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Joined: Oct 19 2009 Location: Nashville, TN Posts: 1479

This is a thread to talk about your experience with hacking consoles.

I just hacked my Wii to run homebrew a couple weeks ago. It started out of a desire to play my GameBoy Advance games on a large screen again. My old Gamecube broke several years ago, so I can't use my GameBoy Player, and since I can play Gamecube games on the Wii, I didn't want to by another Gamecube just for this. So I started looking into alternatives, and I wound up putting a GameBoy Advance emulator on my Wii, and it worked awesomely.

Clearly, this lead to other emulators, and playing on a television and with a classic controller is way more satisfying than my experiences with USB controllers hunched over in front of my laptop has ever been. I'm in between apartments right now, so my SNES is currently in storage, and this has let my satisfy my Super Metroid craving in the best way possible.

The Wii homebrew emulators also support wiimote inputs for light gun games, so Duck Hunt/Hogan's Alley/Super Scope Six are incredibly fun.

Posted: Jul 01 2014 10:55 pm

Woah! Nice one. I've have very limited experience with hacking consoles. Really, aside from the use of third party devices to allow the play of overseas games and the downloading of saves for console games from the internet (remember DexDrive?) that is all I have basically done.

Posted: Jul 01 2014 11:48 pm

i been meaning to hack my wii since im planning on buying a wii u pretty soon. what guide did you use to hack your wii?

Posted: Jul 01 2014 11:55 pm

I hack or otherwise modify every console I own that I can do it on. Last month, I installed a video capture PCB in my 3DS and I've been looking for something to Let's Play to show it off.

Joined: Oct 19 2009 Location: Nashville, TN Posts: 1479

username wrote:

i been meaning to hack my wii since im planning on buying a wii u pretty soon. what guide did you use to hack your wii?

It's really easy, username. http://wiisixtyfour.webs.com/WHG/Letterbomb.htm

Posted: Jul 02 2014 12:16 pm

LeshLush wrote:

username wrote:

i been meaning to hack my wii since im planning on buying a wii u pretty soon. what guide did you use to hack your wii?

It's really easy, username. http://wiisixtyfour.webs.com/WHG/Letterbomb.htm

sweet thx man.

i asked FNJ & he gave me this guide right here: http://x.co/4xAfH

honestly, your way seems way easier

Joined: Oct 19 2009 Location: Nashville, TN Posts: 1479

If you run into any trouble, I'll be happy to help out.

Posted: Jul 02 2014 02:40 pm

I've wanted to homebrew our Wii, but it's technically my girlfriend's son's. I don't think he'd mind, perhaps I should just ask him. Plus, maybe we can bond over some older games, which would make my year.

Thanks for the guide link, LeshLush.

Posted: Jul 03 2014 12:17 am

If you're brave enough with your Wii U, most of the same hacks can also be done on the Wii Mode component of it. It just involves a different vector. I personally don't recommend it, but if you would rather have only one Nintendo box on your set-top, here's a guide.

Posted: Jul 03 2014 12:40 pm

I might hack my old Wii to play imports on it. After all, if I want to play my domestically released Wii games, I can just use the Wii U.

Title: Miss Madness 99 Joined: Sep 09 2012 Posts: 222

here is a guide I wrote about hacking the wii and tricks I needed to write down so I wouldn't forget, hope it helps some

Full Installation Guide

use Wilbrand to patch mac address and creates private folder in root and have boot.elf and bootmini.elf in root
so that it can be launched via message board icon in lower right side.

iOS236 V5 then Simple IOS Patcher for install under homebrew channel to get full Wii Game support going.

Homebrew needs to be IOS58, if not reinstall after next step is completed.

MMM needs to be set at IOS236 to install all Wads or it will give errors.

Emulators/Programs need to be in Apps folder in order for channels to work.

Use back Left USB port to load/store games off USB instead of SD, right port won't work.

Priiloader needs to be installed via homebrew channel after HBC is reinstalled again so it can block disc/internet updates.

Class 10 SD card is recommended for Wii/Gamecube games. NES/SNES doesn't matter.

Wii games need to go in "wbfs" folder in .wbfs format. Use Wii Game Manager to convert .ISO into .WBFS

Iso's bigger than 4GB need to be split in 2K format with Wii Game Manager

Gamecube Iso's must be converted with DMtoolbox first with both sys folder and iso included in "Games" folder.

Gamecube will only work with a FAT32 32KB formated drive and a random disc needs to be in the Wii at all times and
you must use a Gamecube controller.

