After playing the handful of noteworthy titles for the system I shelved it in hopes for things to come. I had been tracking different mods and homebrew applications for awhile, but the hardmodding and boot hacks for various games (ex. twilight princess) did not appeal to me. It wasn't until recently, when a friend of mine convinced me how easy it was to softmod a wii, that I considered giving it a try.
My final verdict? After reading this post you should immediately dust of your wii and get an sd card ready. This mod is so easy that anyone with computer emulator experience can do it in less than 30 min.
This post is a summary of my experience with the wii softmod as well as the different emulators for the system. I will be adding different reviews for the emulators as I try them.
*NOTE* My Wii was running version 4.1 and this mod will work for versions 3.0-4.2
If you have a later version you may have to wait until a newer HackMii installer is released. To find your system version, check the settings menu of the wii- it should be displayed in one of the corners of your screen.
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Here is the easiest web guide I have found to mod your wii and install apps:
WiiBrew Wiki
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Whenever I look at home console modding and emulation I always prepare for the worst. I have very little experience in soldering and, most often, the emulation on the console bears only a passing resemblance of quality compared to emulation on a computer. So for those of you who are like me, and do not wish to split the innards of your console to burn a microchip to a point smaller than a pencil tip, this mod is definitely for you.
WHAT YOU NEED:
1 Nintendo Wii
1 SD Card
1 SD Card Reader (for your computer)
1 Computer
Using the website linked above, I followed the step by step guide to modding my Wii using the BannerBomb and HackMii installers. I will not go into detail because the guide does an incredible job, so instead I will just recap.
First I formatted my SD Card. Then I downloaded the BannerBomb and HackMii installers (as instructed and linked in the above guide) and extracted the necessary files onto my SD Card. The rest was as easy as inserting the SD Card into my Wii and loading the boot file from the settings menu.
After I was finished installing the mod, it brought me to the newly installed Homebrew Channel. The Homebrew Channel is where all of the apps stored on your SD Card are launched from. After staring at the screen for a bit (because no apps had been installed yet) I exited to the Wii homepage and ejected my SD Card.
Once I read a bit more on the WiiBrew site I found this app:The Homebrew Browser
The Browser allows you to download and install apps directly from your wii. Once the browser was placed in my newly created 'apps' folder of the SD Card, I brought it back to my wii and launched it via the Homebrew Channel.
After a bit of dos looking load screen action the Browser launched and I started perusing the various apps available for download. The first two that I downloaded were the SNES9xGX and GenPlusGX emulators. After installing them via the Browser I exited and threw the SD Card into my computer to grab some roms...
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SNES9xGX for Wii Review
*NOTE* I had a little bit of trouble getting roms to read at first because I had to create a new folder in the root of my SD Card named 'snes9x' and create a 'rom' folder in that directory. If you have the same trouble, you will also have to create a 'save' folder as well to get savestates to work correctly.
I decided to grab a few benchmark games to test out how well the emulator worked. I used the SuperFX chip game Starfox as well as Kirby's Dreamland 3, and threw in Super Mario All Stars/World for good measure.
Once I launched SNES9x via the Homebrew Channel it asked me to update- which shows off the awesome auto updating feature of the software for the wii. After doing this, I was brought to the main screen, which lists the roms located in the 'roms' folder of your SD Card. Using the wiimote I selected Starfox and sat back to see how the intro ran.
I really don't know what to say, the game ran so flawlessly. It really blew my mind because it felt like I was staring at my computer screen! I had to change the filtering setting to 'Original' in order to stop the screen from jumping but other than that, perfection. This was also the case for Kirby 3 and SMAS.
The only problem I had was the lack of a decent controller, as all I had was my wiimote and a gamecube controller (which has the WORST d pad of any controller, not to mention the shoulder buttons suck for the SNES controller layout). Besides that, it was incredible. Most of the options available on the computer SNES9x are here as well, including savestates and controller mapping. The interface is really beautiful too, and it even has some moody background music to go along with it.
The best part is that it supports the wii classic controller, which gives me a reason to finally spend some hard cash on one (or two). With the classic controller, I feel that this emulator will really shine.
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GenPlusGX for Wii Review
I had alot of hope for this emulator, mostly because Genesis/Megadrive emulation is rather simple. I was not to be let down either, as this is an excellent addition to the wii homebrew library.
After throwing some games onto my SD Card (Gunstar Heroes, MUSHA, Sonic 2) I launched GenPlus via the Homebrew Channel. The interface is simple and effective, and reflects classic Genesis Model 2 style. This emulator feels alot like KEGA for the computer, and includes all the necessary features (savestates, controller mapping, etc) that a Genesis emulator should.
The games I tested worked perfectly, all with excellent sound. It was especially awesome to see/hear my Genesis games through my composite cables, as opposed to the crappy RF Adapter I have been using since I was a kid. This I believe, is reason enough to mod a wii.
The controls are passable on the wiimote, and this emulator offers compatibility with the wii classic controller as well. It is worth noting that playing GRINDstormer on the wii was especially fun, seeing as the analog on the nunchuk is very responsive and the B button on the wiimote fires your primary weapon. Sonic 2 was also fun with this controller scheme as well. In fact, most three button Genesis games are actually very passable on the wiimote scheme, although I will be getting a classic controller in the future for more precision.
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Well thats it for now! If anyone has any experience/feedback please chime in, I will be adding more emulators as I try them.
