out there that don’t really see sports as fun. Maybe some of us enjoy sports but do we get enough physical activity in our day to day lives? Clearly one does not need to look at sheets of data to know that most north Americans don’t.

Will Wii Sports help us out?

So why is it that Wii Sports are appealing even to non-athletes? Could it be because its so easy that no skill is required or maybe its the cool new interface. Personally I believe its a little of both and with the Wii Sports Pack coming soon the virtual sports are stepping closer to the real thing.

Wiimote Accessories

If you’ve been to wiinewz.com today you’ll notice they have a nice little review of the Wii sports pack. The Wii Sports pack comes with 3 plastic wiimote accessories that make the sports feel just a little bit more like the real thing. Included is a tennis racket, baseball bat, and golf putter designed for a 2 year old. I’m not sure if anyone will buy it though.

Short Comings

Reading the review made me aware of a few short comings with the biggest being the blocked sensors on the front of the wiimote. Therefore you cant use the wiimote to navigate through the menu’s without removing the midget plastic… ehm thing. But this is just a minor annoyance only to be shadowed by the question “do I really need it?”.

Closing the Gap

The Wii Sports Pack certainly does close the gap between virtual and real sports. Its actually kind of scary that people who have never liked sports are now starting to like them because of the Wii. Accessories like these may even open the door for them to the point where they will actually go outside for once and witness daylight as they participate in a real physical activity. Or maybe not… they might just stay inside and become pros at Wii sports until the Olympics comes out with a WiiLympics. But, hey… why not?

What about You?

Would Wii Sports feel more real to you with the Wii sports pack? Are you more compelled to play real sports because of Wii Sports?