Homebrew Arcade machine running with old wii

[Edizius]

Hi folks,
Since i got the wii u roughly 2 years ago my wii is just collecting dust in the shelf, so i decided to build an arcade out of it. I already built 90% of the first prototypes housing, and soldered already arcade buttons to the pcb of an gc controller (controller for the 2nd player is at the moment in production).

So, quite soon it will come to the software part: i would like to have mame, snes and psx. If it is easily feasible there will be added n64, wii and nes emulation as well.

Best would be if this can be run all out of 1 emulator wich i would like to launch directly at booting (via preloader).

So there were coming a few questions in my mind where i hope the one or the other can be answered from you:
1) is retroarch capable to show me a list of the different roms from the different consoles and emulate them all from 1 app? If not, is there a better multi-platform emulator? E.g.some kind of of an usb-loader-mod? Or injecting vc-games like it can be done for wii u?
2) Or would you go for different emulators and boot to homebrew channel to launch them?
3) what do you in general think of the idea / the project? Do you have any suggestions, advices, etc?
4) when my project is finnished i am thinking about making a tutorial/ an report of my problems and what i made in wich way. But i think it might get a lot of work and i do not know if it is worth doing it. Therefore: is there anyone interested at all or can i save the time which i would spend to create this for the Community?

Regards, edizius

 

[TheArcuzHunter]

*sigh* I would go for 2, #1 sounds complicated. The project sounds good, emulating all games in one USB loader, like,... WOW! It would be awesome if you could turn that mod-like USB loader (project) of yours into a Homebrew Channel app! You would have lots of fans!

 

[Edizius]

I think in the stikies is written that wiiflow can be used as a multi-emulator. I think i will give it a try first.

 

[JasonH]

I think you should use Wiiflow Masterpiece pack by ABZ.
https://gbatemp.net/threads/wiiflow-4-the-masterpiece-pack-by-abz.336543/



--------------------- MERGED ---------------------------

If you want to use covers download here
https://gbatemp.net/threads/cover-collections-for-emulators-with-cover-support.324714/

 

[seam]

Hi folks,
Since i got the wii u roughly 2 years ago my wii is just collecting dust in the shelf, so i decided to build an arcade out of it. I already built 90% of the first prototypes housing, and soldered already arcade buttons to the pcb of an gc controller (controller for the 2nd player is at the moment in production).

So, quite soon it will come to the software part: i would like to have mame, snes and psx. If it is easily feasible there will be added n64, wii and nes emulation as well.

Best would be if this can be run all out of 1 emulator wich i would like to launch directly at booting (via preloader).

So there were coming a few questions in my mind where i hope the one or the other can be answered from you:
1) is retroarch capable to show me a list of the different roms from the different consoles and emulate them all from 1 app? If not, is there a better multi-platform emulator? E.g.some kind of of an usb-loader-mod? Or injecting vc-games like it can be done for wii u?
2) Or would you go for different emulators and boot to homebrew channel to launch them?
3) what do you in general think of the idea / the project? Do you have any suggestions, advices, etc?
4) when my project is finnished i am thinking about making a tutorial/ an report of my problems and what i made in wich way. But i think it might get a lot of work and i do not know if it is worth doing it. Therefore: is there anyone interested at all or can i save the time which i would spend to create this for the Community?

Regards, edizius

1. No
2. Uh retroarch is the best way to go, but its not going to do what you want it to.
3. You are the 100th person to do this(youtube it) and using a wii in an arcade cab is a pretty awful idea if you ask me.
You should look into simply using a small desktop pc instead and using Hyperspin instead.
You could also use raspberry pi, which is less powerful than a PC, but its really small.
4.Probably not worth it, again, I would recommend using Hyperspin. Check out some videos, its awesome, and it does exactly what youre looking for.

hope this helps!

edit: oh and I forgot to mention that retroarch doesn't play psx, only wiisx can.

 

[OleSchool]

Any update on this project?

I get what you're trying to do. You got a Wii, so why not use it for arcade emulation instead of having to invest in another PC, laptop, rasberry pi etc.?Not to mention the learning curve of another whole architecture and software (Hyperspin) when the Wii is what you got. Not to mention, you already have the wiimotes (possibly classic controllers), so no need to invest in additional controllers...So yeah, I get it.

As far as your questions, I'd use WiiFlow. It can load just about any emulator out there, from Neo Geo and MAME to Atari 2600 and Coleco Vision, etc. You select your source (Sega Genesis for example), then select the game. It can also be setup with box art, game preview / art as well.

For controllers, its all up to you, I don't have a big knowledge base of controllers. I do know, you can get just about any adapter to plug into the Wiimote though. For example, when I play my Sega Genesis games on WiiFlow, I use adapters from Raphnet so I can use the authentic Sega Genesis controllers. If you're doing an arcade, you'd probably want to see what they got, or maybe buy an Wii Hori Fighting stick and tear it open and use the PCB / wiimote connection as where to connect your solder points too. The simplest way is to just get an X-Arcade stick, they also carry Wiimote adapters so that it plugs into a wiimote.

Wish ya the best bro, sounds like fun.