Keep SD card in Wii when using it or some programs won't boot because of APPS folder.

Delete channels using Wii manually one at a time, DO NOT RESET AND DELETE TO FACTORY SETTING OR YOU WILL MAKE IT SO WII CAN'T LAUNCH EVEN ITS BASIC CHANNELS ANYMORE.

Some Wii's don't support BOOT2 but it doesn't matter as most programs can be launched via app folder on SD card
through HomeBrew channel so leave it alone.

Some Wii's let you use the DVD Drive to watch movies, some do not, WiiMC will tell you if you can or not.

Joined: Aug 04 2009 Posts: 2515

I hacked my Wii is was extremely simple. Guess it's better to make sure you have a back up of your console saved on your computer incase it bricks.

I only use mine for VC-J, VC-U and not really for Wii games.

Posted: Jan 14 2015 02:19 am

Thanks for the Letterbomb link, Lesh. Although, while all the Wii hacking sites seem to be down, most of the cached versions still work and I was able to get my Wii modded.

I also recently modded my XBox, which has gotten pretty easy, too. One $4 Agent Under Fire game and one sacrificed M-F USB cord. I think the 4GB thumb drive I was using was too big, because it kept losing the XBox formatting; lasted long enough to get the job done, though.

(I also lost my old 512MB thumb drive, because I didn't really want to chop up my M-F cord, so I was using a USB connector from an old motherboard that had no wires...aaaaand I put them on upside-down.... Embarrassed

)

Posted: Jan 15 2015 01:24 am

I have modded many a PS1, both PS2s I have owned. (Original Fat & a Slim). I hacked a couple of Xboxes. I have softmodded my PSP, and bought a flashcart for my DS. (Which, I guess, sort of counts.)

Along similar lines... Has anyone purchased any of the flashcarts for the old consoles? Such as the NES, SNES, or Genesis ones? I am curious how well they work. I know the SNES ones are not perfect due to many SNES games having extra chips in the cartridges themselves. Such as Castlevania and Starfox.

Joined: Aug 04 2009 Posts: 2515

I've seen a lot of recommendations for the Everdrive. Good for playing romhacks on console as well.

The everdrive doesn't allow games with the FX chip to be played. There's a different one which is way more expensive called SD2SNES which I believe lets you play anything.

http://www.retrotowers.co.uk/sd2snes-cartridge-form if interested.

EDIT: Okay it doesn't allow you to use FX either.

Posted: Jan 16 2015 12:14 pm

I installed the Homebrew Channel on my Wii some time ago, so I could run emulators on my Wii. That is now pretty much all I use my Wii for.

I use the RetroArch emulator, and it works great and looks amazing on my CRT television. I find it hard to play retro games on anything else.

Joined: Oct 19 2009 Location: Nashville, TN Posts: 1479

Hacked the Wii U this weekend. I think the coolest part has been playing GameCube games off of a hard drive. I'm playing Double Dash, streamed to the Wii U game pad.

Posted: Oct 19 2020 10:10 pm

I've never modded a console. I opened a NES once and replaced the 72 bit connector with a new one. I've used a R4 card to play pirated games on Nintendo DS. I've always just emulated games on my computers.

Joined: Oct 19 2009 Location: Nashville, TN Posts: 1479

DarknessDeku wrote:

I've always just emulated games on my computers.

I just don't love PC gaming. I have to sit at my desk all day for work. Being in front of my PC feels like work, and I can't relax.

I prefer playing on my couch, looking at the TV.

Posted: Dec 07 2020 03:13 pm

So far I've modded my DSi, 3DS, and I have flash carts for the DS, GBA. I also got my dad flash carts for the NES and the Sega Genesis for Christmas on separate years. At this point I've become disillusioned with the idea of buying old game carts when flash carts make things so much easier. I'm also interested in modding my PS2 & 360 but I'm not interested in hardware mods due to my lack of spatial intelligence/hand eye coordination.

I get you, though, Lesh. For some reason emulating games on PC without a TV doesn't feel as good. I have been getting a kick out of emulating PSone games and playing them on my TV via HDMI cable, though.

Title: Miss Madness 99 Joined: Sep 09 2012 Posts: 222

LeshLush wrote:

Hacked the Wii U this weekend. I think the coolest part has been playing GameCube games off of a hard drive. I'm playing Double Dash, streamed to the Wii U game pad.

if u have a link post to what u did. Need to know the 2021 method if you dont mind.

I have 4 wii's laying around that I have modded and Wii U will be on the horizon.